Nobody chooses to become a pitmaster. The fire chooses you.
I grew up in Valparaíso, Chile — a port city on the central coast that climbs hills with the logic of a fever dream. My summers were spent in Romeral, a small town in the same region, on a property where friends and family gathered. There was always a parrilla going before anyone decided what to cook.
That was the beginning.
The Chilean asado tradition is not comparable to any barbecue culture in the English-speaking world. It is not a weekend activity. It is a social ritual that defines what a Sunday well-lived looks like. I grew up inside that tradition — learning fire management, meat selection, the patience that live-fire cooking demands, the way a whole community organizes itself around a parrilla.
Twenty years later, I moved to Sacramento, California. And I brought the fire with me.
Living in California gave me access to American BBQ — Texas brisket, Kansas City ribs, Carolina pulled pork, the offset smoker traditions of the South. I approached it the same way I approached asado: seriously, obsessively, with respect for the craft.
79th Street BBQ exists because no one was covering this story — the full live-fire cooking tradition of the American hemisphere, from Chilean curanto to Texas brisket, from Argentine parrilla to Mexican barbacoa, from Brazilian churrasco to Carolina whole hog.
BBQ doesn’t stop at the border. This site is proof.
Every technique has been tested. Every recommendation is based on actual cooking. Every cut has been sourced, prepped, and cooked — often more times than I can count.
This is not content. This is live fire.
José Luis Villalobos · Sacramento, California · jose@79thstbbq.com