Thousands braved the rain to attend the inaugural Melbourne Barbecue Festival at the Queen Victoria Market on Sunday.

The festival featured variations on the humble barbecue, from Filipino to Italian and Latin American.

But it's the American "low and slow" style, where the meat is cooked at low temperatures in a wood fire pit barbecue or smoker, that is gaining a cult-like popularity.

Fifteen teams battled it out in an American barbecue "cook-off" sanctioned for the first time in the southern hemisphere by the world's largest barbecue enthusiast organisation, the Kansas City Barbeque Society.

The winner will go on to compete at the world championships in Tennessee.

The festival organiser, lawyer Matt Vitale, who was part of a team that came 10th in the championships, has used his rise from backyard cook to barbecue superstar to springboard a side career in the meat worshiping industry.

"You fancy yourself as being able to work a barbecue and then you get the opportunity to enter into a competition and you step up," he said.

"I was fortunate enough to win and we've just chased it down at every opportunity that's come to us."

But Mr Vitale said the festival was not just for the serious barbecuer and was also about getting together and having some fun over skewers and drinks.

"It's something that every culture has its own twist on, and that's really what we're trying to celebrate here today," he said.

Owner of stall Zapata's Kitchen Christian Silva said Latin style, featuring marinades and chorizo, was equally as good as the favoured American.

"A lot of people know about American barbecue because of the TV shows, but no one really knows about Latin American barbecue, unless you've been there," he said.

"The way that we cook the meat is how the country people cook it, so it's simple, wholesome, country barbecue."