We had special guests like Donna Myers from Holmdel New Jersey President of the BIA (Barbecue Industry Association USA), Joe Davidson better known as the producer of Oklahoma Joe from Stillwater USA, best chefs from Denmark and Belgium. 12 countries were coming in total 32 teams competing at the first European Barbecue Championships. More than 10 TV stations reported the event to everybody's surprise. Donna Myers gave birth to the World Barbecue Association by giving the WBQA flags to the 5 continental ladies that were here to collect their continental flag. The ceremony was so emotional and overwhelmingly warm-hearted, that all people saved this moment in their hearts. The TV presentation by Heinz Margot from the Swiss main TV station explained and fulfilled by his impression every moment that he believed in the what was taking shape, knowing Rolf and his friends only for some hours, that the day will come when the sign of the World Body will be as popular as the five rings of the Olympics. After 3 days of great weather, thousands of spectators, a foundation ceremony for the World Barbecue Association with the fire brought from the sky through a parachutist and more than 50 journalists, these first European Barbecue Championships became the event of the year for the whole region. By surprise, Rolf was asked by various TV stations if they are allowed to come again next year. Not knowing Rolfs behaviour in never do the same thing twice, e specially when it was so successful. Rolf said in his moments then that he experienced ultimate joy at he success of what he and his friends had achieved and that he would make the first ever World Barbecue Championships on the 9/9/1999. Not even knowing what day of the week this date would fall. Back at work and in the meantime involved a fast reconciliation of all that had happened and as a result all the fees for hosting the event were covered. This dear reader is the end of our beginning, Rolf thought that as the time passed the memories of the media might forget the given dates he had set in Dachsen at the Rhinefall. Yet this was not to be. The invitation of the first European Champion from Austria to the Jack Daniels invitational Championships in Lynchburg was the next great event for the truly very young organisation to become fulfilled. Markus Zimmermann was organising a huge trip to and in the States. The Lynchburg event showed the Europeans what Barbecue is all about. Not one score could be won at this first time outside a Europe Championship. But never the less, the teams from Switzerland , Germany and Austria with its European Champion did learn a great deal in the States. Markus and Rolf took the chance and visited the Barbecue Industry Annual Meeting at La Holla San Diego to meet all the big bosses of the industry. The Weber people liked the video brought to the members, most. Weber was the main sponsor of grills at the first European Barbecue Championship in Switzerland . Realising that America is not Europe, Markus and Rolf were happy to at least have the vocal positiveness of the meeting, but also being informed that USA could not at that time foresee a stable structure to any Barbecue venture coming from Europe, effectively a ‘here to day and gone tomorrow’ ethic was relayed – understandable yet soon to be dispelled. The European Championships went ahead with the Second European Championship being held in Wels Austria in 1997 made and organised by Johann Stabauer President of the Austrian Barbecue Association and personal friend of Rolf, 1998 was in Germany Pforzheim the third, organised by the man last called top do so in Germany, whenever nobody can do it Helmut Jurende, butcher shop owner and man of influence would step into the fireingline. The year after in Holland Raalte being the forth, made through the publisher Klaas Dijkstra and his wife Monice. Various country championships established in the various countries made the work in the WBQA body much more challenging yet Rolf and his friends were working day and night to satisfy the country representatives, by this time 12 country connections had been made. Meanwhile Rolfs plan to establish his Swiss Dream Beef, a unique new and very successful slaughtering and producing technique, developed during his time working as a meat scientist at the University of Kabete and Njoro Kenia, that will make a revolution in the meat trade was being worked upon. UHU named Urs Hellstein, Rolfs ghostwriter came again and again with the requests from the media and TV stations asking how far the first World Barbecue Championship had progressed through Rolf and his friends, and how can they help to form teams to fulfil the demand.. The Swiss Barbecue Association was the organisation that had the focus to make it happen, at this time Sepp Blatter was elected as FIFA world President. Sepp is Swiss and therefore the press were often teasing him by saying that it is Sepp Blatter against Rolf Zubler . Rolf at eh tiem was not only the World President, he was also in charge of the Swiss and the European Barbecue Associations. Rolf very quickly made a quick and effective decision. Christian Anderegg a Swiss national and accredited marketing specialist gave his word to work as the second Swiss President with the target to make the first World Barbecue Championship happen. So it was that Budgeting and organising began. Luzern in Switzerland was willing to be the place of the first World Barbecue Championship. Christian organised several meetings with good friends out of his branch, to establish a great first world event in Switzerland . Several visits were made in Luzern and even the mayor of the town was infected by the growing barbecue virus. Only the man in responsible at the lake where it would take place was against the event. He insisted that if the football club of Luzern would play in the upper league, he would need the space for car parking. Several meetings were made to sort that problem out, until the mayor of the building department started asking to change the date of the venue. Several suggestions were made by the organising committee, but every other date had another failure through the same narrow minded individual, until Rolf decided in the middle of the meeting with all these important men of the town Luzern, that this town was not fully committed to the hosting an event of this nature and withdrew his event from their consideration, soon to be followed by his friends and supporters with the mind to seek out an other more positive venue foe a world event. UHU again was active already before Rolfs decision was made, he had suspected beforehand that this might have come about so he had maintained communications with Zürich, Bern , Lugano and Geneva who were still on the list as potential hosts, but time was running out. As well the Tourismus Director Raphael Enzler was putting gin his input in together with the mayor Josef Hartmann of Wil /Toggenburg in the region of the big lake in the eastern part of Switzerland . This region seemed to be ideal. It was so refreshing to have so many nice people willing to make this first step towards the historic formation of this now classic event. An organising committee of the WBQA and the local county was made. The budget of which meant that the SBA president decided to retire from providing his input as it seemed to be unachievable to bring 1 ,5 Million Swiss francs together to cover the costs. Again Markus Zimmermann and Rolf were standing taking the mantle for this event. Josef Hartmann mayor of the town Wil and Rolf Zubler officiated over a committee of only 15 persons, and amazing fete as he also had to maintain his 13-hour job at Neuhausen and his time was very limited to achieve all the organisation he wished. The date of the 9.9.99 came closer and closer with funding only really coming in 2 months before the start. Rolf and his friends never gave up and went for the best that they could, even if the financial chief in the committee was changed every now and again through the immense financial commitment and risk factor. It was through his belief in Living the life of luck that Rolf brought together the unforgettable meeting of the 30th May 1999 at the Restaurant Hof zu Wil. It was to be a historical benchmark in the world of barbecue together with Markus Zimmermann from Cactus Jack, they stated that whoever wished to back out at that time was given the opportunity to do so, yet those that were to stay had to commit to the very highest of standards. Quickly savings of more than 500'000 Swiss francs were made and became effective with the request to all members of the committee to make the best out of the remaining resources they could. In all over 70 teams entered for the First World Barbecue Championships in wil. At 9hour 9minutes and 9 seconds on the 9th of the 9th 1999 huge shots were being fired over the town by old canons setting off the start of these the first world barbecue championships. The official video made by a professional company does not even portray half of the emotions running through, and many that saw it wished they had been there. It was wonderful, the music in the style of the old warriors of the town, together with hundreds of children with country flags, horses, wagons and all the competition teams wandering through the old medieval town to the place of the championship. Quite unforgettable. Friday the 10th of September, again a lovely day with so many people coming to Wil from all over the world and infecting all the participants withtheir spirit of friendship. It was there that the second annual general meeting of the WBQA was held. All continents were there and voted for their future in harmony, led by the WBQA and its mission to make people happy. Saturday, the