I am a cook that never finished high school, however writing kind of comes easily when I’m inspired, in the zone and/or drunk. I generally tend to get comfy, put on music, close the door, procrastinate for several months, and then write in big chunks once I get a publisher email to hurry up.
This book is less biography and more an exploration of regional and suburban Australia and its free public BBQs. We tend to ignore the free facilities provided to us by local councils. So why not write a recipe book that champions them?
Being South African, BBQ/braai is genetically in my wheelhouse, and the expectation is that I should have always written a book focusing on that. This seemed like a good opportunity to do that, however I really wanted to attack it from another viewpoint. So instead of churning out a BBQ-inspired book, I wanted to highlight what I thought was cool about Australia and its council BBQs.
South African braai is always cooked on open flames, whereas Australian BBQ is almost always cooked on gas. However, what makes them the same is the social aspect of cooking outside. It’s more about hanging out and drinking, the food is the bonus.
The recipes in this book are mostly structured so you can prep it all in the backseat of your car or ute. The real value comes from a list of some of the most iconic places to BBQ around Australia, the choicest locations to road trip to. I really enjoy our carp recipes in this book and our whole pumpkin curry, cooked directly on the embers around an open fire.
Our esky punch bowl cocktails are pretty sick, too. If you can gain one thing from this book, it’s that exploring your own backyard is heaps more interesting than getting on a plane to someone else’s… it’s also way cheaper.
Cooking With Fire is out now.
