Horn Barbecue Joins Other Notable Black Barbecue Books

Matt Horn joins the chorus of authors giving voice to the black barbecue experience.

This week’s guest article is written by Monk, a native of North Carolina and co-founder of the Barbecue Bros blog. Along with his friends and fellow Barbecue Bros Speedy and Rudy, Monk has traveled around eating, rating, ranking, and reviewing barbecue joints since 2012. If you would like to write a guest article for The Smoke Sheet, please get in touch.

Matt Horn first rose to barbecue prominence in 2016 after a series of pop-ups in the Bay Area of California, taking cues from Texas barbecue, the American South, and the Bay Area while attempting to create his own style of barbecue called "West Coast barbecue."

He parlayed the success of those pop-ups and his social media presence into a brick-and-mortar store in West Oakland, which he opened in 2020. And it wasn't long before the awards followed: Food & Wine’s Best New Chef in 2021, Esquire's Best New Restaurants in 2021, a Bib Gourmand from Michelin, and last but not least, a James Beard Award Nomination in 2022.

Also, in 2022, Horn released his first book, simply titled Horn Barbecue, solely credited to him. With a foreword by Adrian Miller and blurbs from Miller, Aaron Franklin, Rodney Scott, and David Chang, it surely placed him in esteemed company within the barbecue world.