LONDON: Pop star Justin Timberlake has hired a top barbecue chef to help him with his New York restaurant.

The restaurant has been open for nine months and has so far received mixed reviews, contactmusic.com reports. The cool Ray 'Dr. BBQ' Lampe has been invited to help out the restaurant called Timberlake's Southern Hospitality after some critics wrote unfavourable reviews.

One reviewer went as far as to call the food "awful". Lampe is keen to start with the ribs and work his way up from there. 

He said: "We want them to be competition-style (ribs), where when you take a bite the meat comes off easy, but doesn't just slide off the bone. I don't think the guys that were in charge before really got that."