Atlanta-based Barefoot in the Pork has been turning up the heat for nine years at the WCBCC. A sweet victory came two years ago when it won Patio Porkers division.

Early this afternoon, team captain and founder Ed Richardson (above) was preparing for the team’s presentation in the Ribs division, running it like the film and TV producer that he is.

In fact it was about a decade ago when he was producing a segment for “Southern Living Presents” on the Barbecue Cooking Contest that he got consumed with the ‘cue.

He formed a team along with the show’s food correspondent, Claud Mann (TBS’s “Dinner and a Movie”). Mann has a witty account of his experience here.

Richardson says the key to his ribs starts with David Keith at Fayette Packing who provides the meat. Then, Richardson says, he gives the ribs a bath of apple cider, vinegar and mustard, “so the rub adheres to it.”

For cooking, he uses a Backwoods Smoker, and in that water pan between the fire pit and smoke pit, there is a ceremonial addition of four ounces of Jack Daniel’s. “I’m a member of the Tennessee Squires,” Richardson says, referring to the association of friends of Jack. “That’s a tribute to Tennessee.”

The team’s members are from all over. Bill Brohaugh, for example, is from the Cincinnati area. He’d been a judge since 1990 and decided to get in on the cooking part of the swinefest. It came in handy that he’s an author, because he came out with “The Grill of Victory,” an amusing insider’s view of the world of ‘cue. Between his book and Mann’s accounts, Barefoot in the Pork is one of the strikingly literary teams on the river.

–Jon W. Sparks