Career and Technical Education

Smokin' Rams BBQ Competition

This past Saturday, February 17th, at 6:37 am, 11 teams consisting of high school students from the various high school campuses districtwide (DRHS, ECHS, CTE, Blended Academy, & DRFS) swarmed into the DRHS Cafeteria Parking Lot to find their designated cooking stations. Each team was assigned an adult mentor from within the Del Rio community and a tray of meats that they had to transform into “Certified BBQ Delicious” treats to be judged by 17 hungry judges. The teams began their morning by setting up their stations, then quickly entering into a BBQ safety meeting where Chef Cortez presented the rules and guidelines associated with the day’s events.

“We’re here to have fun, make friends, and smoke some good meats,” exclaimed Chef Cortez as he let the students loose to continue their setup.  Students were tasked with cooking Pork Chops, Fajita Tacos, ½ Chicken, Pork Ribs, and Chili to be turned in for judging in hour intervals starting at noon and ending at 4 pm. As meats were trickling in throughout the day, the judges were astounded by the skills these young grillers were exhibiting.  Showcased skills were precise knife cuts, proper grill marking technique, smoke application, appropriate seasoning and flavor profiling, and time management skills, to name a few. 

Judges crowned winners in all five categories from 1st to 3rd place, and an Overall Grand Champion.

1st place winners are as follows: Pork Chop- Spicy Pepper BBQ, Fajita Taco- Brazin’ Beans, ½ Chicken- Sauce Sweeties, Pork Ribs- Spicy Pepper BBQ, Chili- Spicy Pepper BBQ, & Overall Grand Champion- Spicy Pepper BBQ.  Spicy Pepper BBQ consists of members Ana Gabriela Zapata, Amanda Aguillon, & Isabel Bustamante with mentor Sergio Aguillon.  The Smokin’ Rams BBQ Club is the latest Career & Technical Student Organization (CTSO) in the Career & Technical Education (CTE) Department, whose sole purpose is to help students hone their outdoor grilling techniques by teaching them the value of teamwork, work ethic, time management, food safety, and fire safety to name a few. 

Smokin’ Rams BBQ Club will travel to San Antonio to the James Madison High School Regional Qualifier on March 23rd to try their skills to Advance to State.  To help support the  Smokin’ Rams BBQ Club, contact Chef Adan Cortez at adan.cortez@sfdr-cisd.org.

Smokin’ Rams BBQ Cook-off Safety Meeting: Mentors, Student BBQers, & CTE EMT Students review safety procedures, rules and guidelines before starting fires.

Spicy Pepper BBQ: Ana Gabriela Zapata, Amanda Aguillon, Isabel Bustamante, Chef Adan Cortez, Sergio Aguillon (Mentor) Overall Grand Champion Grand Champion Pork Chop Grand Champion Pork Ribs Grand Champion Chili

Brazin’ Beans: Romeo Roman, Arturo Arriola, & Jose Roman (not pictured) Tod Townsend & Carlos Bernal (Mentors) Grand Champion Fajita Taco 3rd Place Pork Ribs

Blended Butchers BBQ Team: Seasoning meat and talking strategy before Showtime.

Smokin’ Rams Judges Meeting: Chef Cortez introducing judges to the rules and guidelines for the day’s events