As the weather turns, get set for a barbecue renaissance — Brits are becoming more adventurous with outdoor cooking culture than ever, embracing everything from South African braai, Japanese konro grilling and South America’s asado (a word referring to both the cooking technique and a social event).
“As a nation, we tend to follow trends coming out of the US when it comes to cooking innovation, but what’s been really interesting is how connected we’ve become globally through social media,” says Tom Gozney, the founder of pizza oven firm Gozney, who notes “an incredible shift” in outdoor cooking across the UK over the past five years. “Food culture from places like Australia, America and other countries where outdoor cooking is already a big part of life is now having a huge influence over here.”
James Walters, the founder of the Mediterranean restaurant group Arabica, concurs. “It’s no longer just burgers and bangers — though let’s be honest, no barbecue feels complete without a slightly burnt chipolata. [Britons] are getting more confident — cooking spatchcock chickens, butterflied lamb legs, whole fish, slow-cooked beef joints and finally giving veg the attention it deserves.”
Grills
Just starting out? Weber’s Kettle Grill, invented in 1952, is a classic that’s often recommended for beginner-friendly barbecuing (£147.99, weber.com). There are no bells and whistles, but that’s just how the Insta-famous chef Sophie Wyburd likes them: “I prefer a manual barbecue that uses wood and charcoal, as you can experiment with the combinations to impart different kinds of smoky flavour.”
Meanwhile Dan Cooper, Weber’s grill master, loves the reliability of a gas grill, in particular the £499 Spirit gas grill from Weber, a bestseller for three decades. He describes it as the “perfect gas grill for family feasts and friendly gatherings as it can be turned into a Dutch oven, poultry roaster and more with the right accessories.”
Despite its convenience, you’ll never catch Andrew Clarke, of Acme Fire Cult restaurant in east London, using gas. “You might as well just be using your kitchen gas hob, as you don’t get the nuance in flavour that you would from the charcoal and wood. Cooking over live fire might seem daunting, but it just takes a bit of patience and practice.”
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Clarke’s bulging collection of grills at home and in the restaurant includes an all-in-one Charlie Charcoal Oven, a Fire Made custom Portico Grill, The Bastard kamado barbecue, a BBQ Mates custom Barrel Smoker and a Konro Grill. But his favourite is perhaps the most lo-fi of them all: an Indian fire bowl (from £63.75, indianfirebowlcompany.co.uk). “I love grilling over hot coals. I can load the fire bowl up with coals and a smouldering log to enhance flavour. I top it with simple things that cook quickly — a butterflied fish or big chops and steaks.”
Ana Ortiz has been at the forefront of the UK’s barbecue revolution over the past decade, among the first to make asado crosses and provide professional chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Brat’s Tomos Parry with fire-cooking expertise and rigs. Along with her husband, Tom Bray, they founded Fire Made and design and make bespoke fire-cooking equipment from their workshop in Somerset, and run cookery workshops. “There is way more awareness and understanding of barbecue and fire-cooking in this country, in all its forms,” says Ortiz, who pops up at Babington House and HOLM in Somerset, as well as Carousel in London.
For on-the-go cooking, Wolf and Grizzly’s Campfire Trio barbecue (£89.95, amazon.co.uk) is Walters’ go-to: “Minimalist, badass, and built for anywhere. It folds down to the size of a laptop but delivers serious firepower.” And its natty design means no grass scorching. The Cobb Premier Air Deluxe portable barbecue (£189.99, lakeland.co.uk) is Lakeland buyer Rebecca Dudley’s favourite for beach trips and camping. It stays cool on the base so it’s safe to use on almost any surface.
When Ryan Cole, the executive chef at Salsify at The Roundhouse in Cape Town, is cooking a braai he likes to use the Heston Everdure range of products, which includes the £149 Cube (everdurebyheston.co.uk), a portable charcoal barbecue rated a Which? Best Buy. “You can get them super hot, and they’re easy to handle and store,” he says. “To make the best braai, it’s all about the simple things. Buying the best quality ingredients you can afford, keeping it super simple and cooking over hot coals.”
Guy Ritchie’s Ashcombe estate in Wiltshire is hosting a rotation of chefs at luxury escapes at WildKitchen x Carousel this summer, including Andy Beynon, founder of fish-focused Michelin-starred Behind Restaurant in Hackney. His go-to is a Kasai Robata grill: “Such a great one for skewers because you can rotate them on the grill and let the coal get nice and close to them. Once you’re finished using the robata you can carefully drop the coals in cold water, and then leave them in a dry place to dehydrate. When they’re properly dried out you can reuse the coal which is more cost-effective and also sustainable. That’s how we do it in the restaurant but I’ve also got one at home.”
