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Angela Hui

Luk Man Hon is a man who wears many hats.
The Hong Kong-born 42-year-old defines himself as a vinyl dealer, DJ, photographer and poker player. But he is also an entrepreneur, as the pitmaster and owner of Uncle Hon’s BBQ, an Asian-style barbecue at the canalside cocktail bar All My Friends in Hackney Wick, East London.
There, he serves his take on Southern barbecue with a subtle Chinese twist. But before he turned to grilling meats, Luk was the mastermind behind Vinyl Pimp, a second-hand record store – and the UK’s only “vinyl hotel” – that has been a go-to for music lovers since 2007.
Born in Wan Chai, Luk moved to the UK with his family before Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. He studied business in Plymouth, and after ditching a potential career in sales, he turned his passion for records into a thriving business, focusing on dance, techno and trance music.

In 2022, he swapped the turntables for grills by chance after an amateur poker tournament in Las Vegas. The players at his table recommended visiting Austin, Texas while he was in the United States and checking out one of its top barbecue restaurants, InterStellar.
It was there that Luk met pitmaster and owner John Bates, who took him behind the scenes and showed him his set-up. That visit lit a fire in Luk and he stayed in touch with Bates, returning three months later to intern at InterStellar.
This was his first taste of working in a professional kitchen, getting to grips with cooking with live fire and learning how to control temperatures.
After two months in Texas, Luk returned to London and honed his cooking skills further by working a brief stint at St John Bread and Wine restaurant before finally snagging a custom-built 1,000-gallon (3,785-litre) reverse-flow smoker on eBay from a seller in southern England for £5,000 (US$6,300).
“At that moment, the cogs in my head started to turn,” he says. “I was hooked and so excited to play with fire. I got lucky finding the right size smoker and everything just clicked into place.”

Luk spent the first year getting used to his smoker and focusing on cooking with oak. Unable to find a space that was large enough to accommodate the smoker as well as being a respectful distance from residential areas, he found a novel solution.
He struck a deal with the travellers who had pitched up under the A12 flyover in Hackney Wick, paying to cook in their spot. When the travellers moved on, he had to relocate, which led him to host a few successful pop-ups in car parks near the area around White Post Lane and to his current location next to the canal.
“There’s no age limit to do something new. I know I started cooking much later in life at 40, but I love it,” he says. “[My] back probably hurts more from carrying meat and holding the smoker door open, but it’s never too late.”
The UK’s barbecue scene is still developing, and is still far behind countries such as the US, Argentina, and Brazil, where barbecue is deeply rooted in the culture and history.
I try to think about the meal as a whole. It’s a lesson in tightrope walking, in balancing salt, fat, acid and starch. It’s all about balance
Luk Man Hon, owner of Uncle Hon’s BBQ
Food writer Gavin Cleaver describes London’s barbecue as “a confused mishmash of words and meat” in his comprehensive barbecue guide for food newsletter Vittles, pointing to issues like misleading descriptions and the use of incorrect cuts and improper techniques.
Achieving the tender, fall-apart texture and the coveted smoke ring (a pinkish layer underneath the exterior of properly smoked meat) requires ample time, space and patience.
“Many opt for an automated electric smoker,” Luk says. “Although it’s very convenient, you’re not getting the taste of smoke and allowing a certain amount of air movement to achieve that smoky flavour.”
The type of meat is also crucial in barbecue. According to Luk, the UK is fortunate to have fantastic suppliers and farmers, like Basque beef importer Nemanja Borjanović (aka Mr Txuleta), who provides old dairy cows, and Rare Breed Meat Company, which supplies pork for his pop-up.
“In the US, they use grain-fed cows, which have the higher fat content needed for brisket. In the UK our cows are mostly grass-fed, making them leaner, which doesn’t quite work the same way for brisket.
“It’s tough to find anything similar here, so we focus on the right cut that does the best job.”
Luk’s approach to barbecue brings together traditional methods and his flair for Cantonese cooking, which he attributes to the rising influence of a new generation of Vietnamese-Texans in Houston, such as cult favourites Khói Barbecue and Blood Bros BBQ.












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A post shared by Khói Barbecue (@khoibarbecue)



“Texas-style barbecue is evolving and there’s a much more diverse range of global flavours. It’s an exciting time for barbecue right now,” Luk says.
He talks about making lighter choices and ingredient swaps, such as using rice instead of bread, pickles for acidity, smacked cucumbers instead of coleslaw, and rice flour in sausages instead of milk powder and breadcrumbs.
“Like every other Asian, I’m slightly lactose-intolerant. Barbecue already has a lot of fatty meat and the last thing you’d want is more stodge like potato salad and mac and cheese.
“I try to think about the meal as a whole. It’s a lesson in tightrope walking, in balancing salt, fat, acid and starch,” he says. “It’s all about balance.”
Uncle Hon’s menu pays homage to the flavours of the food he grew up eating. The bestselling Sichuan peppercorn beef ribs are a masterclass in fragrance, spice and numbing mala sensation, and the Chinese pickle mustard green pork hash sausages are a nod to his childhood favourite dish, yuk beng, or Cantonese steamed pork patty.
Last year, in the first few months after launching, Uncle Hon’s blew up and struggled to keep up with demand, thanks to London-based food influencer @eatingwithtod, whose video generated hype – and queues out of the door.












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A post shared by Eating With Tod (@eatingwithtod)



“We gained over 10,000 followers and more than 200 people turned up in the first two hours of service. We couldn’t serve them all and we didn’t know how to handle it,” he says. “We had a lot of one-star reviews because we simply couldn’t get food out in time.”
That weekend, Luk and his team went through more than 250kg (550lbs) of meat. After that, he went back to the drawing board to simplify the menu and streamline workflow by introducing mixed barbecue meat trays and online reservations to make things more manageable.
“Social media can be a killer and a booster,” he says with a sigh. “For some, they may not be able to handle the pressure and it’s an unsustainable high level of demand. It’s certainly disappointing not being able to serve my best for new customers when you’re stretched thin, but you can’t please everyone and you have to adjust.”
Despite juggling with the downside of social media, when we speak Luk was excited to bring his barbecue game to the Soho Food Festival in September, where he ended up serving crowd favourites such as Sichuan beef ribs, slow-cooked beef cheeks, and peach-tea-glazed pork belly.
In his second year of trading, Luk was focused on improving, but from now on it’s going to be all change, as he has just welcomed his first child.
“I’m nervous and excited, as my life is going to be very different. I guess barbecuing is a lot like having a child,” he laughs.
“Most of the time, it might not look like we’re doing much, but we’re waiting for the fire to go down, managing the flames to burn off optimally to produce a constant temperature and putting on more wood every 15 minutes for hours and hours.
“At least I’ll be well trained in looking after my baby round the clock.”


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A mixed meat barbecue platter from Uncle Hon’s. The brisket (front right) shows the requisite “smoke ring” that barbecue fans look out for. Photo: Angela Hui

Uncle Hon’s BBQ founder Luk Man Hon was so inspired by InterStellar barbecue restaurant in Austin, Texas, he did an internship there, bought a smoker and began serving barbecued meats in London. Photo: Hon’s BBQ

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A mixed meat barbecue platter from Uncle Hon’s. Photo: Angela Hui

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Food & Drink

Luk Man Hon shares his journey from running a vinyl record store to becoming barbecue pitmaster at Uncle Hon’s BBQ


Luk Man Hon shares his journey from running a vinyl record store to becoming barbecue pitmaster at Uncle Hon’s BBQ.


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