The UK barbecue village is a busy and growing community. JEMIMA NELSON picks 23 to follow this year

WEBER

Weber has launched innovative new product offerings for 2023 including a new electric barbecue.

“Our product teams continue to push the boundaries of high-performance outdoor cooking in fuel and product categories that home cooks have just started to explore, including electric, griddle, and pellet grilling,” says Mike Jacobs, chief operating officer of Weber. 

“To develop this year’s product portfolio, we spent hundreds of hours talking to and cooking with people to determine how our products could help them more fully enjoy coming together around the barbecue. This line-up redefines what’s possible when cooking outside by enabling our owners to create delicious new meal options, express their creativity, cook with greater ease, control, and predictability, and simplify clean up.”

Weber’s new Lumin electric barbecue is a highly versatile, multifunctional grill. It is designed for those with limited outdoor space and ‘electric-first’ cooks who crave authentic, delicious barbecue flavours yet desire a grill that fits their lifestyle and reflects their eco-conscious fuel choices. 

The ultra-modern Lumin barbecue features a sleek, space-efficient design, making it ideal for smaller outside areas and where other forms of fuel, such as charcoal and gas, are not permitted. 

To create a 'next-level' electric cooking experience, Weber product experts engineered this barbecue to reach high heat temperatures of more than 315°C, within 15 minutes, infuse vegetables and proteins with rich, smoky tastes through its smoke mode, as well as steam vegetables, sear steaks, and keep cooked food warm via different cook settings and specially designed accessories. 

Weber designers have also created full-size griddle inserts for the Spirit and Genesis gas barbecues. The griddle inserts, made of porcelain-enamelled cast iron, work with each barbecue's powerful burner system to direct, evenly spread, and hold heat across the entire griddle cooking surface. In addition, each griddle insert features a grease management system designed to prevent spills and capture grease for less mess during cleaning. 

MASTERBUILT 

Masterbuilt, the charcoal grill and smoker brand, has launched its first pizza oven insert. Continuing the company’s ‘plug and play’ ethos, the newest addition quickly transforms your existing barbecue into a pizza oven, enabling you to switch from pitmaster to pizzaiola. 

The sleek new accessory has been crafted to bake exceptional pizza with an authentic brick oven flavour. Fired up with the press of a button, heat up your BBQ and cook a 14-inch base in under five minutes. There is no rotation needed and the 360° airflow cooks with an even temperature and consistency throughout.

The Masterbuilt pizza oven is lightweight and has been crafted with a premium stainless-steel interior and porcelain-coated exterior. It also has the ability to bake cookies, bread and even lasagne.

The attachment is best suited to the Masterbuilt Gravity Series 800 and 1050 grills, though it will fit on most charcoal, gas and pellet grills too.

Kadai has also designed the Garden Kitchen for preparing and serving food straight from the barbecue. The base is made from sustainably sourced mango wood; the tabletop black limestone, and the Kitchen is fitted with a shelf and two drawers. Another innovation is an oak cooking plank, so you can slow cook a large, filleted fish on a plank opposite a wood fire for the smoky aroma, and adapted to fit inside a Kadai firebowl.

This year will see DeliVita launch a new dual-fuel eco gas oven. “Produced to cater for an audience that demands immediacy and even greater control, the oven offers the ability to cook both traditionally with wood and with gas and will be the most eco-friendly oven on the market,” says Formisano.

“It’s not just about buying an oven; it’s about buying into a lifestyle. Buying a DeliVita oven isn’t about cooking. It’s about bringing friends and family together to create special moments, special memories.”

To create authentic Italian pizza, the oven floor needs to impart heat quickly enough for the crust to be crisp before the dough is overcooked, but not so quickly that it burns. Alfa has developed a patented refractory brick with a full-circulation flue system, ceramic fibre insulation and high-grade steel wall, so ovens can quickly reach and maintain temperatures up to 500°C and Neapolitan-style pizza cooked in just 90 seconds.

Alfa has both wood-fired and gas-fired models, as well as hybrid options and the Italian ovens come in two distinct lines – the Classico and the Moderno.

“Traeger has spent 35 years innovating and perfecting what it means to cook incredible meals outdoors,” says Jeremy Andrus, CEO of Traeger Grills. “Our aim is to enhance the cooking experience with each grill launch, building innovation that cascades into different makes, models, and price points across our line-up.”

The new grill has precision temperature control and a series of smart sensors, while its Downdraft Exhaust gives the food the wood-fired flavour. A heat delivery system ensures hotter temperatures on the grates for improved searing.

The Traeger App features WiFire technology to control the grill from anywhere, with the new Timberline coming with two MEATER wireless thermometers.

