Burt Bakman

The Path

The pop-up model sharpened the discipline behind Burt Bakman’s early work at Trudy's Underground Barbecue. As a pop-up barbecue pitmaster, he worked in the direct, immediate register of the style: fire managed by instinct, meat tended with patience, and flavor built in stages. That approach now sits behind his role as chef and owner of Slab Barbecue.

The Work Today

At Slab Barbecue in Los Angeles, Burt Bakman works as chef and owner with barbecue at the center of the restaurant’s identity. The named sandwiches show how the kitchen approaches the form: each one built with deliberate specificity, using smoke, sauce, and bread in clear, readable combinations. The Oooh is piled with chopped brisket, onion, cilantro, and barbecue sauce on a brioche bun. The O.G. Brisket sandwich follows with its own straightforward authority. Together, they show a kitchen that keeps the work precise without losing the ease that barbecue carries at its best. The thread is not rigidity, but movement.

Signature

Burt's signature dishes include The Oooh and O.G. Brisket sandwich, and Tony Montana. Read together, they show a barbecue menu treated as a working set of forms rather than a fixed script, with each item distinct enough to stand on its own.

In Their Words “We change it up, we find some kind of a spice, we’ll introduce it, we’ll try something here that we like. We’re not married to one thing.” “There’s no reason why California cannot become its own barbecue region.”

Acclaim

Bakman's recognition comes through the named dishes at the restaurant: The Oooh, the O.G. Brisket sandwich, and the Tony Montana are the clearest expressions of his barbecue practice in Los Angeles. Their presence on the menu points to a chef using familiar barbecue language to make a case for place, voice, and a distinctly Californian version of the genre. His larger claim for the city is just as plain.