USMEF teams compete at World Food Championships

"Today, it's all about barbecue. It is hot, hot, hot in our Asian markets, for sure. It's always been very popular in our Latin America markets. We've been doing a lot of smoking seminars, how to cook low and slow. And that was a real mindset, because especially in the Caribbean region, when you say barbecue they're really meaning grill. They don't mean low and slow," says Wunderslich. "So teaching them that evolution from cooking hot and fast on a grill, which typically is ribs, to cooking low and slow with cuts like brisket and beef short ribs, which is what they're going to be cooking here, as well as the pork spareribs, and he is doing belly, pork belly. So we have two pork and two beef being represented here through the Caribbean side of the barbecue competition.

It’s a sentiment echoed by Micro, a hip-hop artist from Japan who leads the Wagyu Boys Barbecue Team. He says he learned American-style smoking while growing up in the U.S. and is working with the chefs on his team to expand high quality barbecue in Japan.

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"Because I love barbecue! I grew up in the states, Kentucky. I was into barbecue when I was in Kentucky, and when I went back to Japan I started making with the American way of barbecue," Micro says. "So it's like in Japan, lots of people are doing like yakiniku style. And that's not a barbecue thing. So we know how to do the American way. So we want to share in Japan."