Professional barbecue master from Leeds to compete at world BBQ championships

Craig Thorpe, who is pitmaster at Red’s True Barbecue in the city, will jet to Houston, Texas to battle it out against 250 teams in the World’s Championship Bar-B-Que cook-off from March 3 to 5.

The 28-year-old will be joined by Red’s co-founders James Douglas and Scott Munro and three other kitchen colleagues.

He said: “Unlike British barbecue where you cook food directly over an open flame, authentic US ‘low and slow’ barbecue involves smoking meat at low temperatures for long periods of time. Cooking in this way totally transforms the meat in terms of texture and taste and is a real art to get right.

“This prestigious competition, now in its 85th year, brings together the very best pitmasters from across Texas and the rest of the US to go head to head to see who can smoke the best meat and so it’s a real honour to have made the grade and been asked to fly out – let’s see if the Red’s pitmasters can beat them at their own game!”

This is the second time Red’s has been invited to compete, having ranked 24 out of 144 in the brisket category at last year’s respected American barbecue cook off.

The barbecue competition kicks off the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the world’s largest livestock event, attracting more than 2.4m people over three weeks.

Smokehouse restaurant chain Red’s has had a branch in Leeds since 2012.