Taking our love affair with char-grilled barbeque to another level by bringing in a southern American barbeque tradition is the newly rebranded Legends Taumeasina.

Pit Master and Head Chef at Legends, Fa’aleo Setu Taule’alo, brought his four-year experience from an upmarket smokehouse in Melbourne to Samoa using only local butchered meat to produce mouthwatering tender smoke flavoured dishes.

On Tuesday night, Legends Taumeasina revealed their new menu of U.S.A. style smoke house meats at a tasting event held in their restaurant/café. Locals got to sample tantalising morsels of smoked brisket and slow cooked pork, chicken and sausages.

The smoky herb infused meat tenderised from hours and hours of slow cooking were sourced from Samoa Meat Supplies boasting a local organically raised beef and pork that is less fatty and tender than imported meats.

Owner of Samoa Meat Supplies, Tom Olaaiga was present at the tasting and was impressed with the Head Chef’s ability to create such a tender brisket.

“The brisket is amazing,” said Mr. Olaaiga. “I’m quite surprised that someone can actually cook brisket. Brisket is not an easy meat to cook because if they stuff it up, it will be tough and it will be like rubber but Setu did a wonderful job with the brisket.”

The smoked German sausages were also a hit at the tasting. Olaaiga revealed that they make their own gourmet sausages. 

“With the sausages, we make six different flavours and this is one of our gourmet sausages. 

So we have a country classic, which tastes a lot different from everyone but this one is a bit spicy because it’s got that European flavor in it. I never had a smoked sausage until I came here. We usually fry or barbeque our sausages, mind you that gives different flavours. I take my hat off to Setu for the initiative for smoking these meats, it’s quite unique.

“This is more a farmer to dinner plate, the meat that we had here tonight, both the beef and pork and the meat that was in the sausages were made and bred here all around Samoa. Bought it, butchered it and processed to sausages. 

“The brisket was aged well enough for the purposes like Setu’s cooking, so when Setu purchased from us, the money goes straight to the farmers and it’s an encouragement to the farmer to do better, to farm more and to grow more. 

“We urge them to learn new techniques from M.A.F. on how to raise cattle because this is the best result from a good farm cow.

 The meat that we provide here is from steer meat which is the best quality meat.

“I encourage people to buy local Samoa made food. Our economy will grow and create more jobs through farming, livestock and butcher processing like us or restaurants like Legends. The money will circulate in our country’s economy.”

And what’s an American barbeque without the sauces? All the condiments accompanying the barbeque dishes were created in-house with tropically inspired pickles and chutneys made from local cucumbers, papaya, pineapples, mangoes and vi.  

Legend’s version of ranch sauce and Alabama sauce and brisket gravy were just a few of the tempting sauces that were featured. They were so good that one invited guest taster was heard saying that it was good enough to drink.