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Already Looking Ahead By John Scharffbillig johnscharffbillig@gmail.com The Minnesota competition season is coming into the final stretch for 2019, but the Board is already working on 2020 events and trying to make things better and easier for members. Spring Training planning has begun for the eighth annual Spring Training Workshop to be held on April 11, 2020. This year’s event will have some changes, the most significant being location. The Andrew Boss meat lab is undergoing some renovations, so the 2020 Spring Training Workshop will be held on the University of Minnesota East Campus at the Continu- ing Education building, located behind the meat lab about a block away. Logistics are still being worked out on the location and agenda. We are trying a new for- mat based on evaluations we re- ceived from the past few workshops. The morning session will be the entire group together, then after lunch we will split into a General Topics track for casual and first-time participants and a second track we are calling Com- petition Topics which will focus more on competing in BBQ con- tests. Based on feedback, we are also hoping to increase the num- ber of vendors in attendance. With great excitement we’d like to announce our keynote speaker this year! Jess Pryles is a live fire cook, au- thor and a professional Hardcore Carnivore. She has a particular passion for beef and meat science and is a respected authority on Texas style barbecue. Born in Australia, she now resides in Austin, Texas. In addition to being a maven of all things meaty, Jess is a co-founder of the Australasian Barbecue Alliance and the creator of the internationally-acclaimed line of meat seasonings, Hardcore Car- nivore®, and has authored a cook- book of the same name. Pryles is also a spokesperson for Kingsford Charcoal and Lone Star Beer. Her original recipes, articles and teach- ings reach hundreds of thousands of fans each year and resonate with likeminded meat-fans around the globe Jess' expertise in the meat world grew from humble begin- nings - a regular consumer who en- joyed the occasional steak at home, but frustrated by her own lack of knowledge on the different cuts available, and more importantly, how to cook them. As she herself puts it: 'I used to be one of those people who stood in the meat de- partment at the grocery store over- whelmed by the selection. So I decided to change all that". Come and hear more about Jess’ journey in meat and the art of low BarbecueNews.com - 20 SEPTEMBER 2019 Jess Pryles Spring Training 2020