I recently visited Dublin, Ireland, and there were several restaurants serving Central Texas–style barbecue. Whether or not they were doing it well is another matter, but the point is that people around the world can’t seem to get enough of the cuisine. Barbecue is an ancient and now global method of food preparation whose history has been deeply shaped by place, people, and economies of labor—particularly in the American South. And it’s this style of southern barbecue that is particularly hot right now. American barbecue competitions and restaurants are proliferating in the United States and worldwide. Its cooks and writers are famous. But what’s making barbecue so trendy?