50th Anniversary Ribs Throwdown

My amazing parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last month. That's half a century, people, which definitely warranted a hardcore anniversary party and full blown family reunion over Memorial Day Weekend.

Obviously nothing says 50 years of wedded bliss like heaping platters of baby back ribs, which must be why my sister, Anne, chef and culinary genius behind Chefanti, (check out their awesome concept for simplifying dinner here) challenged Mufasa, husband extraordinaire and King of the Big Green Egg, to a cut-throat friendly, family-style ribs throwdown. Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad. Don't forget the wet naps.

Meet the competitors. That's Chef Anne there on the left, or Chefanti, as she's known to a slew of nieces and nephews. And there's Mufasa (apparently along with his towel collection?!) on the right. The way they're cradling those beers and mugging for the camera you'd think the day was all hugs and rainbows. But you would be wrong.

Here was the scene just moments before...

Check out the chaos in kitchen stadium. Sauces simmering, meat getting garnished, anxious chefs pacing the floor, Paparazzi hovering around the corn. No joke.

And then...a last minute surprise from Mufasa who pulls out not one but two types of ribs - traditional BBQ and a second platter with a sesame scallion Asian flavor twist!

The contenders...

The judges swarm the table

The votes are in and despite some discontent with the voting process...

The winner is....
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Chef Anne! 

Despite a two vote deduction for flagrant trash talk and losing two more votes for not making enough ribs (c'mon, seriously, Chef!), Chef Anne pulled off a heroic victory. Now, there is a theory floating around that Mufasa may have split his votes by throwing two types of ribs into play at the last minute, but it doesn't really matter. The real winners here were the family of hungry judges who got to tear apart three platters of crazy good ribs. That's a party, my friends.

Mufasa has already made public his Fork-Tender Baby Back Ribs recipe here and rest assured, they are awesome! For now Chef Anne is keeping hers quiet but I'm guessing if you pop on over to Chefanti and shoot her a harassing encouraging email, maybe we can convince her to release the secret winning recipe. What do you say, Chef Anne?

And don't worry. We gave the 'rents a real anniversary party too complete with pretty dresses, heartfelt speeches, cloth napkins, and very little trash talk

Chef Anne's winning ribs