In a battle of the ‘cue on ‘Chopped,’ did our NC pitmaster smoke the competition?

Some undercooked turnips sank North Carolina’s pitmaster on Tuesday’s finale of Food Network’s “Chopped Grill Masters.”

In this score-settling battle among the four proud barbecue regions, Memphis beat out Texas, Kansas City and North Carolina.

North Carolina was represented by Adam Hughes, an East Carolina grad and competitive pitmaster from Edenton who cooks under the name “Old Colony Smokehouse.”

In Tuesday’s grand finale, he faced Stephanie Wilson of Kansas City; Leonard Botello IV, owner of Truth Barbecue in Texas; and Melvin “Boots” Johnson, representing Memphis-style barbecue. (Johnson technically is a New Yorker by way of Compton, Calif., according to the Commercial Appeal.)

Johnson was crowned the champion and believes the “Chopped” win puts Memphis on top of the other ‘cues.

“Memphis has the best barbecue, and I just proved it,” Johnson said on the episode.

Hughes advanced through the appetizer round, impressing the judges with a grilled pork chop served alongside pimento cheese grits with corn shoots tossed in for texture. Texas’ Botello got chopped in the first round.

“Pork and grits together like peanut butter and jelly,” Hughes said, hamming it up for the camera. “No one knows how to cook a pork chop better than me.”

In the entree round, Hughes grilled a ribeye and made a chimichurri sauce of turnip greens, but, pressed for time, his grilled turnips ended up on the crunchy side, keeping him out of the money.

To get to the finale, each contestant first battled three other pitmasters from his or her respective barbecue region for a shot of winning $50,000 — and major bragging rights.

The North Carolina pitmaster episode aired this month, featuring other heavy hitters on the competition circuit and the chef of one of the state’s best-known barbecue joints.

They were Melanie Dunia, the executive chef at The Pit in Raleigh; Chris Prieto of Prime Barbecue; and Jerry Stephenson of the Redneck BBQ Lab. Dunia finished as the runner-up.

We spoke with Hughes before his North Carolina episode.

Adam Hughes, Old Colony Smokehouse

This general contractor from Edenton spends half his weekends a year at barbecue competitions.

Hughes started grilling while in college at East Carolina. Grilling turned into smoking, and smoking turned into trying out competition barbecue on a lark.

Hughes has been cooking on the Southeast competitive barbecue circuit since 2015 but has won three grand championships and has a few dozen Top 10 finishes.

Though he usually cooks shoulders, pork ribs, chicken and brisket, Hughes said North Carolina’s pit-cooked whole hog is the most fundamental barbecue of all regions.

“North Carolina is the most basic type of barbecue; it goes back to the roots of man,” Hughes said. “As far as representing North Carolina, the dishes we prepared spoke to North Carolina: traditional, simple ingredients.”

Hughes believes his passion for his home state is what landed him on the show.

“There’s probably not another person in the competitions that has as much pride in North Carolina,” he said. “I’m so proud to be from North Carolina — Eastern North Carolina. It’s something I wear on my sleeve.”

As a home cook whose hobby became a passion, Hughes said he felt a little out of place in the “Chopped” kitchen, a six-burner stovetop in the middle of a brightly lit studio. There’s TV magic, for sure, he said: hours of interviews and photo shoots, but the cooking is real.

“I was a nervous wreck the entire time I was there, but once the clock started and I was cooking, I was doing what I like to do and it was fun,” Hughes said. “When I watched (‘Chopped’), I thought surely they have more than 20 minutes. But the time is the time. There’s no second take.”

This story was originally published August 28, 2018 at 10:09 PM with the headline "In a battle of the ‘cue on ‘Chopped,’ did our NC pitmaster smoke the competition?."