Barbecue pitmaster Rodney Scott to cook at Melbourne Food and Wine Festival

Are we sick of American barbecue yet? Nuh-uh. Not even close. Get set for legendary South Carolinian pitmaster Rodney Scott, heading our way as part of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, which kicks off this Friday.

Scott will be cooking his traditional whole hog – mopped with his vinegar and pepper based sauce and served on squishy white bread – for the Festival's sold-out opening street party, a collaborative shindig with Morgan McGlone of Belle's Hot Chicken (yes, there will be chicken on the night too).

"He's definitely a legend amongst the North and South Carolina barbecue chefs," says North Carolinian chef Casey Wall of Rockwell and Sons. Wall puts it down to Scott's integrity of the product. "It's not about recreating anything new. It's about his commitment to cooking barbecue the way he was taught to do it ... . There's no reason to mess with it."

Scott cooked his first pig at 11, before "accidentally" joining the family business at 17. "When I graduated high school I wanted to get away and do something different. But then I started helping my dad full time and I just couldn't get away from it. It was a job that would always allow you to eat," Scott says. "Eating is great."

Open since 1972, Scott's Bar-B-Que in Hemingway, South Carolina, was initially a convenience store and gas station that served a whole smoked pig or two on weekends. Now barbecue is all it sells, with devotees making the pilgrimage for down-home whole-hog, cooked low and slow over hard wood coals. Scott fronts the family business though his parents are still very much involved; cousins and aunts too.

"Barbecuing was just a way of life for us," Scott says. "In our area everyone barbecued for holidays and reunions, but because the work gets a little intense, people would just kind of rely on us to cook the pigs. But now they're seeing how much work is involved and all the recognition that barbecue is getting all around the world and they're like, wow, this thing is amazing."

The attitude towards Southern-style barbecue has changed considerably since Scott's Bar-B-Que opened, gaining worldwide recognition. Numerous Southern-style barbecue joints have popped up all over our shores, with the Australasian Barbecue Alliance forming in 2014 to meet the demand for competitive barbecuing, incorporating both American and locally enforced guidelines. Australia recently hosted its inaugural American-sanctioned barbecue event, the Melbourne Barbecue Festival, but for Scott it's less about competing and more about eating. However, he has noticed a newfound respect for what he and other pitmasters are doing.

When referred to as a pitmaster, Scott chuckles. The term pitmaster is thrown around a lot within the barbecue industry, and though it has several definitions of varying degree, simplified it means someone who operates a barbecue pit. "My definition, is someone who has the patience to sit for a half a day, at least, and cook a whole hog, or any meat, over an open fire," he says. "If they have the patience to do that more than three times a month, I consider them a pitmaster."

Rodney has his own sons now, Dominic, aged 20, and Jordan, 12. While his youngest son seems to be more interested in reading and numbers, his eldest is showing an interest in the family business. "My eldest helps me out from time to time. He pretty much grew up in the business too so he knows all the ins and outs, from cutting the wood to making the sauce, to firing the pig – he knows all of that." So while Rodney has no plans to retire from the family business any time soon, it's nice to know that the barbecue legacy may continue.

WHAT'S ON

• Rodney Scott at Rockwell & Sons, Sunday, March 1, 12-4pm, 288 Smith Street, Collingwood, menu items available for purchase on the day
• Chef Jam, Monday, March 2, 2-4pm, Queensbridge Square, Southbank, $55