day of the Amateur World Barbecue Championship. The day was sunny and hot, like no other day in the whole of the Swiss summer, the amateurs gave their bests, not knowing that the professionals could do any better. The announcement of the first Amateur World Champions, the Cactus Ladies with its team chef Monika Meier from Switzerland was great. The Champions party afterwards was even greater. Thousands of people mixed with the international crowd of Barbecuers from all over the world, The First World Mister Barbecue - Dani Rice from Texas, Miss Switzerland Anita Burri , the world smile lady Valerie Schmid , the smile of the soccer world championship Seoul South Korea and a lot more beautiful people made the evening to a place where happy people just had to be. Sunday, the 12th of September 1999 , the day of results for the organising committee. Urs Küttel the man in charge fo scoring evaluation, Marcel Kraus the chief of all the judges and all the many hundreds of helpers from the township of Wil under the guidance of Mike Holenstein and Rafael Enzler and the people of valley of Toggenburg gave their best. The day went past like a Whirlwind with no queries, no bad words, just fun amongst happy people, the announcement of the first World Champion was so emotional that even the media people couldn’t talk anymore. Winner of the first World Barbecue Championship 1999 was Beringer Dream Team Switzerland/USA with the team chef Thom Krieger alias Gourmet Thom from Zug Switzerland . The medias distribution response reached over a Billion officialyl counted contacts and was exaggerating even our our fantasy. The sponsors were happy, we too. The first World Barbecue Championship was mainly sponsored by: Stadt Wil and Tourismus Toggenburg Cactus Jack, Schweizer Fleisch, Golden Games, Eggers Catering, Tele Top, Radio 7, Wiler Nachrichten and various private sponsors who wished to remain anonymous. A start was made. The second World Barbecue Championships were made by the organisation around the Nashville Barbecue friends, namely Arlie and Joyce Bragg and Christina McGee from the livestock show of Lebanon . The second World Barbecue Championship was held along with the beautiful two days in concurrence with the very big livestock show held in Lebanon every year. The Friday championship was made to resemble the European style championships and Saturday was the day of the US champions. Winner of the second World Barbecue Championship was Paradise Ridge on a Pit by Klose with team chef Charley and Buddy Babb from Nashville Tennessee . All team members and judges in USA were pleased by the grateful hospitality of the Americans, because most of them were for the first time ever in America and therefore best advertisers for the country tourism. A lot of other smaller and bigger championships have been held in the meantime around the globe. Rolf visited several of them together with his girlfriend Valérie who won in the meantime several championships. Very special was the event in Poland . Being invited by the organisers Janusz Stanzyk to attend the championship in Zakopane (paradise in the polish mountains ). Kurt Scheller chief at the Sheraton Warschau was the main adviser and contact to make the connection work between the east of Europe and the Swiss. The event was in the rain but a great success. The polish people seemed to be so happy with the fact that they are affiliated to a world body, and gave of their best. The 500 year old concept of the “Kappler Milksoup ” that might help to make more peace on the planet, please see the atachment Kappler Milksoup . Dear reader, thank you for your patience in reading along with me this story about developing the trend for peace and friendship through the medium of Barbeque throughout the world. I hope you found my overview of the origins of the organisation interesting and one of merit for generations of Barbecuers to come. A story of merit should Rolf ever decide to write a book about it’s origins. Yours Valérie Schmid Miss World-smile Neuhausen at the Rhinefalls Switzerland May 2001 Mission for Food and Free The date for the foundation of the World Barbecue Association was formed quickly with Carol Wells from the USA as Vice president. Alfred Zollinger was the Financial controller made responsible, Markus Zimmermann for communication and file guide, and a few others gave their foundation vote to the day president Markus Zimmermann, to elect Rolf Zubler for the first World Barbecue Association President, this happened at the number one Hotel and Restaurant Fischerzunft in Schaffhausen, on the 3rd of January 1996. At this time some very good friends came together with Rolf and its Chairman Erich Schulthess, a veritable crowd of grill enthusiasts ‘started making nails with real heads’: Markus Zimmermann as contact to USA, knowing Carolyn Wells from KCBS and Donna Myers from New