Meat dreams are made of this

The clue is in the title: How to BBQ. But Genevieve Taylor’s latest book is the work of a rare hybrid – cook, teacher, storyteller. RUPERT BATES is hungry to learn, and maybe move home

Genevieve Taylor is a badass cook. Not my words, but those of The Professor of Barbecue himself, Tuffy Stone. Meanwhile Christian Stevenson, DJ BBQ, wants to be adopted, so he can live in a shack behind Genevieve’s house and “snack on all of her next level cooking”.

Peers are invariably generous in their plaudits, but those on the jacket of Genevieve Taylor’s latest book, HOW TO BBQ, are much more than endorsements, recognising not just her reputation, but her character and unique skill set – ‘badass cook’ meets scientist meets artist.

How to BBQ by Genevieve Taylor (8th-9th April 2025)

She’s a dream catcher too, cooking in her sleep. “I write skeletons of recipes in my head in bed at night, and I can kind of taste them,” says Genevieve.

“I lie there and they percolate, ready for the morning, confident that the ingredients will work when I bring them together for the BBQ.”

The pyjamas-to-plate journey is delightfully evocative, but her latest book has been two years in the head and the making.

“It is essentially a distillation of everything I do and teach at my Bristol Fire School, downloading everything.”

And that all starts with an understanding of fire and how it works as a heat source. “If you can nail that and where to put the food in relation to the fire, you can cook anything on a BBQ.”

The book opens with Genevieve answering the questions her students ask most, be it choice of grill, type of fuel, temperature, heat control. Cookbooks, by definition, will always be packed full of recipes, which can look as daunting as they do delicious – the ‘love to learn, scared to try’ conundrum for the amateur.

Genevieve cleverly addresses this with ’11 Recipes to Master’ – pairing the recipe with the technique and the fire set up. Pork skewers show the difference between indirect and direct cooking, with two-zone grilling; trout fillet with horseradish crumb and sour cream sauce will teach you how to cook fish.

Want to learn how to master steak with hot and fast direct cooking? Bring on the onglet with chive and black pepper bearnaise. Smoking vegetables and layering flavours – try the cauliflower with harissa butter and turmeric yoghurt.

“Master these 11 techniques and you can take any cookbook, look at any recipe and say to yourself ‘I can BBQ this’.” And the 11 will come to life out of the book onto her Genevieve Taylor TV YouTube channel this year.

The why is as important to Genevieve as the how and what. “As a bit of a science nerd I love the extra layer of understanding I have by knowing a little basic physics – what is fire, and how and why does it work?”

By the end of the book the how, what and why are all answered, and you have the most wonderfully eclectic collection of recipes to test your new-found knowledge on.

Small Fire sounds like the name of an Apache chief’s child but is a chapter heading highlighting what you can cook on the smallest grill, be it a simple meal for two, a cookout on the beach or campsite, or the tightest of backyards. I couldn’t get past the scallops with sweet chilli butter, well not until the next page and the grilled corn with nduja butter and Manchego – my flavoured butter obsession exposed.

Quick Recipes for Speedy Cooking – think herby lamb chops with warm bean tomato salad for a summer’s evening; or Slower Recipes for Lazy Days, such as slow-roast pork shoulder with fennel, bay and lemon. The chapters come thick and fast with flavour and fire.

To arguably my favourite: Brunch of Dreams. “Perhaps you were out partying a little hard the night before and deserve a good rejuvenating feed,” writes Genevieve in the chapter foreword. You know me too well.

A smoked sausage sarnie with red onion, black pepper and caraway relish would do the job. Or push the boat out and go for steak and eggs breakfast tacos with salsa macha. No wonder DJ BBQ wants a shack next door.

The smoke continues to waft through the book and One Grill One Feast is a big way to finish, be it a mezze spread – the ultimate one grill sharing plate – or an Indian feast complete with masala corn salad and grilled paneer, lamb koftas and red pepper with butternut curry gravy, and green bean pilau.

Genevieve, cook, teacher, storyteller, has given up all her secrets in this book – or maybe not all, for her dreams will unlock yet more – but one of her constant drivers even the humblest amateur cook can relate to.

“I am naturally quite greedy, wondering what’s my next meal – and, yes, I do sometimes get bored of cooking! But food is a universal language, and I take a lot of inspiration from my travels around the world, always seeking and finding new ideas. The cuisine of every country started over fire,” says Genevieve, an ambassador for Weber and YETI.

“We all have to eat, and I look for ways to make it more exciting every day, creating adventures, and I just love being outside. I am a happier, better, calmer person there.”

She also sees BBQ as “an antidote to the digital world” with fire cooking, even with new technology built into the latest grills, still analogue in nature.

There is not only a HOW TO BBQ book, but a HOW TO BBQ beer – a special lager brewed by the Lost and Grounded brewery in Genevieve’s hometown of Bristol. Proceeds from the sale of the lager will go towards Alzheimer’s Research UK, in memory of Genevieve’s mother, Penny, who died from the disease last year.

“Lager was mum’s favourite drink. My children have lovely memories of her coming down in the morning asking if it was too early for a beer! Alzheimer’s is a wretched disease that touches so many people. It is nice to be able to give a little back.”

There will be plenty more roads to travel this year, from The Fire Light Sessions with House of Charcoal, cooking over fire in beautiful UK landscapes with local and seasonal ingredients, to Boston and Texas in the USA. Chile is also on the menu, judging a BBQ competition at the Patagon Grill festival in Coyhaique.

She’ll be cooking with Tuffy Stone in the States; mutual respect absolute. “Tuffy is a legend – the most beautiful soul and his breadth of BBQ knowledge is insane.”

You suspect Genevieve is going to be waking up, wherever she is in the world, with plenty of new recipes in her head. Time to buy a shack in Bristol and wait for the smoke signals over the fence.

Let’s end where we started, with the Professor. “Genevieve leans into the fire, pairing the tastes that come from the grill with just about everything. She goes beyond the flavours often found in barbecue, while still harnessing the flavours of the fire. She is a badass cook.”