SPEAKER_00 0:00

Now with the weather forecasters suggesting that this weekend is going to be pretty reasonable across the UK. Many of the visitors to BBC Gardeners World Live at the NEC, which runs until Sunday, will be looking about spending time in their gardens. And many, I suggest, as soon as the sun comes out, we'll be thinking about having a barbecue. Richard DeCourcy from Sahara Barbecues, you're ideally placed for this. You've been really busy answering questions from people who are looking at the forecast and thinking, yep, it's barbecue time. You've got a whole range of them here. What makes a good barbecue?

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Yeah, uh a lot comes down to it. Um something reliable. You know, if people are going to invest in a barbecue that they're going to have for more than a year, you know, you need to know there's a bit of substance behind it. Um so you need you need high-quality barbecues. A lot of our barbecues, you can feel the weight in the barbecue because they're designed to last ten years. You can't make a barbecue last ten years that's you know, you can pick up with one hand. It's it's never never gonna happen, never gonna happen. Um, and then you're talking, you know, a cast iron grate, you know, something that's gonna hold a lot of heat. So when you get a piece of steak on a grill, that it actually keeps that heat in there. Um so that's the advantage of cast iron over just a wire grill. You know, it'll hold the heat longer.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Because the danger is, uh isn't it, that the sun comes out and everybody rushes down to the supermarket and buys those aluminium trays with coals and lights them, and everything gets burnt really quickly and then they throw it away, which is not good for the environment. So these are an investment, is what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

It is, it is. Um, you know, something not just nice to look at, you know, something that's gonna be there when you need it, something that heats up quick. So you don't want to be on a barbecue for an hour and a half, two hours moving food around, some of it's burnt, some of it's not burnt. You want something reliable, you put the food on it, you get an even cook. So big thing with barbecues is even heat distribution because if it's not even, then you're gonna have raw chicken on one side, you're gonna have burnt chicken on the other side. There's a lot of danger in that in itself. Um, so things with with chicken and things like that, if people aren't used to barbecuing, get yourself a digital thermometer. You know, make sure the chicken gets up to you know 75 degrees internal, lift it off, then you're guaranteed your juicy chicken, you know, all that kind of stuff. Um obviously with Father's Day coming up this weekend. Um what are we at today? 27 degrees? I believe it's 27 degrees today. So it's gonna be it's gonna be toasty. Um yeah, and I mean with with our range of barbecues, um, we're here with Dobbies today, and uh Dobbies carry our entire range, so you can actually see it in store in any of the Dobbies as well. But we do have an insert system, so you can actually use pizza stones, you can do solid plates, all that kind of stuff. Um so you've got a lot of variety with barbecue that people wouldn't have had 10-15 years ago. You know, they're not used to it. So you could actually do a good pizza in a barbecue now versus having to have a separate pizza oven.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

What about the traditionists who say, okay, these are gas-fired barbecues, which are convenient uh without without a shadow of a doubt? But the the traditionalists will say, no, I've got to get up an hour beforehand, I've got to rake my coals out. I mean, are we past that now?

SPEAKER_01 2:57

A lot of it comes down to I suppose how the barbecues are built. Because um not all barbecues are created equal, you know, just like just like cars, no matter what way you look at it. Um a barbecue, it'll come down to how long it's gonna take to heat up. Just like you're saying, you know, if if it takes a long time to heat up and it doesn't get up to temperature, you're limited by what you can do. There's no way you're gonna be able to do a pizza in a barbecue that doesn't get up to 600, you know, 500, 600 degrees. Um but then also in terms of the the heat rise, so the heat output of our barbecues, you're nearly four kilowatts per burner. So if you're talking even a three burner, one of our three burners, you're talking about 12 kilowatts of heat. That's a phenomenal amount of heat. So those three burner barbecues will get up to 700, 800 degrees. So realistically, you're never going to be cooking on a super high temperature, but it also means you can go outside if somewhere happens to be two o'clock on a Tuesday, you know, which it has been for a couple of years, um, it just means you can go out within seven minutes, you've got your barbecue up to temperature. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Seven minutes. A lot of people will be looking at burgers and sausages and a bit of steak on there. You've mentioned interestingly pizza as well. But what are the more surprising things that you can cook on a barbecue with a little bit of thought?