York, Robert Schai project leader and computer specialist, Rolf’s longest friend since his childhood. Urs Hellstein publisher, Maya and Robert Rubli , Rolf’s sister and brother in law, Alfred Zollinger UBS banking director as financial genius and a lot of great people that made this first ever European Barbecue Championship happen. Within all of these people the spiritual virus of World Barbecue began. The first European Barbecue Championship was mainly sponsored by Coop, a national distributor in Switzerland , Jack Daniels Lynchburg Tennessee and IWC International Watch Company located at Schaffhausen at the Rhinefall in Switzerland . The whole group of helpers and workers were sponsoring their time and a lot of spirit to promote this first ever barbecue event. We had special guests like Donna Myers from Holmdel New Jersey President of the BIA (Barbecue Industry Association USA), Joe Davidson better known as the producer of Oklahoma Joe from Stillwater USA, best chefs from Denmark and Belgium. 12 countries were coming in total 32 teams competing at the first European Barbecue Championships. More than 10 TV stations reported the event to everybody's surprise. Donna Myers gave birth to the World Barbecue Association by giving the WBQA flags to the 5 continental ladies that were here to collect their continental flag. The ceremony was so emotional and overwhelmingly warm-hearted, that all people saved this moment in their hearts. The TV presentation by Heinz Margot from the Swiss main TV station explained and fulfilled by his impression every moment that he believed in the what was taking shape, knowing Rolf and his friends only for some hours, that the day will come when the sign of the World Body will be as popular as the five rings of the Olympics. After 3 days of great weather, thousands of spectators, a foundation ceremony for the World Barbecue Association with the fire brought from the sky through a parachutist and more than 50 journalists, these first European Barbecue Championships became the event of the year for the whole region. By surprise, Rolf was asked by various TV stations if they are allowed to come again next year. Not knowing Rolfs behaviour in never do the same thing twice, e specially when it was so successful. Rolf said in his moments then that he experienced ultimate joy at he success of what he and his friends had achieved and that he would make the first ever World Barbecue Championships on the 9/9/1999. Not even knowing what day of the week this date would fall. Back at work and in the meantime involved a fast reconciliation of all that had happened and as a result all the fees for hosting the event were covered. This dear reader is the end of our beginning, Rolf thought that as the time passed the memories of the media might forget the given dates he had set in Dachsen at the Rhinefall. Yet this was not to be. The invitation of the first European Champion from Austria to the Jack Daniels invitational Championships in Lynchburg was the next great event for the truly very young organisation to become fulfilled. Markus Zimmermann was organising a huge trip to and in the States. The Lynchburg event showed the Europeans what Barbecue is all about. Not one score could be won at this first time outside a Europe Championship. But never the less, the teams from Switzerland , Germany and Austria with its European Champion did learn a great deal in the States. Markus and Rolf took the chance and visited the Barbecue Industry Annual Meeting at La Holla San Diego to meet all the big bosses of the industry. The Weber people liked the video brought to the members, most. Weber was the main sponsor of grills at the first European Barbecue Championship in Switzerland . Realising that America is not Europe, Markus and Rolf were happy to at least have the vocal positiveness of the meeting, but also being informed that USA could not at that time foresee a stable structure to any Barbecue venture coming from Europe, effectively a ‘here to day and gone tomorrow’ ethic was relayed – understandable yet soon to be dispelled. The European Championships went ahead with the Second European Championship being held in Wels Austria in 1997 made and organised by Johann Stabauer President of the Austrian Barbecue Association and personal friend of Rolf, 1998 was in Germany Pforzheim the third, organised by the man last called top do so in Germany, whenever nobody can do it Helmut Jurende, butcher shop owner and man of influence would step into the fireingline. The year after in Holland Raalte being the forth, made through the publisher Klaas Dijkstra and his wife Monice. Various country championships established in the various countries made the work in the WBQA body much more challenging yet Rolf and his friends were working day and night to satisfy the country representatives, by this time 12 country connections had