Waterford ― Southeastern Connecticut may soon join the likes of Texas and Kansas City in barbecue lore thanks to Two Little Pigs BBQ.

After taking home two golden tickets at Mohegan Sun’s “Sun BBQ Fest” earlier this year, the eight-person team was invited to take on the best of the best at the World Food Championships in Dallas in November.

It will be a different experience for a team that’s used to driving up the road from their Waterford homes to the casino to compete against 70 or so teams once a year. Now, they will have to pack up their smokers and meat into a new trailer and drive it halfway across the country for a chance at $100,000 in cash and prizes.

“We just try to show up and have fun,” said pitmaster Cres Secchiaroli.

Secchiaroli, 51, has been competitively barbecuing with his friends and family for the last seven or eight years, he said. He and his brothers were raised on a pig farm, Secchiaroli Farm, and have experience with pig roasts. So when Mark Zacherl, the team captain, met Michael Secchiaroli, 48, and offered him a sample of what his current team was cooking, the family became interested. Zacherl’s team was depleted after his co-captain moved out of state, so the Secchiarolis stepped in.

With the third brother and his family, Jonathan, running the pig farm, barbecuing has become a family affair from start to finish. He raises heritage-bred Berkshire pigs with 100% locally bought grain that the team uses for their competitions.

“It’s pretty special,” Jonathan said of the team. “We all have a pretty tight bond.”

Brother-in-law Corey Webster, friend Julia Walsh, Cres’ girlfriend Tammy Venenga and his daughter Zina round out the rest of the team. Of the eight, only Webster has culinary experience. Webster, the team’s chef, explained that once his work transitioned out of the kitchen and into food manufacturing, he had a desire to cook for a hobby.

Webster, 44, had a bout with cancer and was unable to compete at Mohegan due to the treatments. Now, in remission, he’s ready to take advantage of an opportunity his teammates brought back to him.

“Now it’s like, go do something that’s an opportunity,” Webster said of the competition. “It’s been a wild ride.”

“This has really given him something to totally positively focus on,” Secchiaroli said, noting other family members have ongoing health concerns as well.

Walsh was added to the team last year to compete in the dessert competition. Though her first run did not go as planned, she earned a perfect score this year, the only one of 250 entries, with her “Caliente Campfire S’mores,” which consist of Mexican dark chocolate mousse, homemade fluff, torched to be like marshmallows, and a homemade honeycomb and raspberry curd. The first-place finish awarded her the golden ticket for the world food championships

This year at the Mohegan event, the team placed in chicken, pork and brisket, but not in ribs as they are accustomed to. They did well enough to earn second place, Reserve Grand Champion, but not well enough get the golden ticket until the first place winner opted for retirement.

Now, between Nov. 9 and Nov. 13, the team’s beef brisket, pork ribs, pulled pork, chicken thighs and half chickens will compete against those of thousands of chefs from across the country. Last year, over 1,500 chefs from 42 states competed.

So, on the weekends, the team practices. It starts on Saturday, with prepping the sauce and marinades before they hit the smokers on Sundays. Secchiaroli said he hosts Sunday dinners, but once the COVID pandemic impacted those gatherings, he turned it into an opportunity to practice his barbecuing skills instead of serving the usual sauce and meatballs as a way to “fine tune our craft a little bit,” he said.

“It’s a weekend project that brings everyone together,” said Zina, who explained her uncle Corey Webster and his family live next door. “We’re a very tight-knit family.”

Zina will join her father and uncle in driving down the trailer of supplies while the rest of the team flies down. They will bring all their own meats, spices, sauce ingredients ― which are measured by the gram ― along with three charcoal smokers and a new pellet smoker just for the chicken thighs. While some professional competitors have set-ups worth over $250,000, Two Little Pigs BBQ has a fraction of that.

While other teams will have full RVs to sleep in overnight while the meats smoke, this team will have two cots to share, with each teammate working in shifts.

The meat is inspected the day prior to judging. Once that is complete, the smokers are running by 10 p.m. and the meat is in an hour later. Plates for judging will be due the following afternoon and any dish even a second late is disqualified.

There are two portions of the competition. The “EAT” competition stands for: Execution, Appearance, Taste. The team will provide a description of each dish and what they tried to accomplish with it and will be judged on that execution. The plate’s appearance plays a factor, but nothing more than the taste. Teams can also include side dishes in this portion.

The CBA portion is a more classic style of competition based on appearance, texture and taste.

Secchiaroli explained that nothing can be prepared ahead of time, including the sauce, so Zina had to be taught the recipe. Only Secchiaroli and Zacherl knew the recipe prior, but will not have the two hours required to make it at the competition. He said the team broke down a commonly used sauce by ingredient and developed their own concoction as they look to put Northeast barbecue on the map.

“It’s just not a BBQ mecca,” Secchiaroli said.

He said he and the team have worked at developing their own flavor profile and have even spent days just tasting different sauce combinations. The meat, the marinade, rub, type of smoke and the sauce all play a factor. That’s why the team chooses local meats.

Outside of the family farm, Secchiaroli is getting 20 pounds of Wagyu beef from a farm in Preston and more supplies from a farm in Vermont as a way of “showing off” what the region has to offer.

“The Northeast gets a bad rap with barbecue,” he said.

Zacherl, 48, said the team continues to aim higher and higher with each competition and hopes to one day reach the level of the Jack Daniels Invitational.

k.arnold@theday.com