Last weekend thousands of American barbecue enthusiasts thronged the Queen Victoria Markets for the inaugural Melbourne Barbecue Festival - and were promptly rained on.

It was the first Australian barbecue contest officially sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society, under whose aegis countless "cook offs" are held across America. Among them was a Canberra team that included Hyatt Canberra general manager Mikael Svensson, restaurateur Chris Hansen of Ox Eatery and Likeajob.com.au, Spero Cassidy of CanberraNet and Micky Doherty, who we're told flew from Bangkok to participate in the competition.

Under the rather bold name of Master Basters, they cooked chicken, pork ribs, brisket and Boston butt on their Kamado Joes and brought home a third placed trophy for Boston butt. Well done, guys.