Chelsea Chandler shows you what it takes to be a judge at the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. (Chelsea should know. She’s a judge!)

MEMPHIS, Tennessee — The Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest at Tom Lee Park in downtown Memphis is heating up! Local 24 Meteorologist Chelsea Chandler is a certified judge this year and shares what it takes to do the job.

To judge the best BBQ, it takes the most seasoned of palates. There are two official qualifications: One, you really have to love barbecue. Two, you cannot be vegan or vegetarian. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong. All of it requires an official training, and yes, you have to pass the test. Judges are looking for presentation, taste, and tenderness. Entries are judged on a 1 to 10 scale.

We taste the meat and sauces separately. Whichever has the best compliment, in our opinion, gets the highest score. Judges taste the meat and sauces separately and then choose which we feel is the best compliment to the entry and base to score on the combo.

There two official qualifications:

1: That you're passionate about perfectly prepared pork barbecue, and
2: You're not a vegan- check and check. I'm at the BBQ Shoppe in Midtown Memphis judging Eric Cernon's Ribs.

So first, you can't just walk up and judge, you must be officially certified through a training seminar and must pass a test to qualify. This isn’t restaurant barbecue that you're used to, and everyone is looking for an edge.

The bottom line is it's all about the meat, its appearance, taste, and tenderness, but we score on 4 to 6 categories depending on whether it's a blind entry, one presented in a styrofoam box, and on-site judging at the teams tents. we're going to go through blind judging today.

Let's take a look at those categories:

1. Appearance.
   Point-blank, does it look like something you want to eat.

2. Tenderness.
   This is pretty important. It needs some firmness but also needs to separate from the bone. If it's tough, it wasn't cooked to tenderness. If it's basically falling off the bone and mushy, it's been cooked past the point of tenderness. We do want some texture, but it should be moist and easy to chew.

3. Flavor.
   For me, this is your make or break moment and can separate a score by 1/10 of a point and comes down to personal preference. This gets a little complicated to explain. If they can do dry, they can be served wet. They can also be served dry with sauces on the side. We as judges taste the meat and sauces separately and then choose which we feel is the best compliment to the entry and base to score on the combo.

Finally, the overall impression. This is subjective, not an average of the other categories, basically you're ranking the six boxes you are given to judge.

When it comes to scoring, there must be a score of 10 in each category, then it goes down from there  -- no ties. A score can be separated by only a 10th of a point, and it's happened because it's just that good. If you score someone below an eight, you have to give a reason why. Keep in mind this is the best of the best, so I've sat there and eaten an entire full rack of ribs because I could not make my mind up on which was in fact my favorite, but eventually a decision was made.

So, time to score Eric Vernon's Ribs: 10 10 10s across the board.