With its multifunctionality and design aesthetics, the OFYR grill is as practical as it is social, be it cooking for family and friends, or for the use of professional chefs in hotels and restaurants, while transforming outdoor spaces and entertainment areas.

The Bastard is billed as ‘the pride of the Netherlands’. This versatile kamado grill – grilling, baking, smoking and braising – is made of cordierite ceramic, so is very resistant to extremely high temperatures, while the insulating ceramic inner lining regulates the temperature.

The World Cup grills were made from scratch and since the tournament Fuegos has started manufacturing smaller versions of the same grills.

In Argentina, asadors (grill masters) are almost as revered as footballers and Argentina would fancy its chances in a World Cup of barbecue too. What price the Pumas rugby squad requesting some Fuegos grills for France and the Rugby World Cup later this year?

“A long slow Sunday lunch outdoors on an asado is what we all do in Argentina. When the meal is served the whole table claps the asador, assuming the meat is good. And in Argentina the meat is always good,” says Agustin Creevy, the former Argentina rugby captain, currently playing in the English Premiership with London Irish.

Casa Mia also supplies a range of pizza ovens with a U-shaped gas burner system in combination with a ceramic stone dispersing the heat evenly across the pizza base. 

The Bravo 12” and Bravo 16” pizza oven models have been designed with a curved cylindrical shell for reflective heat distribution, combined with a variable gas control system that has FFD flame protection.

Casa Mia is part of LeisureGrow, a home and garden industry supplier that includes Grillstream, NOMA Christmas, NOMA Garden Lighting, Petface and LG Outdoor.

“Past experience tells us customers purchasing equipment often ask for advice or cooking services from us. It only seems natural that we can offer these,” says Zowie Rees of Heart, Smoke & Soal.

“Nothing can beat those sensory experiences when you smell, see and taste outdoor cooked food. We run homely and relaxed cooking experiences where you can gain new skills and at the same time share fun with family and friends; connect with like-minded people or celebrate a special occasion.”

The second bundle is for beginners, called DOT & Thermapen Classic. The DOT ‘leave-in’ meat thermometer allows you to set the temperature and wait for the alarm – ideal for larger meats like roast chicken and joints of beef. It is also magnetic so you can secure it to your BBQ, while the Thermapen Classic gives fast and accurate readings.

The store is not just about BBQ supplies, but the opportunity to seek expert advice whatever your level of grilling. The bricks and mortar store will soon be followed by an online one, as well as plans for Fired Up to roll out more outlets. 

“The Richmond store is already gaining a great reputation locally as we establish a loyal customer base, be you a BBQ novice, enthusiast or pitmaster, all sharing a love for live-fire cooking,” says Turnbull.

The store features leading brands such as Kamado Joe, DeliVita, Yeti, Meat Church, Monolith, Big Green Egg, Alfa, Traeger, Gozney and Solo Stove. 

“This is currently the only shop of its kind in the London area, and together with the online store we expect Fired Up to become a big player in the food, fire, and outdoor living space.”

But you can only take the Shropshire Lad out of Shropshire for so long, it seems. Adam has decided to recommit to his roots – and spend more time with his young family – by opening his own joint just outside his hometown of Telford. 

The blueprint for Embers, hidden among the trees at Coalbrookdale's Green Wood Centre, is to be a café by day and a venue dedicated to more extravagant food events by night.

Adam wants to give a warm welcome to big names from the barbecue world and beyond, to demonstrate, collaborate and generally show the people of Shropshire a good time. 

He'll also continue to produce the content his devoted followers crave, but more of it will be coming direct from his new woodland HQ.

As far as the day-to-day running of the café goes, Adam wants to build a team where individual passions are allowed to flourish; he's not one for breathing down people's necks 24/7 and is characteristically open to the direction the menu could go in: "It all depends on who the head chef is."

One thing is for certain, though: don't expect an unbridled meatfest. In fact, Embers will inhabit the beautiful building and surrounds of the erstwhile Green Wood Café, a much-loved vegan/vegetarian spot, and plant-based dishes will feature prominently on any Embers menu. 

Indeed, for someone who once cooked an entire cow over fire, Adam says we'd be surprised how little meat he eats at home. He's actually a big veg guy: "Some of the most enthusiastic feedback on my cooking courses has been about the meat-free dishes. People don't expect vegetables to taste that good!" 

What is a non-negotiable, though, is fire. After all, he has called the place Embers. Whether it's tomahawk steaks, his signature smoked tomatoes or even charcoal-infused cream, Adam's love of smoke will be woven through much of what the café offers, day and night. We can already smell it.