Saturday, July 5th saw twenty-four adults judging best ribs and sauce at the Ribfest, and eight young ones judging kid's choice, this year's rib vendors had some tough judges to impress.

"They were pretty good," said Desi Savini, Rib judge 2008. "Some had bad after tastes, I didn't like the spicy ones."

George Pardel, veteran rib judge and Mayor of Naperville said that the trick to tasting seventeen different ribs is to simply sample each
one.

"The hardest were the sauces because they are so close," said Pradel.

The Naperville rib completion was a concept pushed in 1988 by first time Ribfest rib vendors and it was judged by professional chefs. Later the decision was made to have every day people and sponsors let their taste buds do the judging.

Mark Rice, A rib judging chairperson, calls THE JUDGING an eventwithin an event.

"It's a way to have all of the ribbers compete," said Rice. "If youlook on the Ribfest grounds you will see a number of trophies in each of the vendors' area and for every festival they do there is a different competition and Ribfest 2008 is the best so far."

The ribs and the sauce are judged on a scale from one to seven, one being the worst score and seven being the highest. The judges take a taste and consider appearance, taste and tenderness.

This year's winners…

Best ribs:

• First place: Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue
• Second place: Porky N Beans BBQ
• Third place: Armadillo's Rib and Que Company

Best sauce:

• First place: Smoking Joe's Hog Wild Barbecue
• Second place: Sweet Baby Ray's Barbeque
• Third place: Porky N Beans BBQ.

Kids choice:

• Armadillo's Rib and Que

Other than ribs, this year's Ribfest had a beauty tour stop on the grounds.

The national traveling Great Beauty Tour, sponsored by Maybelline New York & Garnier Nutrisse had free presentations and one-on-one make up and skin consolations. The beauty tour was created to show everyday women how to get a summer time, fresh face look in just five-minutes.

Ribfest continues through Sunday where country star Trace Atkins will
hit the stage at 8:15pm.

Elitsa Bizios reports.