A BBQ Brisket for the Ages!

Today, it’s windy and cold in Beverly Hills and my mind is wandering, not on my work (it wanders most of the time; an affliction of old age I guess?) and I feel like some BBQ. Now if you don’t know, I am a Master Certified BBQ Judge with the Kansas City Barbeque Society (with over a 100 contests under and “over my belt!”), and also a certified Table Captain. When my Los Angeles/Beverly Hills friends ask me what’s the best BBQ in Los Angeles, I seem to go mute, because once you’ve had completion BBQ in the South, from such BBQ luminaries like Bad Byron, Johnny Trigg, Mike and Debbie Davis, Myron Nixon, and John and Kathy Swift (these names may not mean anything to you if you are not on the competition BBQ circuit,) but these names are legend within that BBQ community as the best of the best in cooking BBQ. So to be honest with you, I can’t really give you a good BBQ joint that I recommend for great BBQ, since I tasted the best of the best.

A typical BBQ Contest Turn In Tray for Brisket

Well that was true until this past weekend. Although not a joint, it was the effort of one person -a dear friend and someone who does not compete, but just cooks for himself and his friends. His name is Dr. Sanford G. Koyama, but affectionately known as Gerry

He attempted (first time mind you) to smoke a whole brisket and if you are at all familiar with BBQ Circuit Competition (you need to cook – chicken, ribs, pork and brisket) cooking/smoking a brisket is the hardest thing to pull off. Since to begin with, it’s a very tough piece of meat, one needs to smoke/cook it for many, many, many hours and in most cases, when presented at contests, it’s either to hard or too mushy, and nothing in-between and that’s the devil of it, it is really a hard piece of meat to keep- moist and tender. Most competition cooks do agree, it’s the hardest thing to cook/smoke correctly.
What this is all leading to is this: Dr. Koyama (aka Gerry) attempted to cook a brisket using his Weber Grill (as a smoker) and finished it off in the oven. Now in BBQ competition, an oven is certainly outside the rules, but that said, when Gerry served up his brisket (it even had a decent smoke ring) I was flabbergasted. As I said, I have eaten and judged brisket for over 10 years and in most cases, I found most of the entries wanting (fellow BBQ judges will agree with me on this), But here something just done at home, on a simple Weber grill and it was outstanding. No!, it was more than outstanding, it was as if Providence came down and anointed this brisket to be one of the best ever and it was. It pulled apart with just a slight tug, and was very moist and very flavorful. It was within my memory, one, if not one of the best BBQ briskets I have ever had and that’s saying a lot, since I’ve have hundreds to sample. It was truly magnificent. So magnificent, that I had over 15 pieces and wanted more! I’m sorry that the public will never be able to sample his brisket, his day job keeps him busy enough, but for a few of us, his loyal friends and family, we are the lucky recipients for years to come (I hope!), to enjoy an incredibly cooked BBQ brisket.
In closing, all I can say is:
Genesis has got it all wrong. We never left the Garden of Eden, Look about you. Paradise is right here, I know that for sure, because I have tasted…………….
                                               Dr. Koyama’s BBQ Brisket!