Pizza ovens
Planning to power up a pizza oven the weekend? A gas-powered version is easier to use and clean, while the results of a wood-fired oven taste great but are more finicky to maintain a consistent temperature. Dual-fuel models combine the best of both worlds.
And — for more ease still — Ninja’s electric outdoor oven, pizza maker and smoker (£313, ninjakitchen.co.uk) scooped the Which? Best Buy stamp. “You still get plenty of smoky flavour thanks to the wood pellet chute on the side of the oven,” explains Natalie Hitchins, head of home products and services at Which?.
Dispel any notions that a pizza oven should be solely for margaritas. Chef Nina Parker dubs her Ooni Koda 12 (£299, johnlewis.com) a “game-changer” for charring savoury and sweet dishes alike — from finishing off a slow roast leg of lamb to a caramelised rhubarb clafoutis — while Grant Batty, the winner of UK’s Best Home Pizza Chef 2024, cooks plenty beyond pizza in his Ooni Karu 2 Pro (£699, ooni.com).
“For hosting this spring/summer, I’ll prepare sourdough bread and dips like wood-fired baba ganoush ahead of time, then focus on one spectacular wood-fired dish when guests arrive. Flame-seared piri-piri chicken creates an impressive spread without keeping you from your guests,” says Batty.
Gozney’s Dome, a dual-fuel pizza oven reaching temperatures in excess of 500C to cook pizza in 60 seconds, (£1,799.99, gozney.com), is the oven of choice of Adam Atkins, founder of the Neopolitan-style pizzeria Peddling Pizza in St Albans. Gozney has also launched a portable pizza oven this year, the Tread (£499.99, gozney.com). Atkins notes it is “perfect for loading up into my van and heading out camping. It’s a really cool bit of kit — so quick, simple and easy to use. The other day it took just 40 minutes from setting up the oven to eating a steak.”
For a great-value option, Which? gives the £124.99 VonHaus outdoor pizza oven (vonhaus.com) a rating of 88 per cent. It uses wood pellets for fuel and took 19 minutes to get up to temperature, which Hitchins notes, “isn’t bad at all for a wood-fired oven as they often take longer than gas”. If you already have an existing charcoal or gas barbecue, Aldi’s £29.99 pizza oven accessory (aldi.co.uk) can be used to produce 12-inch pizzas in as little as 10 minutes. Be quick, though — it returned to stores on March 27, and sold out speedily last year.
Kamado grills
Heavy, egg-shaped Japanese-style charcoal Kamado grills are do-it-all ceramic barbecue-cum-smokers that usually run using lumpwood charcoal, making use of the stellar heat retention of ceramic to grill, sear, roast, bake and smoke to perfection. Two brands dominate the market: Big Green Egg and Kamado Joe, each with a swathe of followers.
Jakarta-born Rahel Stephanie (of the cult London supper club, Spoons) uses a Big Green Egg (£1,810, thebbqshop.co.uk) at home. “It holds heat well, gives you great temperature control, and it’s incredibly versatile whether you’re grilling skewers, smoking fish, or baking flatbreads,” she explains.
Over at High Grange Devon — a fire cookery school hosting feasting nights — chef Luke Vandore-Mackay uses a selection of Kamado Joes that, “with a simple insert, change from a fantastic grilling machine to a foolproof convection oven.” He predicts that the future of barbecue is all about digital “connected” technology, such as the newly launched Konnected Big Joe (£2,799, bbqs2u.co.uk). “Gas barbecues used to be the most mainstream because they were easiest to use, whereas charcoal barbecues that impart better flavour into the food were left to those who liked a challenge — the barbecue die-hards. There have been huge innovations in barbecues now, so you can buy a charcoal grill that’s as easy to use as gas.”
Too pricey? You can nab Tower’s Kamado Maxi ceramic charcoal barbecue (£249.99, towerhousewares.co.uk) as a cheaper alternative. It scooped the Best Buy accolade from Which? for its combination of “style and substance … [offering] grilling, smoking, baking and searing”. “Food cooks evenly with satisfying char marks, and it’s easy to assemble and use,” Hitchins reports. Meanwhile Belinda Dangerfield, a design director at Qudaus Living, a kitchen design company, rates Monolith’s German-engineered series as “better value for money on a like-for-like basis” to its well-known competitors (£720, stanegatestoves.co.uk).
