FOOD Tom Kerridge Tom Kerridge’s ultimate guide to barbecu- ing this summer By Lauren Taylor, PA Summer is on its way and that means most of us will be dusting off the barbecue, throwing on some meat and gathering around it with friends and family soon. “There’s nothing wrong with just getting it done and buying some burgers and some sausages – that’s great,” says TV chef Tom Kerridge, who holds three Michelin stars, but if you’re just scraping the surface of your barbecue ability, you might be missing out. “It’s just one of the nicest, loveliest ways of cooking and it brings a flavour that you can’t get from a kitchen – that charcoal cookery, smoke.” Plus, it’s one of the most social ways of cooking this summer.“There’s been many a time where there might be 30 people around our house, and we’re cooking stuff over flames – I love that sort of thing,” says the judge on BBC One’s Great British Menu, whose restaurants include the only pub in the UK with two Michelin stars,The Hand and Flowers. With the release of his latest cookbook The BBQ Book, the 51-year-old wants us to branch out this summer (or, indeed, winter – he believes in year-round barbecuing). Here are his top tips…
Buy good-quality charcoal
Many of us probably haven’t given any thought to what charcoal to use, but there’s a reason some costs more than others.“There’s a huge difference,” Kerridge says.“It is better to have bigger because they hold better, they’ll hold the temperature longer. Smaller pieces will burn out quicker. “Investing in charcoal actually goes a long, long way. It’ll last twice as long as the cheaper stuff. It holds the temperature much better, cooks [food] more evenly, and really good charcoal goes a long way to improving your barbecue.”
Don’t worry and relax
The biggest thing is sometimes people are too scared of getting more technical with a barbecue, he explains.Yet “the one thing that I think a barbecue does give is, it’s a bit of a leveller, because there isn’t an ultimate process to it. It’s base-level cookery. It’s fire. “There are always mistakes.There are always things that go wrong. Some parts are darker, black or charred more than others, and that’s part of the joy of it. Sometimes people worry about the geekiness of it, and actually they should just relax more and enjoy it.” But do understand how the fire works. Using metal coal tongs to move the coals around will create pockets of less and more intense heat.You’ll want to have a range of temperatures on your barbecue at the same time, if you’re cooking different things on it. Higher, direct heat for meat and fish, explains Kerridge in the book, and lower for vegetables.To increase the temperature of the whole barbecue, close the lid and keep the air vents open, oxygen circling and coals burning.To lower the temperature, close the air vents. You’ve got to “keep feeding” the fire, says Kerridge,“You’ve got to keep it alive – particularly if you’re cooking on an egg-style barbecue.Air flow is a big thing, allowing [the] oxygen it needs to get in, to increase heat, and being able to control that.”
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