Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website The Great TITAN Meat Up: Team Nissan shines in the Great Smoky Mountains
may 03, 2018 - Nissan

The Great TITAN Meat Up: Team Nissan shines in the Great Smoky Mountains

Perched atop the Smoky Mountains, with Smokin' TITAN nearby as the kitchen and Traeger Grills were assigned, five media teams and one employee team from Nissan's Canton Miss Assembly Plant challenged a team of Nissan executives in a one-of-a-kind meat smoking competition – The Great TITAN Meat Up. Celebrity chefs and judges, Cory Bahr and David Rose, evaluated each of the six protein categories (chicken, pork, brisket, lamb, turkey and ribs) and named Team Nissan the winner in five of the individual categories and best overall dish, with the lamb from Team PickupTrucks.comcategory winner and only successful challenger.

Hours before the sun rose over the Smoky Mountains, the Team Nissan and Team Truck Trend were getting their ingredients in place for The Great TITAN Meat Up at 4:30 a.m., eager to get cooking. Others were not far behind, with each team ready to smoke their respective meats before most had even a thought of rising out of bed.

After 12-plus hours of chopping, marinating, grilling, smoking meat and enjoying the Tennessee sunshine, Team Nissan – led by Billy Hayes, division vice president, Nissan Regional Operations and three other employees, Tiago Castro, Kevin Yeoh and Ari Schiftan – earned six of the seven possible awards. In the judging portion of the event, Team Nissan received high praise from celebrity chefs/event judges Cory Bahr and David Rose, who kicked off the event Friday night with the first-ever meal cooked on Smokin' TITAN1.

"I really can't believe it," Hayes said as he and his teammates tried on their new ‘TITAN Meat Up champion' cooking hats. "What was amazing is this team had never cooked together before. There's a lot of logistics that goes into this – we met briefly on Friday night and everybody just came together and executed. It was unbelievable."

Of all the meats smoked on Saturday – categories included Chicken, Lamb, Brisket, Ribs, Turkey and Pork – Team Nissan's "Chupacabra Chicken with Sanguinista's Revenge" earned 179/190 points, earning Team Nissan the prestigious title of The Great TITAN Meat Up Champions.