The second annual Primo BBQ Bash in Poplar Bluff brought live cooking demonstrations, a KCBS barbecue competition and a factory tour to residents on Saturday.
The event, located at Primo Headquarters off South 11th Street, featured vendors highlighting the Primo Ceramic Grill, which master grillmasters say provides more moisture when cooking meat and other foods.
Brendon Dunn, a marketing assistant from Empire Comfort Systems, was on site to talk about the event and the different festivities offered to the residents.
“This was our second annual Primo Barbecue Bash this year,” Dunn said. “We had a KCBS-sanctioned barbecue competition where we had 30 teams come in for certified judges.”
The grand prize for the barbecue competition was $10,000. The second-place prize was $5,000. Dunn said the event included a few professional Primo pitmasters coming in and conducting cooking demonstrations as well.
One of those professional pitmasters included David Olson. Olson is a nationally-recognized American Culinary Federation chef, television personality, live fire grill master, international adventurer, and the culinary entrepreneur behind “Live Fire Republic.”
Olson wowed audiences with his preparation several meats — “I think pork neck is an ultra-desirable cut for a few different reasons,” he noted to the audience — on a Primo Ceramic Grill.
His delicious were seasoned with thyme, cucumbers, garlic, oregano and even citrus. During his demonstration, Olson included audience participation and brought up several guests to assist him with the cooking and preparation of dishes.
Dunn said part of the rationale behind the event was the company wanted to show the public what was in Poplar Bluff’s backyard.
“This is the only Kamado-style grill made in the United States,” Dunn said. “And the only ceramic grill made in the United States.”
Dunn says that part of the recipe for the success of the Primo Ceramic Grils is the secret blending of ceramic but also the shape and design of the grill — the oval.
“So with the ceramics, you get to keep that heat in there,” Dunn said. “With most other steel grills or cast iron grills, you lose all moisture that the meat needs. This keeps the moisture so your cooks don’t dry out and can hold the heat in longer so you don’t have to keep refilling compared to other charcoal grills — you can fit a lot more on the Primo than you can on other commodity-style grills because of the oval shape.”
The company gets its roots from George Samaras. According to the company website, Samaras’ father-in-law introduced him to the Kamado cooker, an oblong ceramic grill from Japan. This was the moment when Samaras realized the amount of flavor a ceramic cooker could add to food.
In 1996, Samaras founded and established Primo Ceramic Grills.
“His first manufacturing facility was a 700-square-foot space he rented,” the company website added. “Due to the limited space, he could only make two grills at a time and he had to drive across town to a kiln to have them fired.”
Eventually, in 2002, the oval-shaped grill established Primo as a major manufacturer in the ceramic grill market.
Primo now makes 150 grills per day in Poplar Bluff.
Dunn said he was very happy with the turnout of the event.
“We are very happy with the competition teams that we’ve had come from all across the nation, show up, participate and make this event happen,” he said.
He also thanked everyone involved with the event, including employees of the plant and others who came out to support the event.