Calgary pitmaster named first non-American Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbecue grand champion

Calgary pitmaster Janice Smella is the first non-American to take home the title of grand champion from the Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational Barbecue contest over the weekend.

The competition is hosted once a year at the Jack Daniel’s Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee, and Smella said she was fortunate enough to be one of three bungs from Canada to compete.

This was her third time competing, following runs in 2019 and 2025.

“We brought along a bunch of our Canadian friends and we competed in all the categories,” Smella said. “There’s a spooky decorating contest, a sauce contest, a cooking from the homeland, which is like a chef’s choice, and a dessert.”

It was a Kansas City Barbecue Society-sanctioned event, where they would need to cook chicken, pork, ribs, shoulder and brisket. The aggregate scores from those meats determined the grand champion.

She competed with her team, SmellaQue, alongside her husband Russell and two children, Katie and Colin.

There were 150 teams from 20 different countries and she never imagined that their team would win it all.

“Katie cooked the chicken for our team and she came in fifth place and there were no other calls,” Smella said. “So basically, no top 10 category placements, and when they called us down, I was definitely in awe.”

She never expected their team to win. It all came as a surprise, she said.

“I wasn’t listening and I was ready to clap and applaud the grand champion,” Smella said. “When they turned, this enormous check, very American, had our team name. That’s when I was like, ‘I think that’s us.’ So, I stood up, and the barbecue community is pretty incredible. It took a long time getting up to the stage, because we were greeted and welcomed and celebrated by all of the teams around us.”

Their team has been competing in Barbecue since 2014, and has been named the Canadian BBQ Team of the Year for five years, she said.

Although that’s a feat in itself, reaching the Jack Daniel’s is huge since it is one of the few competitions many BBQ teams dream of.

“There’s a handful of them like the American Royal, Houston Livestock and Rodeo, Memphis in May and the Jack Daniel’s is like the majors,” Smella said. “The Jack Daniel’s is the most coveted because it is so hard to get into and that’s what all the BBQ teams are really working towards. It’s really more of an honour just to compete and I really went in there just looking to have a really good time to celebrate BBQ with the friends that came with us and with the family, so it’s unbelievable.”

Alongside the title of grand champion, SmellaQue won $25,000 USD, the chance to compete on Campion’s Row, various cookware items and a Jack Daniel’s Trophy, among many other rewards.

SmellaQue first started competing in Edmonton before taking their talents to Calgary’s BBQ on the Bow, Canada’s longest sanctioned BBQ contest, where they took home the title three times.

Now they are the first Canadian team to win the Jack Daniel’s.

“I didn’t realize until I saw all the messages today, how significant that it was that people were cheering for us, regardless of nationality, but especially because we’re not American,” Smella said. “It inspires so many people that they have a chance. At the Jack, international teams were placed in the top 10 in various categories, so to go into the U.S. and cook American-style barbecue and then to win the contest is definitely a first. I’ve never done anything of this kind but it’s a true honour.”

It’s phenomenal that they get to take home the title, Smella said.

At the end of the day, she said her takeaway with barbecue is that cooking is a lifelong skill and very important.

“It’s really cool to be able to transfer cooking in the kitchen to cooking outside or vice versa and I think learning to cook is such an important skill in life,” Smella said. “And obviously with my daughter cooking this weekend, it’s really great to be able to share the joy of cooking with the family.”

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