‘Da pit is lit, beb’

By: ELIZABETH WEST
Staff Reporter

This past weekend at the 23rd Annual La Smoked Meat Festival contestants spent the day smoking away, or as Cameron Team 2 head chef Nick Fontentot said, “Da pit is lit, beb.”
Competitors at this year’s festival came from as far as Texas and some were as young as 13 years old. Along with enjoying good company and great food those competing were here to showcase their specialty smoked meat dishes with the hopes of winning the coveted smoke house trophy. With multiple categories to enter, those competing were able to prepare a variety of unique dishes that made the hot Louisiana June day a little more sizzling.
Papa Gators team member Annette Fontenot said, “Hey, anything seafood or smoked we going to try to make something with it here.”
Nick Fontenot gave some insight on the time and effort put into preparing a prize winning dish. “A month or two before the festival I’ll start practicing different dishes that we have thought of throughout the year.”
For many of the contestants, smoking meats is a family tradition that allows them to remember the very people that introduced them to cooking. Annette Fontenot, whose team took home the professional grand champion honors, reminisced about where her love for cooking came from. “For as long as I can remember my family loved cooking,” Annette proudly said. “I was taught by my parents how to cook and cooking together became a family tradition.”
Representative Ber-nard LeBas Team member Hunter Fontenot, 13, is keeping his family’s tradition alive by cooking in this year’s Smoked Meat competition for the first time. Hunter represented his family and his team well with his Hunter’s Shrimp Surprise which took first place in the smoked seafood category.
For Hunter, though, entering the Smoked Meat Festival competition was not just about the cooking. “I like cooking at the Smoked Meat Festival because I get to spend time with my friends and family all day.”
Even though contestants desire winning, the preparation for the event and the actual event itself is more about the togetherness of the community. Nick, who has been competing the last four years with his Cameron team said, “A lot of the time I’ll get together with other competitors to get criticism and maybe even pick up a trick or two from their dishes.”
Competitors began putting their special dishes together early Saturday morning and worked until 11:00 a.m. when all the dishes had to be turned in for judging.
As judging took place, the opening ceremony commenced with guest speakers and a salute to our fallen Vietnam soldiers.
A group of Acadiana skydivers known as the Flying Dragons kicked off the opening ceremony of the festival by jumping out of a plane and parachuting down while proudly holding the Kinder Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter flag and the American flag.
Louisiana gubernatorial candidate John Bel Edwards was the guest speaker at Saturday’s opening ceremony. In his speech, the West Pointer spent much of his time saluting and paying tribute to the Vietnam veterans as well as the more than 800 Louisiana soldiers that died in the war. The current Louisiana Representative for 72nd District looks forward to “putting Louisiana’s people first,” a lot like the men and women that have served our country, if elected as governor in the 2016 election.
The opening ceremony closed with announcing the winner of the first ever Distinguished Smoked Meat Smoker. Several distinguished smokers were nominated for the award and after all of the public’s votes were counted the people chose Teet’s Mr. Lawrence Deville as the first winner of the Francis Reed Lifetime Smoked Meat Achievement Award. Mr. Deville’s grandson was there to accept the award on behalf of his grandfather.