BBQ Heroes: Helen Graves
Welcome to BBQ Heroes - Dishpatch's summer spotlight on professional and amateur chefs who live and love to grill.
Helen Graves is the award-winning editor of Pit Magazine, an indie magazine that celebrates live fire cooking. In April 2022 she published her first full length cookbook, the bestseller Live Fire. We were excited to grill Helen - a walking compendium of live fire knowledge - on her passion for barbecuing at home.
What’s your BBQ set up at home?
I just moved house, and I've brought three out of five BBQs with me! So I've got a classic Weber kettle, an Outback BBQ (I write a weekly recipe column for them) and a Kamado Joe. Unfortunately, some dodgy removals men broke my Kamado Joe so I'm looking into getting that fixed!! I've not been able to BBQ for about a month now, so really looking forward to getting back into it.
Favourite dishes for the grill:
I do cook a lot of spiced lamb - particularly chops and formed minced meat kebabs like Adana. I think the full, gamey flavour of lamb works so well with some smoke on it, and it's just one of my favourite meats to eat anyway. That said, I also love tenderstem broccoli - the way the frilly ends get charred and soak up a dressing really speaks to me, and I also love to BBQ stone fruits like peaches, nectarines and plums. I also love a smoked cherry in a dessert - there's a recipe in my book Live Fire for a smoked cherry and whisky butterscotch sundae that really hits the spot.
Share your secret BBQ tip:
Ha! I guess I really love to add a lot of flavour at the end of cooking, rather than spending ages marinating (although I do that, obviously). I am a big fan of glazing ingredients while they are cooking, and also pouring over an intense dressing at the end, or sprinkling with freshly toasted and ground spices.
Who’s coming?
Hahaha is it OK to say my best mates? Sorry, but those BBQs can't be beaten...
What’s on the playlist?
Depends on who is coming! If I had my way it would be a mixture of 90s pop and hip hop, and jungle. You can probably guess my age from that answer...
Must-have sauce:
Not chimichurri! I mean it's great, but the BBQ world is obsessed with it. I think a good hot sauce is essential - I love anything with scotch bonnet in it as I'm obsessed with the floral flavour.
Who’s your BBQ hero?
A strong contender would be Aliyu Dantsoho from Alhaji Suya - he worked for so long perfecting his grilling technique so he could scale up his suya business in South East London, and he's done incredibly well with it. I admire anyone who deep dives into a technique like that, refining it over and over again.