Secret recipes have been around the catering business forever, and in some cases have led to industrial espionage in a bid to crack a successful blueprint. Take Coca Cola. One of that company's major selling gimmicks is the "secret formula" for the perfect soda.

Lateef Fahari, the owner of Hell's Kitchen just off the Chaiyaphum Road, pronounced as "Chaiyapoom," shrugs off the marketing ploys of multi-national companies. According to Lateef, "I prepare ribs with a sauce recipe handed down from my mother and grandmother who hailed from Tuskegee, Alabama." In effect, Lateef became the saucier's apprentice - apologies to Paul Dukas.

"So how do you make this sauce", I ask. If he had been with the CIA, he might have said-"I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you."But as a former civil servant from Cleveland, the enigmatic smile and slight shrug of the shoulders is enough to tell me that I have a better chance of cracking the Da Vinci code than getting him to spill the beans- (oooh,sorry) - on what makes Hell's Kitchen's food so special.

Hell's Kitchen opened its doors a year ago; U.S. Mother's Day 2006 as it happens. Expatriate Americans in Chiangmai were at first, and remain today the core clientele of this bright, pristine clean and secluded little bistro. But just look what happened after Columbus! Thais, Europeans, and tourists from across the globe have now discovered Hell's Kitchen.

The menu at Hell's Kitchen is, in modern parlance, in your face. "We serve ribs and chicken. Don't look for fancy this and that…says Lateef, "We are a rib joint that serves the best, and most authentic B-B-Q ribs in Chiangmai."

He is right. I get stuck into the Rib and chicken combo, complete with steamed sweet corn, potato salad and deviled eggs, and am an instant devotee. I run though the menu and find dishes that I thought were lost to this generation: Rack with baked beans, steamed sweet corn, Creole corn muffins, potato salad and rice, half-rack with coleslaw and extra sauce. The side dishes can best be described as "soul food," with Lateef's special corn bread in big demand with his customers. "It's all down to meticulous preparation." He tells me. "Most places serving barbecue dishes in this city tend to boil their meat," he explains.

Being a newcomer to the barbecue business I ask why he frowns on this method. "Boiling, or even parboiling meat causes a loss of taste. My competitors know that to barbecue meat properly is a time consuming operation, so they boil their meat." Lateef went on to explain how his method consumes much of his life. "We cook the meat slowly over charcoal and wood at home, add our own seasoning, and of course our unique sauce. The meat must be moist and not tough."

The staff at Hell's Kitchen, who make the final preparations before serving their customers, are unaware of the ingredients involved in the seasoning, sauce, or even Lateef's special corn bread. "Even if my employees new the ingredients," he says. "They could spend several lifetimes trying to work out the quantities involved." I'm wondering if Albert Einstein ever barbecued.

So how does a history major in Afro-American studies get into the catering trade? "It started when I was eight years old," says Lateef. "There I was, sitting in grandma's kitchen down in Macon County and watching her make this terrific B-B-Q sauce." He smiles at a very special memory. "You know, she would tell me every ingredient she used but I had no idea of the amounts involved as she just added a dash of this, or a handful of that. Man, do you have any conception of what makes a dash, or a granny's handful?"

It was many years later that Lateef opened his first Hell's Kitchen in Athens, Ohio. "I saw that the kids from the local university had little choice when it came to food. Sure, they had hamburger joints, and the odd sandwich bar, but I knew that they would go for barbecued pork and chicken with my grandma's special sauce, which I had finally mastered."

In the middle of all of this he took a job as a buyer in the procurement division of the US military. You know, one of those guys who buy ten thousand left-handed forks for the grunts in Desert Storm. The job took Lateef to all parts of the world, and when he visited Thailand he fell in love with Sandy, then fell in love with the place. The couple returned to the States, but last year came back to open Hell's Kitchen in Chiangmai.

Their busy schedule leaves little time for leisure. Preparing and cooking at home: vacuum packing their ribs and chicken for sale through the Rim Ping chain of supermarkets, running the restaurant itself, catering to hotels, guesthouses, the military, private functions, and making homes deliveries around town - it's almost a 24-7 operation.

All of this is based on the following house rules for making the perfect Bar-B-Q:

• Secret sauce
• Quality of meat and special cut
• Seasoning and preparation
• Creation of unique side dishes.

Lateef explains that it took some time to find top quality suppliers of meat, then even longer to introduce those suppliers to the special cuts necessary for the perfect Bar-B-Q.

Hollywood giant Gary Cooper was once asked how many cylinders there were in his brand new Stutz Bearcat. The king of monosyllabic conversation replied," Gee, I haven't noticed any in the trunk. I just drive this sucker."

Like "Coop", I don't need to know how this masterpiece is put together, just serve me more of those Hell's Kitchen ribs! For automobile enthusiasts; no secret, the Stutz Bearcat had eight cylinders. For expert sauciers; Hell's Kitchen's sauce has 13 ingredients - guess!

HELL'S KITCHEN, Gold Place arcade, Sripoom Road opposite Sompet Market. Tel. 053-232195. Secret recipe bbq sauce from the deep south USA. Open 5 pm. Phone for takeaway or outside catering.