New doco shows how the world plays with fire

Khorovats, barbie, yakitori, shawarma, barbacoa, boodog, hangi, lechon, shisanyama, engangsgrill, barbecue, asado.

Every fire tells a story. That is the tagline for a documentary on barbecuing, and it says it all. Australian filmmakers Matthew Salleh and Rose Tucker travelled to 12 countries to tell a compelling story about humanity through the simple act of cooking over fire.

"Barbecue is about more than just grilling a piece of meat," says Salleh, the director, cinematographer and editor of the film, who is based in Brooklyn, New York.

"It was filmed in 12 languages and was two years in the making and although the idea behind the film was to look at global culture through food, we didn't know who we would find or the stories we would tell.

"As an Aussie, having a barbecue when the cricket is on brings back so many good memories. It feels like home. But when we started to talk to people from different backgrounds we learned that gathering together around a fire also feels like home for a lot of cultures. It's a ritual that is performed religiously around the world as it is often about getting the community together."

Salleh says the idea for the film came about when he and his partner Tucker, who co-produced the film, were on a road trip through Texas where they met Wayne Mueller, owner of Louie Mueller Barbecue.

Barbecuing is primal but it's also all things to all people; it's also a way for people to connect.

The couple shot footage of Mueller's obsessive attention to meat cooked over an oak-burning barbecue and the resulting short film, Central Texas Barbecue, inspired the 200-day pilgrimage to produce their first feature-length documentary. Salleh and Tucker then logged more than 120,700 kilometres travelling from the smoke-filled backrooms of Texan pitmasters, across Africa to a refugee camp on the Syrian border, the Mongolian steppes, the Australian outback and beyond to look at the tradition of barbecuing while presenting portraits of everyday life.

"Across the cuisines, the various chefs and cooks speak about barbecuing as if it's in their DNA, which I guess it is," Salleh says. "You'd be surprised how easy it is to connect sometimes. I remember being driven in an old Soviet truck around the steppes of Mongolia rounding up horses without our translator, me speaking in English and my new friend speaking in Mongolian. Somehow we found a way to make it work."

He says while the film takes a light-hearted look at the way everyone thinks they do the best barbecue in the world, it also focuses on the fact that in some countries a barbecue begins as a business to find a path out of poverty.

"The order in which we placed the countries was very intentional," Salleh says. "We jumped from manic South Africa to the stillness of the Japanese forest to a shawarma stall that becomes a gathering point in a border refugee camp in Syria. Sometimes those transitions were seamless and sometimes they were very jarring, so we used a classically inspired score [composed by Christopher Larkin and produced by the Budapest Orchestra] to tie the narrative together.

"What I'm most proud of about this film is the people who are in it. They are not Michelin-starred chefs. They are everyday people who want to tell the world something while preparing food over fire. I love the idea that this film will be seen globally and that these people in Mongolia will watch it and see how they are featured alongside legendary Texan pitmasters."

Tucker says while studying different cultures through their barbecue traditions, they found that the most common thread was hospitality. The pair, who are originally from Adelaide, say they did a lot of research before setting off in search of the stories that relate to this primal tradition.

Tucker credits South African-born chef Duncan Welgemoed, of Africola in Adelaide, with helping to get their story off the ground by introducing them to braai enthusiasts in his homeland. She says Welgemoed's family even make a cameo in the film.

"Barbecuing is primal," Tucker says. "But it's also all things to all people; it's also a way for people to connect. In addition to the lovely gentle stories of cooks and backyard philosophers are the little stories about people in townships and suburbs that become entrepreneurs and begin barbecuing as a business to make a new life for themselves."

She says the stories they found told around the fire related to everything from religious rituals, to stories of race, class and belonging. While the couple are already filming their next documentary, their next project is to "pull off a New York barbecue".

"We live in a small apartment and we haven't had a barbecue here yet," Tucker says. "There is a park nearby with grills so we might have to bust out some sausages to celebrate the release of the film."

Barbecue will be released worldwide on Netflix on August 15. The film is produced by Daniel Joyce of Projector Films in association with Urtext Films and financed by Screen Australia and the South Australian Film Corporation.

Six of the best barbecue restaurants

Snow's BBQ in Lexington, Texas, US

Tootsie Tomanetz is a grilling goddess in her 80s and Snow's BBQ has a big reputation. The acclaimed line-out-the-door joint just topped the Texas Monthly Top 50 List, which is a huge deal. Snow's BBQ, LLC, 515 Main St, Lexington, Texas, snowsbbq.com

Gyu Ho, in Kyoto, Japan

Loosely translated, Gyu Ho means "beef jewel". The dimly lit restaurant led by chef Masanobu Nishiyama has been going strong for 26 years. Try the tongue slow-roasted to medium-rare over charcoal or the fall-apart slow-roasted deboned oxtail. This is informal Japanese food at its finest. 2-4 Ichijoji Akanomiyacho, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan, gyuho.net

La Cabrera, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Fire. Smoke. Heat. Meat. La Cabrera is a top spot for an education on Argentina's barbecue culture. The restaurant serves top-quality beef slow-cooked over hot coals on a parilla until you get crisp, fatty morsels and flesh so tender you can cut it with a spoon. Jose Antonio Cabrera 5127, Buenos Aires, lacabrera.com.ar

Boon Tat Street BBQ Seafood, Singapore

Food lovers from all over the island nation flock to this low-key eatery in the Chomp Chomp Food Centre for the signature spicy, smoky sambal stingray dish. This is street-style barbecue with distinctly Asian flavours. 1-15J Makansutra Gluttons Bay, 8 Raffles Avenue, Esplanade,facebook.com/pages/Boon-Tat-Street-Barbeque-Seafood/141492552586321

Porteno, Sydney, Australia

Gather with friends around the asado and parilla at this cranking Argentinian-inspired barbecue restaurant to rip into the animal a la cruz (wood-fired animal of the day), which is cooked low and slow to achieve that smoky, blackened, crackly crust. Dig in. 50 Holt St, Surry Hills, porteno.com.au

The Roof Gardens, Kensington, London, Britain

Where there's smoke, there's fire. Throughout summer, The Roof Gardens invites groups of 10 or more to take a table in the Tudor Garden as they are served a menu of meat and salads about 30 metres above London. Metro Building, 1 Butterwick, Kensington, London, roofgardens.virgin.com