I’m Bringing Pulled Pork and Detroit House to Glastonbury

As a descendant of the Detroit house scene, Berlin club regular, and critic of commercialised EDM culture, Seth Troxler is pretty big deal in dance music. He's also really into barbecue. The Michigan-born DJ started London's "meats, beats, and cocktails" pop-up Smokey Tails in 2013, specialising in American barbecue classics smothered with a secret-recipe sauce. This weekend, he takes Smokey Tails' signature pulled pork buns to Glastonbury Festival, where he will also be performing a DJ set.

I was a fat kid, I think that's how I got into food.

My whole family cooks and Michigan, where I grew up, is like a home cooking-type food place. I think we were the fattest state in the nation at one point. The food is really delicious, but incredibly horrible for you.

Growing up, I was just into eating. My grandfather had this barbecue sauce that he invented when I was a kid and it was top secret. He's not around any more, but a few years ago when he had cancer, he took me to the side and said, Seth, you know it's time for you to learn how to make the sauce. And he taught me—he didn't even teach my mum! I was like his soul-holder, so it's like a family heirloom. Everyone who has ever tried the sauce is like, This is the best barbecue sauce I've ever had in my life, but I'll never tell them what's in it.

In America, there's this whole culture of barbecue. It's just part of the American psyche, part of the American dream—beer, cooked meat, conservatives, the flag waving, people making burgers, hot dogs, and ribs on the grill. It's part of the American illusion.

Later, when I moved to Europe, I found out that there were no good barbecues here. People try, but it's never quite right. So in 2013, I started a pop-up in London with some friends and a key part of it was my grandfather's sauce. We used it on chicken wings and people were like, This is delicious! I was trying to bring that idea of real American barbecue to England.

I think the secret of a great barbecue is a lot of love. It's not taking it over the top. I could give you a really great recipe for a rub that you could use on any barbecue for pork, and it's just perfect. My pulled pork is the best, it's smoked for 16 hours on a hickory and cherry blend, then we serve it with a toasted brioche bun, BBQ sauce, and pickled ginger cabbage.

When I first came to Europe, they didn't cut the ribs the right way so I had to figure out how to get the ribs straight from the pig with the skin and fat and everything on it. I went on the internet, found out how to do it, and taught myself.

I think most DJs are really into food. Ali Dubfire is crazy into food. If you ever want a suggestion for a restaurant in a crazy part of the world, you ask Ali. He's onto that Michelin-star, fine-dining business. Mine's more like that street hood shit. I mean, Michelin stars are cool and everything, but I like to keep it real.

DJ-ing and cooking are very similar too—you're making other people happy. I love DJ-ing as it's very selfless if you're doing it right, and I think a lot of DJs who cook find the same thing. You're mixing it up, trying a bit of this and that. It's just figuring it out really, I don't tend to use recipes, it's just trying things out on the fly. Sometimes you've got to fix the mix a bit, sometimes it's not working so well, so you add something else.

When I cook I like to listen to a lot of jazz, like Charles Mingus. I've also been listening to a lot of Sade, too. For comfort food, I love to make chicken soup. It's so easy and tasty. When I have a rare night off, I love cooking up for friends at home. I get my other friends who are chefs to sous chef for me. Sometimes we don't like to go out to eat because we're like, We can do everything better at home!

At the moment it's all about taking Smokey Tails to festivals and on the road. We're cooking up some really cool things at Glastonbury—our signature pulled pork sandwich, our Sofrito pulled pork bun, and a smoked chicken Buffalo sandwich that we've just invented. We also finally just got the approval through for a three-year lease on a new restaurant in [east London's] Old Street tube station. It's actually an old toilet from the 1940s, so it's dark and cool, it's going to be like a speakeasy. We won't have the ribs because we can't grill but we will have the pulled pork sandwich and the hot dogs. It'll be like a bar and bite menu—small eats and really good cocktails.

The plan is to take my cooking worldwide. We're hoping to bring our container over to Ibiza in front of [nightclub] DC10 and sell our sandwiches and do a pop-up in Berlin next to Club der Visionaere. Our friend has a restaurant in a gas station next to the club and we're taking over the kitchen for a month. It just makes sense, I have a fan base there who will at least try the restaurant. They can see me DJ, then eat the food.

I love the idea of getting some merchandise too—maybe aprons with something really funny on it. Who doesn't love a funny quote apron? Maybe a picture with me naked on it—people still show me pictures of that all the time. Oh my God, "The Naked Chef," like Jamie Oliver. Who's naked now, Jamie?

As told to Laura Martin.