Rotorua, New Zealand
• Run by Shaun and Alia Branson, winners of New Zealand’s TV cooking competition Cooks on Fire, who grew from mobile catering into their own brick-and-mortar restaurant
• Specialises in traditional Texas-style barbecue cooked low and slow on an offset pit, fuelled primarily with English white oak while experimenting with native New Zealand wood such as tawa for a unique flavour
• Keeps the barbecue authentic with meats smoked, wrapped in peach paper, rested and sliced fresh to order for consistency and quality
• Signature items include smoked beef ribs with house-made chimichurri, chicken-fried pickle chips and charcoal-baked pumpkin pie
• Known for creative sides like fire-charred Caesar salad wedge and for using ingredients sourced from their own suburban food forest, a tribute to their early catering beginnings