A SWINDON barbecue team will be showing the Americans how it is done when they compete in Kansas next week.

The team, known as A Bunch of Swines, were victorious in Grillstock 2012 back in the summer and, on Saturday, they will compete in The American Royal BBQ competition.

A total of 545 teams from around the world will be competing this year but A Bunch of Swines is the only British team to have qualified. The team, made up of Ed Gash and Emma Millest from the town centre, impressed the judges at the Grillstock competition earlier this year, which was part of a BBQ and music festival with 21 entries across classes such as ribs, brisket, pork and BBQ beans.

Contenders came from across the country and as far afield as Romania to take part, but it was Ed and Emma who won the title. The pair said they were delighted with their performance.

Ed, 29, said: “It was fantastic to win, we’ve done a number of competitions and just missed out so this feels great.

“We weren’t expecting it at all, we were competing against some people we have competed against earlier on in the year, including an American guy who has been doing it professionally for 20 years, so we were chuffed to beat him.

“We are really looking forward to going out to America, it’s not every day you get to fly to Kansas City.

“We aren’t going there expecting to win but just to put on a good show and enjoy ourselves really.

“We are going for 11 days, we want to give ourselves time to get over the jet lag and buy all our ingredients when we are over there.”

During the four-day competition, the competitors will put their skills to the test in four main meat categories which are chicken, ribs, pork shoulder and beef brisket.

Ed added: “I’d say our speciality is ribs - the secret to great ribs is really just don’t go too heavy with sauces and get a nice piece of meat from the butcher to start off with, cook it slowly and don’t let the BBQ get too hot.

“My girlfriend and I have only been doing this professionally for about two years so not long at all.

“But the advice I would give would be to get a BBQ with a lid on and put the coals on one side and keep the other side empty and that is where you cook your meat. That is called indirect grilling.”