Forget Austin City Limits and AT&T Stadium. And no to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion and Daikin Park. The real Texas rock stars these days are the pitmasters working smokehouses across the Lone Star State. Just in the last few months, several notable folks in Texas barbecue have been seen on television, heard in podcasts, and made appearances in magazines and publications across the U.S.

Like Brandon Hurtado, owner and pitmaster of Hurtado Barbecue, a favorite of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex with four locations. Not only will Hurtado’s own barbecue be featured in season two of Taylor Sheridan’s popular series “Landman,” but the pitmaster himself got his mug on the pages of US Weekly. Now you, adventurous US Weekly reader, can cook Hurtado BBQ’s elite-level hatch chile mac and cheese at home.

“It’s a bold deviation from the normalcy of what you find in barbecue mac and cheese,” Hurtado told US Weekly. This is true; also, it’s delicious.

Hurtado isn’t the only barbecue notable basking in the spotlight. There’s Kareem El-Ghayesh, the pitmaster of KG BBQ in Austin, who went from Netflix’s “Barbecue Showdown” to features with Today and Bon Appétit, the latter of which is calling his pork ribs the best in the city.

There’s of course Aaron Franklin, the godfather of modern-day Central Texas barbecue, who has been making the rounds on podcasts discussing his past, present and future.

Back in August on the “Not A Damn Chance!” podcast, Franklin said it wasn’t likely he’d ever expand Franklin Barbecue with another full-service location.

“Oh we could. It sure would be a bummer though,” Franklin said. “I mean it would never be as good, it would make the one we have not nearly as good. It would kill the magic.”

Beyond just the last few months, Texas barbecue pitmasters have been all over the place. We’ve seen Chuck Charnichart of Lockhart’s Barbs BQ become a star worthy of Garden & Gun and Bon Appétit, and Grant Pinkerton of Pinkerton’s BBQ in Houston get profiled on CBS News. Of course, Tootsie Tomanetz of Snow’s BBQ in Lexington remains the biggest star of the Texas ‘cue world.

It’s just proof that with superior barbecue (sorry, Kansas City) comes rock star status.

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This article originally published at Some of Texas barbecue’s biggest names have become real celebrities.