been made. Meanwhile Rolfs plan to establish his Swiss Dream Beef, a unique new and very successful slaughtering and producing technique, developed during his time working as a meat scientist at the University of Kabete and Njoro Kenia, that will make a revolution in the meat trade was being worked upon. UHU named Urs Hellstein, Rolfs ghostwriter came again and again with the requests from the media and TV stations asking how far the first World Barbecue Championship had progressed through Rolf and his friends, and how can they help to form teams to fulfil the demand.. The Swiss Barbecue Association was the organisation that had the focus to make it happen, at this time Sepp Blatter was elected as FIFA world President. Sepp is Swiss and therefore the press were often teasing him by saying that it is Sepp Blatter against Rolf Zubler . Rolf at eh tiem was not only the World President, he was also in charge of the Swiss and the European Barbecue Associations. Rolf very quickly made a quick and effective decision. Christian Anderegg a Swiss national and accredited marketing specialist gave his word to work as the second Swiss President with the target to make the first World Barbecue Championship happen. So it was that Budgeting and organising began. Luzern in Switzerland was willing to be the place of the first World Barbecue Championship. Christian organised several meetings with good friends out of his branch, to establish a great first world event in Switzerland . Several visits were made in Luzern and even the mayor of the town was infected by the growing barbecue virus. Only the man in responsible at the lake where it would take place was against the event. He insisted that if the football club of Luzern would play in the upper league, he would need the space for car parking. Several meetings were made to sort that problem out, until the mayor of the building department started asking to change the date of the venue. Several suggestions were made by the organising committee, but every other date had another failure through the same narrow minded individual, until Rolf decided in the middle of the meeting with all these important men of the town Luzern, that this town was not fully committed to the hosting an event of this nature and withdrew his event from their consideration, soon to be followed by his friends and supporters with the mind to seek out an other more positive venue foe a world event. UHU again was active already before Rolfs decision was made, he had suspected beforehand that this might have come about so he had maintained communications with Zürich, Bern , Lugano and Geneva who were still on the list as potential hosts, but time was running out. As well the Tourismus Director Raphael Enzler was putting gin his input in together with the mayor Josef Hartmann of Wil /Toggenburg in the region of the big lake in the eastern part of Switzerland . This region seemed to be ideal. It was so refreshing to have so many nice people willing to make this first step towards the historic formation of this now classic event. An organising committee of the WBQA and the local county was made. The budget of which meant that the SBA president decided to retire from providing his input as it seemed to be unachievable to bring 1 ,5 Million Swiss francs together to cover the costs. Again Markus Zimmermann and Rolf were standing taking the mantle for this event. Josef Hartmann mayor of the town Wil and Rolf Zubler officiated over a committee of only 15 persons, and amazing fete as he also had to maintain his 13-hour job at Neuhausen and his time was very limited to achieve all the organisation he wished. The date of the 9.9.99 came closer and closer with funding only really coming in 2 months before the start. Rolf and his friends never gave up and went for the best that they could, even if the financial chief in the committee was changed every now and again through the immense financial commitment and risk factor. It was through his belief in Living the life of luck that Rolf brought together the unforgettable meeting of the 30th May 1999 at the Restaurant Hof zu Wil. It was to be a historical benchmark in the world of barbecue together with Markus Zimmermann from Cactus Jack, they stated that whoever wished to back out at that time was given the opportunity to do so, yet those that were to stay had to commit to the very highest of standards. Quickly savings of more than 500'000 Swiss francs were made and became effective with the request to all members of the committee to make the best out of the remaining resources they could. In all over 70 teams entered for the First World Barbecue Championships in wil. At 9hour 9minutes and 9 seconds on the 9th of the 9th 1999 huge shots were being fired over the town by old canons setting off the start of these the first world barbecue championships. The official video made