LA’s 3rd Mas: Texas-style BBQ with Armenian twist – Los Angeles Times

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 30, ARMENPRESS. Everybody’s heard of the Texas-style barbeque – meat so beautifully cooked it makes your jaw drop. But what about Texas-Armenian barbeque? This is what an Armenian-American chef is offering at a restaurant in Los Angeles, California, since Armenian-style barbeque itself is a famed meat-on-the-stick.

At III Mas BBQ, 24-year-old chef Arthur Grigoryan unites the smoked meats of the U.S. South with the Middle Eastern flavors he grew up on for a style of cooking he calls “Texas-Armenian barbecue,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

III Mas derives its name from 3rd mas (third section), a district in Yerevan where Grigoryan’s father grew up and did business in the meat industry.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Grigoryan said he is combining his American side with his Armenian heritage to create something that represents him.

“Southern barbecue is the pinnacle of American food in my opinion,” Grigoryan says. “I’m taking that from my American side and combining it with my Armenian heritage to do something that represents me,” he said, as quoted by Los Angeles Times.

III Mas is currently a pop-up style restaurant offering dinners at his family’s Sherman Oaks backyard.

“A side dish brims with baked beans and beefsoujouk. The meal culminates with abasturmabrisket Grigoryan brines for 10 days before smoking for up to 20 hours”, Hadley Tomicki at the Los Angeles Times writes. “The fundamentals of Grigoryan’s barbecue are strong enough to kill on the competition circuit”.

In addition to his current activities the LA-raised chef says he has future plans regarding Armenian cuisine. “Beyond launching a business, Grigoryan says he wants to take what he’s learned in fine-dining kitchens and at pits in Texas “to evolutionize Armenian cuisine somehow.”

Grigoryan worked in fine-dining kitchens such as Drouant in Paris then at Château Siaurac in Bordeaux before returning to LA.

Photos byDavid Scott Bowles,Los Angeles Times

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan