BBQ: Barbeskew

For my 30th birthday, as a surprise gift (having witnessed me spending all my time in garden centres playing with the display models), my wife bought me a BarbeSkew - I believe the product was originally launched on Dragons Den (don't quote me on that), and its USP is that it has a rotisserie function (3 main spits across the top, supporting both a normal spit and several cage spits).

If hot-n-fast is your thing (or relatively fast at least - I regularly cook whole chickens or joints of meat that cook for a couple of hours), then this is a great addition to your outside eating setup. It has a normal grill and can easily operate as a regular BBQ for grilling, but because of the rotisserie, it doesn't have a sealable lid, so can't really be setup for indirect cooking (if you wanted to start experimenting with low-n-slow, for example, this wouldn't be so good). I use this along side my Weber Smokey Mountain - cooking whole chickens (or any chicken really) this is still my preferred option - and cooking for a crowd, you can easily setup the two cages with sausages/burgers/chicken and leave it to cook not having to worry about it burning or turning it.

Honestly, there is something special about rotisserie chicken over hot coal - succulent, moist with beautifully crisp skin, perfectly seared over the high temperatures and direct heat of the coals.

BBQ: Weber Smokey Mountain

As I have mentioned elsewhere, I grew up on summers of BBQ, and with very fond memories. Not sitting outside with the British summer weather eating suspect looking sausages and burgers for me, we had BBQs with chops, cutlets, fish, butchers sausages (award winning, of course, but what butcher doesn't have award winning sausages?) along with a wealth of sides - potatoes, ratatouille, salads, breads. 

Then, I think it might have been my 30th birthday that my wife bought be a Barbeskew - it was a traditional hot-n-fast BBQ (its not a kettle setup, and not really practical to setup for indirect cooking) but its unique selling point was it had a rotisserie (hence the skew in the name), but that was the first step towards my journey to a Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM).

These BBQs are not cheap, and you should expect to spend £200-500 depending on the size and sale you get, but they are a cornerstone of the BBQ market, and you probably won't get a more synonymous brand in the UK with BBQ than Weber (Traeger is growing in popularity, but still doesn't have the market penetration), and with good reason. They are good, reliable pieces of kit - they can hold a steady temperature for prolonged periods of time, have good customer support (and replacements/garden centre stock). It was my first foray into smoking, and whilst I am now looking at getting an additional BBQ to supplement it, I'd still not hesitate to recommend it as a smoker for someone who wants to get started.

There are easier options for BBQing (the aforementioned Traeger grills offer much more convenience and a set-and-forget option) but its easy enough to get started, and helps get a decent understanding of what is going on, and how to bbq. 

There are also a range of additional gadgets that you will want to get, such as thermometer probes (for both meat and smoker temperature, rather than relying on the lid) and mods such as a hinge for the lid, and a better door.

Chef's Knife: Misen (US version)

I am something of a knife nerd. For some reason, unknown to me, knives and saucepans both excite me! At the moment I have a great chef's knife, which is almost a reason in itself to cook, but that doesn't stop me getting unduly excited over the Misen knife.

It ran a successful kickstarter campaign and is now in production, and promises scientifically engineered quality at a decent price, and with endorsements from The Foodlab, what more could you want!


Even if you missed the kickstarter campaign you can still order via their site - they have also since extended into a whole range of saucepans, so between that and Foodlab's recommendation, it basically ticks all my boxes! However, here's the bad news.. its mostly US focussed, and it's not entirely clear how easy (or costly) it would be to get them imported into the UK - I'm holding out for a distributor in the UK to pick up their products rather than gamble with import duty and shipping fees (which would likely push it from an affordable to un-affordable pretty quick)

Book: Modernist Cuisine at Home

I love cooking. I try to do it whenever I get the chance (which, between kids and work, is mostly just the weekends).

I'm also a programmer, so I like logic, science and generally understanding what is happening under the hood, and that applies to food - If you know what is going on when you cook, then you can change things without ruining your food!

And thankfully, over the years this concept, that of food-science for hobby-ist nerds, has become quite a big thing. And that's what this book is all about - food science. There is a bigger set of books, but at approaching £400 I consider the price prohibitive.  This one can still set you back around £80, but its a decent size and if you are interested in science its worth a look (although, honestly, the Foodlab book probably takes my number one spot, if you were looking to buy just one book).