But it’s not just Paris. Barbecue, that onetime fiercely regional American food, has gone global. American-style barbecue restaurants have opened in Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, London, Vienna, Mexico City, even Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Last year, Wayne Mueller, the third-generation owner of Louie Mueller Barbecue, went on a State Department-sponsored world tour, during which he cooked barbecue and discussed its culture and history at the Milan Expo in Italy.
The competition circuit, too, has gone international. The prestigious Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational Barbecue contest draws teams from all 50 states and around the world. Last year, a record 27 international teams competed. Meanwhile, contests on foreign soil, from the Netherlands to Prague to Australia, have grown so numerous that the Kansas City Barbeque Society, the sanctioning organization, created an international division.
“It’s like us 25 years ago,” says KCBS executive director Carolyn Wells, referring to the torrid growth of the organization after it was founded in 1985.
The grilling manufacturer Weber-Stephens sponsors “Grill Academies” in Copenhagen, Berlin, Paris and London, among other cities, to grow the market for its products in Europe. In October, the company promoted Danish barbecue competitor Stig Pedersen from marketing director of a region that included Europe, Africa and the Middle East to a newly created position of “vice president global creative” to oversee the company’s international sales and initiatives.
Like jazz before it, barbecue is viewed as an authentic expression of American life. Assaying the egalitarian ideal at the heart of the American experiment, barbecue’s recent journey out of its Southern home amounts to more than a culinary phenomenon. Its spread constitutes the internationalization of an American idea.
Craig White, a San Antonio native and another Mueller alum, opened White Smoke in Tokyo in 2011. He told CNN: “We aren’t just selling food, we’re selling American culture. Eating at our restaurant is an American experience. To date, our American food ambassadors in Japan have been McDonald’s, Subway and Kentucky Fried Chicken — all of which I love, but we can do better than Ronald McDonald.”
Its like you just learnt how to google something
I know you see that influence
They were but the influence of Jamaican patois was larger because AFTER the ex-slaves were sent to freetown, the ex slaves traveled between jamaica & freetown- Lagos . you would literally have creole parent born in freetown, paid to work in jamaica child born and raised in jamaica (indentured servants), then travel back to freetown or lagos to live.
