1. How Not To Take a Grilling At Barbecue School
Barbecues: If your outdoor cooking means burnt sausages and tough burgers, help is at
hand says BBQBarbecues
The last meal I cooked on a barbecue was a huge success. For a start, I managed to light the
coals before 10 o'clock at night. Furthermore, without wishing to brag, when I removed the
sausages from the grill, they were cooked not just on the outside but on the inside as well.
That, to my mind, and the minds of millions of other men in Britain, is a triumph. After all,
what do we know about cooking? For the majority of the year we never go near a stove,
except perhaps to fry up some bacon. Then as soon as the sun comes out we find ourselves
impelled, like primeval man, to make fire with which to incinerate chunks of meat.
It's a strange phenomenon, and a growing one. The manufacturer Landmann now sells 50
times more BBQs in Britain than it did a decade ago and is launching a barbecue cookery
school later this summer. This is why it’s time men learnt to use the damn things properly.
Fortunately, help is at hand in the form of a talented and energetic chef called Steve Bulmer.
The former director of the Raymond Blanc Cookery School at Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons,
Bulmer runs his own school with his wife Jo in Winslow, Buckinghamshire. And as well as
classes in Italian and Oriental cuisine and butchery, the couple offer a Barbecue Cookery
course during the summer, for men (and women, of course) who want to extend their
repertoire past chicken drumsticks, burgers and bangers.
In one day, Bulmer teaches participants to cook an array of dishes – from spatchcocked
quail to slow-cooked spare ribs – that not only taste amazing but are surprisingly easy to do.
The first dish we tackle is grilled pork with basil and parsley stuffing.
"Have you ever used crepinette before?" Bulmer asks. He moves a bowl of white stringy
stuff towards me.
"Er, no," I say. "What is it?"
"The lining of a pig's stomach," he says brightly.
"That's nice," I say. It is moist and odourless and, when I lift it out of the bowl, looks like a
shawl my grandmother used to wear. After flattening out medallions of pork, we smear
them with stuffing and cover them in pieces of crepinette to make spring rolls.
Outside it's typical British barbecue weather (cold with the threat of rain). The chef leads me
to a huge cooker at the back of his garden that he calls "the beast" – a smoker that slow-
roasts meat and fish, infusing them with a smoky flavour over three hours.

2. Bulmer places four racks of spare ribs inside and rushes back to the kitchen. "OK, spatchcock
quail," he says. "Right, cut its head off, then we're going to gut it, and butterfly it." It's grim
work but, if you can get past the blood, not particularly difficult. We pierce the quails with
skewers, and then add the marinade.
He then fetches two large chicken breasts, which we flatten out between two clear plastic
sheets using a heavy metal basher. When chicken is flat like this, Bulmer explains, you have
to worry far less whether it's cooked all the way through. He grills it on a BBQ for 10
minutes, bending the meat as it cooks, cutting it into strips and placing it on a green salad.
Delicious.
He also shows me how to chargrill a duck breast (take off some of the fat so the barbecue
doesn't flame too much); gut and prepare calamari (make sure you cut out the beak, which
is too chewy); and make Merguez sausages, which he serves with spiced couscous, my
favourite. There is also grilled mackerel, steak, home-made naan bread, grilled vegetables
and a vast selection of salads.
Finally Bulmer stops jumping around and sits down with Jo at the dining room table.
While he eats, she talks. "If you just want to know how to grill a steak you can go onto a
website and it will tell you what to do," she says. "What you benefit from here is the skill of
a chef taking you that step further." Bulmer nods in agreement and slurps some wine. I
don't think he could have put it any better himself.
A CHEF'S TIPS FOR THE PERFECT BARBECUE
Cooking technique: Create your “hot spots”: high, medium and low, to brown meat, cook
evenly and keep warm. For charcoal barbecues, the more coals the hotter the part of the
grill. For large joints, use the “indirect cooking” approach: when food is cooked next to the
fire, not directly over it. Have charcoal on the left and right on a rectangular grill, with a gap
in the middle so you cook the meat thoroughly without burning. For thinner cuts, cook
directly over the heat. With gas, create hot and cold areas by turning the burners to hot,
medium or low.
The classic mistake is allowing food to stick to the barbecue. To avoid this, use a wire brush
(above) to clean the grill after you have removed a piece of food and an oily rag to rub the
rack each time you put on food.
Keep it moist Spray meat with apple juice or keep a metal container half-full of water next
to the coals to give off steam.
Ask your butcher to prepare specific cuts of meat such as butterflied lamb leg.

3. Indispensable tools: long-handled utensils; a carving knife; a “chimney starter” (pictured
above), which holds the right amount of charcoal briquettes to cook food evenly and lights
in 20 minutes; charcoal separators/baskets to create the three cooking hot spots (available
from garden/DIY stores).
Gas v charcoal? Purists prefer charcoal for smell and flavour, although gas barbecue fans
argue that flavour bars in some models do just the trick.
For extra flavour throw on fresh herbs (to a charcoal barbecue). Rosemary, thyme, even
green tea works well with fish. Best woods for smoking: apple, hickory or whisky-soaked
chippings from whisky barrels. Marinade for 12-24 hours: try puréed garlic, chilli, thyme and
fennel.