FEATURE
Otter Vale is Devon’s go-to man for
chutneys and preserves.
Bawdon’s neighbours must have a love
hate relationship with CountryWoodSmoke
HQ. As the smell of the meat wafts over
the trees, it would be purgatory to be
nearby – more brisket kid than Bisto Kid
sniffing the air. But such is Bawdon’s love
of cooking and entertaining, you can bet
there are shouts over the fence to come
and have a feed.
Bawdon, who also runs advanced
courses, has schooled many a student in the
art of the barbecue and one graduate, Mark
Studley, even went on to open his own Cow
N Bun burger bar in Bridgwater, Somerset.
He has taught rugby players from
Premiership clubs Exeter and Bath,
presumably having to corral an entire herd
of Friesians. “Yes, we cooked a fair bit of
meat those days,” says Bawdon wryly.
So dirty steaks done – awesomely simple
– and on to a range of other meats.
It is the casual tips that make the
difference. While much of Bawdon’s work is
instinctive, he has plenty of gadgets to help
him. A thermometer probe is a must – 74°C
is what you want to hit for chicken, and he
reels off temperatures for everything from
crispy pork to pizza. While a lover of
technology, Bawdon can guess the
temperature simply by how long he can
hold his hand over the flame.
His backyard shack is the outdoor
equivalent of a scatty antique dealer’s shop
of curiosities but the laid-back Bawdon, a
fusion of fire and ice, knows exactly what he
is doing and where everything is.
There is the hi-tech gas grill, a kettle
barbecue, a smoker, a rotisserie and a pizza
oven vying for his attention. As in Toy
Story, you suspect, come nightfall, they all
start chatting.
We move on to a topside of beef (“fat
facing the heat”) and while that’s cooking,
Bawdon produces an array of his house
rubs to coat the meats. We try our hand at
cooking chicken thighs (“skinny side
down”). Now the crunch of crispy chook
skin is a religious experience, not just an
antidote to hunger.
HOLY TRINITY
Wood chips that assault the senses are
passed round like spliffs at a music festival,
apple, whisky and cherry smoked flavours to
casually throw on the fire. You want to eat
the smoke as an aperitif, it smells so good.
We learn how to control the heat, using
air vents as brakes and accelerators, when
You want to eat the smoke as
an aperitif, it smells so good
A version of this feature was orginally published in the August 2019 issue of The Field (thefield.co.uk)
and where to cook directly and indirectly
and in zones, on and off the heat. Fuel, air
and heat: the holy trinity. Lose one of
them and your fire goes out. For someone
who simply nudges the sausages to one
side once they have passed through my
culinary crematorium, this is a huge
learning curve.
Now for the bombshell: this self-taught
cook (“I don’t consider myself a chef,
that’s far too stressful”) in an apron and
trademark Hawaiian shirt has been
crowned king of Meatopia – think meat,
drink, fire and music. He has published a
book called FOOD and FIRE, replete with
65 outdoor cooking recipes. We are moths
to his flame. We will hunt, gather and cook
with the meat master.
“I used to be a vegetarian,” announces
Bawdon. We nearly choke on our focaccia.
“It was more to do with having hippy parents
and the quality of meat served at university
than any moral or health stance.”
Cooking is not even the day job, for
Bawdon trained as a geologist and is just
as likely to be offshore on an oil rig in the
North Sea as searing meat over a West
Country fire pit. “And, yes, I have
barbecued on oil rigs around the world,
with fishing boats lobbing up their catches.”
Bawdon casually throws in some
rosemary and thyme to up the aroma from
the by now sleepy smoke and some
bright spark sings, “and then she’ll be a
true love of mine”.
As Bawdon’s wife, Lisa, and their children,
Rory, Elsie and Louie, emerge in a family
ritual to find a spare fillet, it is time to leave
the meat world’s very own Willy Wonka with
new-found culinary confidence.
Whether it is enough to oust the Aussie
from barbecue duty, only a long hot
summer will tell.
For further details about UK BBQ School,
go to: ukbbqschool.com
BBQ | Spring 2020 | 21