SPEAKER_01 4:10

So, so again, with the with the variety of options that we have on the barbecues, um, just as I'm kind of showing you here, we've got different layouts of the grill system itself. So, with something like this, where you've got a solid plate, it's uh a solid cast iron plate on one side, you've got your standard grill on the other, it means you can do, you know, 11 o'clock in the morning, come out with bacon, eggs, you can do crepes, you can do pancakes, you can do all that kind of stuff, and then you can barbecue your sausages on the other side. So you can do an entire breakfast on on this side. This is a full outdoor kitchen almost, isn't it? Um it is. Actually, this year we've we've launched our outdoor kitchen um to tie in with this is called the Ark Barbecue. Um so effectively it's it's it's the idea was a social barbecue. So you can see at the back you've actually got a fold-down table. Um you can put a couple of big benches behind us, a couple of seats, a couple of stools, have a few people around, a couple of glasses of wine, a couple of smoothies, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever you're thinking. Um, and you can actually have a cook-off, you know, with your friends coming to the barbecue rather than pushing the barba the barbecue into the corner, you know, on their own. Um so it it brings a social element to it. Um, but the whole the whole idea of it is that with our barbecues, you've got a huge range of options. So you can do your s'm'ores, you can do your breakfasts, you can do your lunch, you can do your dinner in your evenings, you can even cook on that. Um so it's it's a huge variety of options that are open to people, not just your standard sausages burgers.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Are we getting better at it in the UK? Because I've already mentioned, you know, there's sort of on the beach or in a in a field you've got your your disposable barbecue, everything gets burnt, and people obviously are not very well. Are we getting better at it? Are we catching up with other areas of the world where they they've got a real tradition of barbecue?

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Uh we are, and I can tell you the reason why. Um, and a lot of it actually comes up to the general standard of what's available. So the product itself, I mean, if you're limited to, you know, if you have to spend £1,500 on a bar a gas barbecue, a big gas barbecue, versus £50 on a very small, cheap charcoal barbecue that probably won't last you another year. You know, it wouldn't last year on year after a couple of storms over the winter. Um, whereby now you can buy a barbecue that's gonna last a longer time so people actually get used to how to use a barbecue rather than swapping out having to reload the or as you say, the disposable barbecues, just year on year, they're buying disposable barbecues. You can't really experience all the options, all the things you can do with barbecue if all you're gonna do is buy a packet of sausages, a couple of burgers, and cook them for 55 minutes to an hour over a small disposable charcoal, you know. Uh but now people have options and they're within range. You know, if you're talking a price range somewhere between kind of you know 300 pounds up to six, seven hundred pounds, all of a sudden, you know, people aren't thinking four figures for a barbecue that's gonna last them, you know, and and then they can you know try new things, they can experiment with foods, they can see all the the Instagram reels of people doing brisket and rotisserie chickens and and pizzas, you know, to to even thought of doing a pizza on a barbecue, people couldn't comprehend it. But effectively these barbecues can become a gas oven, but a much higher temperature gas oven, which is what you need for a pizza.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Absolutely. So you work in the industry, are you a good barbecue chef and what what's your uh signature dish?

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Um I'd say self-proclaimed um legendary barbecue. But um no, my my my my partner uh now she she would say I'd be the the number one in terms of of barbecue. Um I have found I have found like a lot of people panic about cooking you know chicken and and things like that. As I say, if you're worried about it, absolutely, barbecue thermometer. Um but my my secret that uh that I've kind of kind of come across this year, the last two years, um corn flour. Absolutely. Corn flour is probably the the highest rated secret that nobody uses. So it's how are you using this? Oh, if you're doing drumsticks, if you're doing thighs of chicken, if you're doing skewers, kebabs, any of that kind of stuff, quite literally dry off the chicken, get a bowl with a couple of tablespoons of corn flour, toss the meat in it. You could do it with a steak. You you just dust off a steak with a piece of corn flour. Once that goes on, it holds all the moisture in. So that's a secret. You're not left with corn flour when it's actually cooked, but you can season the corn flour with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, that's it. You could do that with almost any meat, and it'll come out moist at the end. It's almost a cheat code for not just for barbecue, for frying in a pan, for oven, you do that, and people will just be you know, don't tell them.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Don't tell them how you've done it, but uh we'll keep it a secret, but that is a top tip, Richard. So with BBC Gardeners World running until Sunday. Sunday is Father's Day. Over the weekend, I'm sure many people will be barbecuing. Richard, I I'm fairly certain you're going to be busy for the next couple of days with people wanting to know more as this uh good weather uh blesses as well. But for now, many thanks. Thank you very, very much, and uh enjoy the weekend.