Page 16 - NOV2020 BNM Digital Issue

bbq royality
BBQ PROFILES:
Ardie Davis (AKA: Remus Powers PH. B)
T. Michael Garrison
The Flying BBQ Judge mgarrison8@sbcglobal.net
This month’s Profile is undoubtedly no stranger to anyone who has participated in competition BBQ. He is present at all the major events and usually gives the judge’s oath. He has judged numerous times, has cooked in competition, authored numerous cookbooks, and you will find his articles in virtually all the major BBQ publications. The man you all know as Remus Powers is my long-time friend and BBQ compatriot, Ardie Davis. I have known Ardie for about 40 years, and I thought I knew him well. However, in- terviewing him for this profile, I learned so much more about this remarkable individual and can’t wait to share this with you.
Photo courtsey of Michael Garrison
experience cooking himself. He still cooks on a Weber to this day. He said each grill has its personality, and you have to learn what that is if you are to be successful as a cook. Even the same model is different. When he sees these fancy rigs at a compe- tition, all he can think about is how much meat he could buy and cook with what that rig must have cost. Most of what he did was grilling, but he did start to learn the indirect cooking method and smoking. The family lived in the New York City area for several years, and there was no outdoor cooking during that time. As he matured, he moved to Roeland Park, Kansas (a sub-
Among his many accomplishments, he virtually administers the Judge’s Oath, which he wrote, at the Great Lenexa BBQ Battle in Lenexa, Kansas. This was my first judging experience in the early 1980s—a time before KCBS had been formed. I judged that contest every year until I moved to Florida in 2014. My judge’s oath was administered by none other than Ardie Davis. Ardie was born and raised in Oklahoma. His life began during the years of World War II. His Father quit school during the Great Depression to keep food on the table for his family. Ardie didn’t understand what was going on when it happened, but his father had built an all brick BBQ pit in the back yard. He created this one truckload of bricks at a time. As soon as he could afford another truckload of bricks, the pit moved a little further ahead. He traded his work as an auto me- chanic to others to get parts for the creation. He worked for a met- alworker who fabricated the metal hood and other metal parts of the pit. Ardie remembers how his Father would raise and lower the hood with an automobile jack. The door on the firebox came off the furnace in old school fashion. Eventually,
the pit was completed, and Saturday was the day to fire it up. Many of their neighbors were relatives; the others were friends. Everybody gathered in their back yard on Saturday, and his Father cooked meat. Sometimes the neigh- bors brought some meat, and sometimes they did not. But that was Ardie’s first exposure to BBQ.
Eventually, the pit wore out, and his Father purchased a Weber. Ardie was old enough to start doing some cooking, so this was his first
urb of Kansas City). Shortly after returning to the mid-west, he ate BBQ at Arthur Bryants, which recharged his BBQ juices. He still lives there today and continues to give back to the BBQ community and Roeland Park.
During this time, he started making his sauces. He'd also found others were very interested in his creations. In October 1984, he met Paul Kirk, the Baron Of BBQ, and discussed his interest in sauces. Paul convinced him to have a sauce contest. He contacted his neighbors who also made sauces, and he wrote around to some businesses to see if any were interested. Before he knew it, he had about 100 sauces, and he held the competition in his back yard, in Roeland Park. The Diddy-Wa-Diddy Sauce contest was born. He was using the proceeds from this very successful event for local charities. The event grew rapidly, and soon, it was way too large for his back yard. He moved the event to the Prairie Center in Olathe, which is still virgin prairie land today.
Paul convinced Ardie to judge a BBQ contest, his first, and he was hooked on competition BBQ. He had been cooking since he was 8-9 years old, so all of this was coming together. In 1985 Paul introduced him to Gary and Carolyn Wells, who were in the early stages of forming KCBS. By 1986 KCBS became a reality, and Ardie was on the ground floor of their local events. Initially, they were judging any and all meats, and as we all know, they later standard- ized the meat selections. Among the early competition leader in BBQ, who met and worked with Ardie, were Pat Dalton, Paul Kirk,
BarbecueNews.com - 16
NOVEMBER 2020