The Texas BBQ Forum

We'll be throwing our first annual cookoff in the spring and it seems everyone likes having a calcutta. I have no idea what it is. Can someone explain exactly what it is and how we'd run it at the cookoff? Thanks

Calcutta is where the teams in the event are auctioned off to the crowd, more or less betting on who will win the event or category. You can choose to do it as the grand champion, or a category or all 3 categories. Say you choose brisket... you'll go thru and announce team "A" and take bids on that team, until they are awarded to the top bidder. A smaller team may go for $20, while a better known team may go for $1000... you do this till every team is auctioned off and accumulate the money. Whoever has the team that gets first place will get 50% or the pot... 2nd place 30% and 3rd 20% or however you want to divey it up.

Thanks for the info bud. I saw on another forum, that if you get outbid on yourself, you can purchase half of the total from whoever outbid you, and both parties split the winnings. Is that normal or acceptable?

Im sure you could run it however you want. I've personally never seen that available... but I do know that most cooks will try to purchase themselves if it's at all feesable for them and they are stong in that category.

If you do the calcutta for all 3 categories it can become a tedious process say if you have 30 teams... You're looking at 90 auctions. I would almost say set up a table an do a silent auction and open it up for a few hours.

Agreed with Josh, if it's a large comp, a silent auction is way better. Or as I have heard Billy Overton suggest, just set a flat rate of say $50 (for example), the head cook of a team gets first shot at buying his team, if he chooses not to, then someone else may do so. This would save so much time on Friday night, especially for large comps. Some of us like to hit the sack and get a few hours sleep before we light the fires.

bruno994 wrote:Agreed with Josh, if it's a large comp, a silent auction is way better. Or as I have heard Billy Overton suggest, just set a flat rate of say $50 (for example), the head cook of a team gets first shot at buying his team, if he chooses not to, then someone else may do so. This would save so much time on Friday night, especially for large comps. Some of us like to hit the sack and get a few hours sleep before we light the fires.

I do one in Wharton that has a calcutta every year and it's about 35 teams. Problem is the cooks meeting is like at 7:30 or 8... by the time you get your turn in trays and go over the rules it's well past 8. Then they want to do the calcutta and showmanship... I dont usually even participate in showmanship but they seem to conflict. While teams are doing showmanship and judges and ppl make their rounds there arent as many people at the calcutta that could be and smaller teams that may want to do both, can't and some seem to trickle out as things drag on as well. Just my.02

jtilk wrote:Im sure you could run it however you want. I've personally never seen that available... but I do know that most cooks will try to purchase themselves if it's at all feesable for them and they are stong in that category.

If you do the calcutta for all 3 categories it can become a tedious process say if you have 30 teams... You're looking at 90 auctions. I would almost say set up a table an do a silent auction and open it up for a few hours.

You only auction each team once. The money gets split 3 ways (if you do first in each meat).

txluke wrote:

jtilk wrote:Im sure you could run it however you want. I've personally never seen that available... but I do know that most cooks will try to purchase themselves if it's at all feesable for them and they are stong in that category.

If you do the calcutta for all 3 categories it can become a tedious process say if you have 30 teams... You're looking at 90 auctions. I would almost say set up a table an do a silent auction and open it up for a few hours.

You only auction each team once. The money gets split 3 ways (if you do first in each meat).

This year it was changed to that. In years past it was not.

We put on a cookoff each year and have a calcutta. We keep 40% for the charity and pay back 60%. Of the 60%, 50% goes to GC 30% to reserve and 20% to third over all. I won grand champion at a cookoff where they split it 3 ways and paid it to first in each meat. I won with two seconds and a third. No Calcutta money for me. I still walked with $1200 but the guy who's only call was first place chicken walked with over $2000.

txluke wrote:

jtilk wrote:Im sure you could run it however you want. I've personally never seen that available... but I do know that most cooks will try to purchase themselves if it's at all feesable for them and they are stong in that category.

If you do the calcutta for all 3 categories it can become a tedious process say if you have 30 teams... You're looking at 90 auctions. I would almost say set up a table an do a silent auction and open it up for a few hours.

You only auction each team once. The money gets split 3 ways (if you do first in each meat).

this.