Cynical BBQ

03/19/2026

11/25/2025

Thanks The Kansas City Barbeque Society for the recognition! Always great to make the list!

11/25/2025

BBQ Jackpot 2025 in the books! A big thanks to Christie Vanover for yet another other amazing contest in Vegas, the biggest on the west coast!! So many great teams and cooks. Took home some trophies and ended it all 6th out of 90* teams. Great way to round out the bbq season!

11/20/2025

We would like to invite all competitors to an 8:11 breakfast shot at Cynical BBQ’s site Saturday morning! Safe travels to everyone and see you all soon! BBQ Jackpot BBQ Jackpot

08/12/2025

Beautiful weekend cooking under the redwoods in Felton Roaring Camp Railroads Big thanks to Fire It Up Events for putting this double header!

As always we had a great time with our bbq fam and all those who came by to say hi! Cooked some carnitas Friday night for everyone and it was so good! Was missing my side kick Jennifer Martos Yeszin, but she came late on Saturday to surprise me! Think she brought some good luck since my day two cook was better than my day one. Still had a great time cooking with everyone and enjoying the weather!

Day 1
16th Chicken 🐓
19th ribs 🍖
9th Pork 🐷
4th Brisket 🐄
Overall 12th place 😑

Day 2
4th Chicken 🐓
4th Ribs🍖
14th Pork 🐖
5th Brisket
Overall RGC

Congratulations to on their GC and on RGC day one and on their GC day two! Congrats to the teams that heard their names called! It was definitely a great group!

Now we take a little break and gear up for Vegas in November!

07/28/2025

Hawaii never seems to disappoint. Was able to squeeze in some family time while we were in Oahu for the first annual Curley Que Classic Hawaii KCBS BBQ contest and World Food Ancillary Contest at Kaiser High School in beautiful Honolulu. Not only did we cook our four meat contest, we tried our hand in a couple ancillary categories.

We did the seafood and dessert. Not knowing what to expect, we did a spin on SYD Signature seared ahi tuna with a Maui onion dressing, but added some ginger, a wasabi sesame crust and a mango bell pepper chutney. The results did not disappoint and we took first place and a golden ticket to the world food ancillary contest.

Next up was dessert. Nothing to new to us as we have dabbled in this back home, but this time we gave it an island twist. We did our signature cheesecake but added a fresh Maui gold pineapple compote. With the help of my wife and daughter, the judge’s seemed to love it as we not only walked away first, we got a 180 and another golden ticket to the world food ancillary contest!

The main contest was nothing short of great in our eyes. Judges eyes though, is another story. We came up short in the end but walked away with SEVERAL calls, a 700 pin and RGC! (Reserve Grand Champion)

2nd place Chicken 🐔
1st place Ribs 🐖
6th place Pork 🐷
5th place Brisket 🐄
Overall score 705.1084 (0.0116 behind GC)

Congratulations to for their GC and all the teams who heard their names called. Big congrats to the local Hawaiian teams who completed for their first time and heard their names called and were able to take a walk!

We will be back next year and look forward to another great event!

05/19/2025

Rested and cleaned up from the Brewfest and BBQ Championship in Oroville CA. Thank you to for another amazing contest in California! This was the first annual and we look forward to many more!

Always a great time hanging out with the BBQ family.
Didn’t have a bad cook and am pretty happy with how it all turned out. The tweaks I have made are paying off!
We ended up:

🐔Chicken 10th place
🐖Pork Ribs 1st place
🐷Pork Butt 2nd place
🐄Brisket 3rd place

2nd overall out of 19 and took home the RGC! 🏆

Congrats to all the teams who heard their names called. Great job on the GC. Thanks to for coordinating the Friday night pot luck dinner! Always a fun time hanging out with our bbq fam.

Now we take a little break, practice some and then head to Hawaii in July!

04/15/2025

Finally home and recovered from a great comp in Perris at the SoCal Railway Museums BBQ Boots and Brew.
Walked away fourth overall and a top ten in all categories. Not to bad and happy with my cook!

Chicken 2nd place 🐓
Ribs 6th place 🐖
Pork 4th Place 🐷
Brisket 9th place 🐄

Next up is Lodi Beer Fest & State BBQ Championship
April 26th at the Lodi Grape Festival Fairgrounds. Hope to see you there!!!

(No pics this comp my helpers decided to go to Disney since we were so close)

03/17/2025

Fun weekend in Dinuba with our bbq family competing at the third annual Dinuba BBQ and Brew Fest. We had a good cook or so we thought, judges thought otherwise. Guess we will need to redeem ourselves at the next one! Special thanks to for the black chile sauce California BBQ Association The Kansas City Barbeque Society

01/29/2025

Finally recovered from this past weekends first comp of the season. Casa De Fruita is always such a beautiful setting and the staff is always so welcoming! Thank you Jim Palmer for organizing an amazing competition and everyone behind the scenes to help make the weekend a success.

Friday night was the CBBQA Team of the Year Awards where the top 10 in all the different meat categories and then the top 10 overall for the year are awarded. We finished top 10 in beef, ribs, and pork and finished fourth overall in the state. During awards they also announce Hall of Fame, was inducted into the California Barbecue Association Hall of Fame! This is an honor to be not only nominated but to win! 🏆 congrats also to and on your HOF induction!!

This weekend included a double header and we competed both Saturday & Sunday. Here is how we did:

Day One
1st Chicken 🐔
16th Ribs 🐷
13th Pork 🐖
18th Brisket 🐮
4th overall
4th Dessert
After we competed Saturday we helped cook a dinner to celebrate Jason’s 50th Birthday!!!

Day Two
21st Chicken 🐓
4th Ribs 🐖
5th Pork 🐷
20th Brisket 🐄
12th overall

Next stop will be Dinuba’s BBQ & Brew Fest!!

12/09/2024

Home, unpacked and rested from our last comp of the season. Huge thank you and congrats to Christie Vanover on this awesome event! Thanks to all the reps, volunteers and organizers for their countless hours behind the scenes. In

This contest had teams from 14 states and some steller talent. Although we wish we had done better we still had a blast and look forward to next years contest. Back to the notes and time to get ready for the first contest of the year, GSB at Casa De Fruta in January.

We finished 9th in chicken, 58 in ribs, 36 in pork, 7th in brisket and got a perfect perfect 180 in dessert. Overall we took home 13th place out of 74 teams.

Big congrats to Shake 'n Bake BBQ on your RGC and Gettin' Basted on your GC.

Big shout out to our bbq fam Bar-B-Cuda BBQ for keeping little man busy while we did some bbq stuff and showing him around Vegas! We truly are a fam and all our cali teams definitely represented! Old Town Franklin BBQ, OM BBQ, Cherry Anchor BBQ, Bone Rubbin BBQ, and -B-Cuda Bbq, had a great time hanging out with all of you!

12/09/2024

Don’t miss out on the first contest of the year! 🔥🏆

2025 BBQ season is fast approaching!! Get your favorite pitmaster the gift of friendly competition this holiday season. Registration is open and spaces are filling up fast for California's first contest of the 2025 season....

www.cbbqa.com/events

🌉Golden State Battle VII🔥🔥

January 24-25, 2025 at the beautiful

Weekend Events Include:
Friday Night Taco Dinner by

2024 Team of the Year Awards Ceremony following dinner Friday

KCBS Master Series Contest Day 1 Saturday

Ancillary dessert Saturday afternoon

KCBS Master Series Contest Day 2 Sunday