It’s getting to that time of year when we can grill outside comfortably and I can’t wait. The Kansas City Barbeque Society is using springtime to kick off their Great American BBQ Tour and Ernie and Linda Poland will be the tour team. Now there’s a sweet (and smoky) gig!
KCBS announced today that Ernie and Linda Poland, proud KCBS members and active volunteers for the society, have been selected as the demonstration team for The Great American BBQ Tour. The tour, which kicks off March 28 at the Pork ‘n Brew BBQ Cookoff in Rio Rancho, NM, will feature demonstrations of bbq tips and techniques for backyard bbq’ers, as well as introduce KCBS’s national partners and conduct live interviews of KCBS teams at events across the country.
The Polands, who have been members since 2003, are no strangers to barbeque. In fact, they are certified judges (Ernie is a Master Judge!) and table captains who were also approved as Contest Reps after their training program in 2007. They were scheduled to work as Reps at three events this year before accepting the tour’s opportunity as KCBS ambassadors.
“We are thrilled about this opportunity to represent KCBS in a new and exciting way,” commented Ernie, who has a lot of food training and experience from his previous career as an Army Officer and more recently as the Director of Residence Halls and the associated food services at Purdue University. Linda and Ernie are both Purdue graduates. “As an ambassador for KCBS, we will take this job very seriously, and we hope to not only teach, but to learn a lot along the way from the great cooks and teams who represent our society.”
Prior to being selected as the Tour Team, the Polands were enjoying a brief retirement that allowed them to travel to and work at 18 KCBS events in 2007. They now reside in Fairfield Glade, Tenn, where they have lived for two years since leaving Indiana.
For the past few weeks, the Polands have been training for the tour by working with MMA Creative and the national sponsors of the tour. The sponsors include Tabasco brand Chipotle Pepper Sauce, Weber Grill Creations, Chinet tableware and Royal Oak Charcoal, the official charcoal of KCBS.