Inside Texas’s State High School BBQ Championship, from Fire Management to Flirting
These teens are the future of Texas barbecue, and they all landed in Llano to compete for scholarship money and recognition as the best young pitmasters in the state.
May 7, 2021
Andres Reyes from Rankin High School tends his team’s fire at the Texas State High School BBQ Championship on April 24, 2021.
Jennifer Simonson
Fifteen-year-old Parker Prewozniak is the youngest student on the Rankin High School barbecue team, and he looks it. Standing at least three inches below his teammates on competition barbecue team Kickin’ Ash, Prewozniak hunches over a rack of pork ribs. He’s trying to remove a layer of thick membrane that prevents the meat from fully absorbing the desired smoky flavor. He holds down the ribs with one blue-gloved hand while pinching a piece of the connective tissue attached to the underside of the ribs with the other, and tries to tear it off with one swift motion. After