Issue 1

The BBQ bug really kicked in when my wife Lisa and I had kids and moved to the countryside in deepest Devon. I found family gatherings needed some kind of catering and I started researching ways of feeding a lot of people easily.

I built my own wood-fired oven, a firepit with a rotisserie and an oil drum grill – all of which fuelled my addiction to cooking outdoors, feeling at ease with the relaxed way of cooking with real fire.

Once you’ve got the hang of fire control, the rest is relatively easy. If you can manage a fire without too much thought, this leaves you free for more experimentation. To learn to cook with fire, you need to play with fire – a lot.

Having a roof over your head makes a big difference too. Cooking outdoors regularly allowed me to improve and try out new techniques and recipes. There’s nothing to dampen enthusiasm like an unexpected shower, although I love cooking outdoors whatever the weather.

The main attraction of BBQ for me is the community. I saw very early on that people love to share their cooking with others; to get and give advice, and to belong to a community of like-minded outdoor cooks. I set up the CountryWoodSmoke online community to allow this to grow and support the expanding UK BBQ scene.

I love coming up with new recipes and techniques and my Food and Fire book, published last year, is full of guidance and inspiration to help people along their BBQ journey.

For it is a journey and we are all on our own path, with different ambitions

and passions. But we can all help each other and I enjoy sharing recipes and equipment recommendations, humbled that people head my way for guidance.

I’m also very fortunate that a lot of BBQ-related companies come to me for advice, technical feedback, reviews and to help spread word on their products.

I love to create content such as recipes, photographs and videos, working with companies to come up with new accessories and ways of cooking on their kit.

The BBQ scene in the UK is developing and evolving all the time and we are making our own style of outdoor cooking, which is wonderful. I can see us learning and being inspired by many culinary cultures from around the globe.

At first it was all US-style BBQ – ribs and brisket – but many are now exploring fire-cooked food from places such as South America, Europe, the Middle East and Far East with their wonderful fire-cooked food.

The future of BBQ in Britain and around the world is very exciting and I’m looking forward to continuing the journey, which is one reason we are publishing this brand new print magazine, with digital versions available online too.

Rupert Bates, an award-winning journalist and editor, came to my UK BBQ School and, in his own words: “couldn’t cook his way out of a paper bag, unless it was microwaveable”.

Rupert went away not only inspired to cook, but driven to launch this magazine, realising we could take the digital publication I had been producing, UK BBQ Mag, so much further.

“Food lends itself to the sensory power of the printed word and pictures, with so many stories to tell and share around the fire,” said Rupert.

We hope you enjoy the launch issue of BBQ magazine, which will be published quarterly and is available, on subscription, to the global barbecue community. Please get in touch about future editions if you’d like to contribute, distribute, advertise or partner with us, as we look to produce the definitive publication for the food and fire community – at home and around the world.

Yours in live-fire cooking

Team BBQ Magazine