by a professional company does not even portray half of the emotions running through, and many that saw it wished they had been there. It was wonderful, the music in the style of the old warriors of the town, together with hundreds of children with country flags, horses, wagons and all the competition teams wandering through the old medieval town to the place of the championship. Quite unforgettable. Friday the 10th of September, again a lovely day with so many people coming to Wil from all over the world and infecting all the participants withtheir spirit of friendship. It was there that the second annual general meeting of the WBQA was held. All continents were there and voted for their future in harmony, led by the WBQA and its mission to make people happy. Saturday, the day of the Amateur World Barbecue Championship. The day was sunny and hot, like no other day in the whole of the Swiss summer, the amateurs gave their bests, not knowing that the professionals could do any better. The announcement of the first Amateur World Champions, the Cactus Ladies with its team chef Monika Meier from Switzerland was great. The Champions party afterwards was even greater. Thousands of people mixed with the international crowd of Barbecuers from all over the world, The First World Mister Barbecue - Dani Rice from Texas, Miss Switzerland Anita Burri , the world smile lady Valerie Schmid , the smile of the soccer world championship Seoul South Korea and a lot more beautiful people made the evening to a place where happy people just had to be. Sunday, the 12th of September 1999 , the day of results for the organising committee. Urs Küttel the man in charge fo scoring evaluation, Marcel Kraus the chief of all the judges and all the many hundreds of helpers from the township of Wil under the guidance of Mike Holenstein and Rafael Enzler and the people of valley of Toggenburg gave their best. The day went past like a Whirlwind with no queries, no bad words, just fun amongst happy people, the announcement of the first World Champion was so emotional that even the media people couldn’t talk anymore. Winner of the first World Barbecue Championship 1999 was Beringer Dream Team Switzerland/USA with the team chef Thom Krieger alias Gourmet Thom from Zug Switzerland . The medias distribution response reached over a Billion officialyl counted contacts and was exaggerating even our our fantasy. The sponsors were happy, we too. The first World Barbecue Championship was mainly sponsored by: Stadt Wil and Tourismus Toggenburg Cactus Jack, Schweizer Fleisch, Golden Games, Eggers Catering, Tele Top, Radio 7, Wiler Nachrichten and various private sponsors who wished to remain anonymous. A start was made. The second World Barbecue Championships were made by the organisation around the Nashville Barbecue friends, namely Arlie and Joyce Bragg and Christina McGee from the livestock show of Lebanon . The second World Barbecue Championship was held along with the beautiful two days in concurrence with the very big livestock show held in Lebanon every year. The Friday championship was made to resemble the European style championships and Saturday was the day of the US champions. Winner of the second World Barbecue Championship was Paradise Ridge on a Pit by Klose with team chef Charley and Buddy Babb from Nashville Tennessee . All team members and judges in USA were pleased by the grateful hospitality of the Americans, because most of them were for the first time ever in America and therefore best advertisers for the country tourism. A lot of other smaller and bigger championships have been held in the meantime around the globe. Rolf visited several of them together with his girlfriend Valérie who won in the meantime several championships. Very special was the event in Poland . Being invited by the organisers Janusz Stanzyk to attend the championship in Zakopane (paradise in the polish mountains ). Kurt Scheller chief at the Sheraton Warschau was the main adviser and contact to make the connection work between the east of Europe and the Swiss. The event was in the rain but a great success. The polish people seemed to be so happy with the fact that they are affiliated to a world body, and gave of their best. The 500 year old concept of the “Kappler Milksoup ” that might help to make more peace on the planet, please see the atachment Kappler Milksoup . Dear reader, thank you for your patience in reading along with me this story about developing the trend for peace and friendship through the medium of Barbeque throughout the world. I hope you found my overview of the origins of the organisation interesting and one of merit for generations of Barbecuers to come. A story of merit should Rolf ever decide to write a book about it’s origins. Yours Valérie Schmid Miss World-smile Neuhausen at the Rhinefalls Switzerland May 2001 Mission for Food and Freedom | 
