ABOUT LEYLI
ABOUT HELEN
ABOUT SAM & SHAUNA
ABOUT MAUREEN
ABOUT GENEVIEVE
MAUREEN TYNE
She’s the Welsh/Persian chef-owner of awardwinning Bab Haus in Barry, which opened in 2019 and creatively blends Persian, Mexican and modern barbecue. Leyli was recognised as one of CODE’s 100 Most Influential Women in Hospitality in 2021 and 2022. @thebabhaus
A keen cook and editor with a special interest in cooking over flames, Helen is the author of the bestselling book Live Fire, the editor of Pit magazine and head of content at Great British Chefs. @foodstories
Like Leyli they made their name in Barry, Wales’ unofficial barbecue capital, where their restaurant Hang Fire was the UK’s most garlanded barbecue joint. It’s now closed, sadly, but the pair have written a bestselling cookbook (Hang Fire Cookbook) and host a BBC show, Sam and Shauna’s Big Cookout. @hangfirebbq
After having her son in 1998, Maureen began delivering home-cooked Caribbean lunches, inspired by her Jamaican heritage and family recipes, to friends working locally in Brixton. Word spread and Maureen’s Brixton Kitchen branched out into catering for large events. To this day, she still delivers food locally. @maureensbrixtonkitchen
The live fire and barbecue expert is the author of 12 cookery books. She’s currently writing one on fish and shellfish (cooked over live fire, naturally). Genevieve also runs the Bristol Fire School, a cookery school with the principal aim of helping people light better fires to cook better food. @genevieveeats
GENEVIEVE TAYLOR
LEYLI HOMAYOONFAR
HELEN GRAVES
SAMANTHA EVANS & SHAUNA GUINN
FOOD PHOTOGRAPHS INDIA WHILEY-MORTON FOOD STYLING EMILY GUSSIN STYLING MAX ROBINSON
Barbecuing (or live-fire cooking, as it’s increasingly known in trendy food circles) has traditionally been a masculine-fuelled subgenre of cookery, with the stereotype of big bearded men standing over flames while huge pieces of meat sizzle away. But many of today’s most exciting dishes being cooked over coals come from female chefs and food writers – meet them and re-create their recipes at home this summer
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YOUR GUIDE TO CHOOSING CHARCOAL
• Charcoal is your number one ingredient in barbecue, so choose with care. Open a bag of fuel and give it a sniff. It shouldn’t smell of anything much – if it does it will contain chemicals that you may not want to be cooking with.
• Using pure charcoal, or carbon, means you don’t have to wait for it to turn white and ashy before cooking – you can light it and grill straightaway. It’s a more environmentally friendly choice and will save you money, too.
• The internet is often the best place to buy charcoal from sustainable makers. Look for the ‘Grown in Britain’ logo to guarantee the wood is of British origin. Try whittleandflame.com or charlieoven.com.
CONTROLLING TEMPERATURE
• Use the air vents and your barbecue’s lid to control the temperature. Remember, more air and the lid off gives you more heat and a quicker burn to your charcoal, while less air and/or the lid on will slow the burn and give you a gentler heat.
• Closing the lid and using indirect heat (with the food not directly over the coals) creates an oven effect, heating the top of whatever it is you’re cooking – but to achieve this, you do need to keep the lid closed and not open it every minute or so.
• Using a thermometer can help you get more confident when barbecuing meat in particular, as you’ll know exactly the ferocity of heat you’re working with.
HOW TO RELOAD
• If you’re barbecuing for a long time it can be difficult to add extra charcoal without disrupting the cooking process as the new coals take time to come up to full heat. An easy way to do it is to use a chimney starter. You can light the coals in the chimney, let them come to the right temperature, then just add them to the barbecue. A chimney starter is also the quickest way to light a barbecue in the first place.