Saturday kitchen Live

[Eddie]

How I wish that top chefs didnt use the word BBQ

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 3_11_2012/

Eddie

[Tiny]

Ah
Doth this refer to yesterdays blow torching of a mackerel with teeny tiny poncy nonsense acoutrments?

Wasnt a bbq I recognised..........

BBQ is trendy now tho.......
Cheers
Tiny

[thesmokingpenguin]

I particularly liked the blowtorched (bbq'ed) cucumber

[keith157]

So when next the pepper etc fall from the basket onto the coals on a hot salsa I just rub the dust off and serve??? (only if the 3 second rule applies of course)

[Pecker]

Have we discussed this before?



Just a little story - I was taking to my other halfs aunty about barbecuing, and she told me about some time they'd spent in the US, travelling around. They got to stop at a mate's house (ex-pat Brit), and they were asked if they fancied barbecue for tea. So, obviously they said yes, and expected to see a Weber (or similar) whelled out. Instead the person jumped in their car and came back with some low & slow smoked food in a takeaway box.

The name thing has been done to death, but I do think it's a very positive thing that the British public get to know about Southern US-style barbecued food, just as I think it's great to learn about all different types of cuisine. For that the BBBQS is to be congratulated.

I'm just not convinced that anyone needs to be precious about what we call the food - indeed, I think that's just going to put people off. Truth is, this is not (as is often painted) some UK vs US thing, from what I can tell most Americans use 'barbecue' in the same way that we do in the UK. I suspect they burn just as many sausages and burgers, too.

I just wonder if it might not be advantageous to develop some terminology that would be more descriptive to other Brits. Indeed, if we tell other people 'they're not barbecuing' if they grill a burger over charcoal, we're just going to look exclusive, and put people off. We should be being inclusive and getting people on board. The more people enjoying the delicious food the better.

If someone wants to blow torch a fish and call it barbecue, then I'll scratch my head a little, but I suppose I can see why they're calling it that. It's food frome fire, I suppose. I won't bite his head off for just stretching the useage a little (or, in this case, quite a lot).

Particularly if it tastes good!

But I appreciate that's just my opinion.

Steve W

[Tiny]

Steve,
God forbid we should open the old wounds of what is proper bbq, I am in the broad church mode........but he bloodyblow torched an cucumber for Gods sake!!!!

Come on that is not bbq now is it?

Cheers
Tiny

[Pecker]

Steve,
God forbid we should open the old wounds of what is proper bbq, I am in the broad church mode........but he bloodyblow torched an cucumber for Gods sake!!!!

Come on that is not bbq now is it?

Cheers
Tiny

I think I'd be the first to admit that such a technique is stretching the definition of the term right up to its very limit, if not beyond.

Steve W

[Eddie]

Blow torches all round, not What he was doing was clearly not BBQ. As I recall that the presenter James Martin joked that Jason Atherton a Michelin star chef flambéd the fish. What I don’t like is people misleading their customers. Jason Atherton has a good thing going on his oriental/tapas restaurants, but why couldn’t he of just called it charred?
If you demonstrate to the general public that BBQ has to be charred, I don't think that is a good thing? But that’s my own view. If I was to order that and it wasn’t clearly BBQ I would feel that I was short changed,and even being misled. If you were willing to pay the extra 10,20,30 quid, you should ay least get what you were expecting?

All saying that Mark Hix did cook Ribs and he did call them oven baked ribs, and how your oven can be so versatile.

If someone would see or meet me, I don’t come across as a person that likes to fine dine. But I do . At least twice a year a like to eat at a high class restaurant as a treat. Mark Hex would be on my list, but Jason Atherton I think not. I would rather have some Pie, mash & liquor in Deptford high street, south London, fine dining it is not, but at least I know what I'm getting.

Eddie

[joker smoker]

it looked like pot pourri to me....guess my bathroom would have started to smell nice once that mackerel began to turn

[keith157]

I agree wholeheartedly with Eddie's comments, in various shows wellknown and respected chefs have cooked food other then as described. "Pan Roasted" = Fried in a pan on the hob "....on TOAST" = fried bread in duck fat.....(not good with marmite or PB) and probably, certainly in my mind, thr greatest travesty, a"pie" which was braised meat with a disc of pastry "elegantly" (for that read an extra couple of quid on the bill) placed on top.

BBQ is a particular way of cooking food involving live fire and or smoke and if the food at the takeaway was good why not eat it. We get takeaway Indian, Chinese, Thai if the "Q", is good why not eat it. After all in it's truest sense a takeaway is a sit down restaurant meal, but in one's own home.