North Jefferson News, Gardendale, AL

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September 9, 2010

Mafia making name in BBQ world

By Ben Montgomery The North Jefferson News

MT. OLIVE —

A group of Mt. Olive friends have used their mutual love a mutual love for cooking and grilling to form an award-winning competitive barbequeing team.

The Mt. Olive Mafia recently won several awards at the 2010 Stokin’ the Fire Barbeque and Music Festival at Sloss Furnace, including second place in a burger competition.

Their burger, the “Chicken Fajita Burger,” beat over 80 other contestants in the competition.

“We knew knew everyone else was going to do beef,” said Jeff Holloway, member of the Mt. Olive Mafia and inventor of the Chicken Fajita Burger.

The burger consists of a grilled chicken breast on a ciabatta bun, topped with cheddar and chipotle cheeses and a sour-cream based sauce.

“We tried to go outside the box a little,” said Heath Harrison, another member of the team.

The Stokin’ the Fire Festival was the first time the team had ever competed.

“We would go to this thing every year and always say ‘we oughta do this,” said Holloway.

The team is a group of friends that met through various circumstances: Some are cousins, others are a friend of a friend.

“We’ve all been hanging out for 10 years, trying out our recipes,” said Larry Baty, another member. “We all watch NASCAR racing, and we’ll take our recipes down to Talladega and grill there all the time.”

In addition to their burger win, the team also placed tenth in the dessert category with their lemon mousse pie, a dish that takes nine hours to make. They also won eighth in the “spirit contest,” which is voted on by the audience.

The other members of the Mt. Olive Mafia are Tommy Akins, Jason Archer, Frankie Graham, Pam Harrison and Earl Aldridge. They plan to attend another cooking competition in November.

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