Autumn 2025

Welcome to the Autumn issue…

The power of place plays a bit part in our Autumn issue and camp food doesn’t get any better than at Woodfire in Sussex.

‘Who’s cooking supper tonight?’
‘I’ll see what a couple of rock star chefs from Ottolenghi are up to.’

Isabelle Gray hunted down some great places too. Eschewing the more familiar festival sites for food events, she found country estates and farms using their acres to cook, as well as cultivate, taking food miles down to single figures.

The weather might be cooling, but the market for furnishing the garden isn’t, led by the rise of outdoor kitchens, from deluxe to compact, as well as a host of accessories. TV and table tennis anyone, while the meat cooks low and slow?

It has been a hot summer at times, and that’s just the grills and the innovative new products that have hit the market in 2025. We pick the best of the bunch. Meanwhile, editor Rupert Bates, in another act of selfless heroism, visited two great chefs and their restaurants in the space of a few hours.

First to Mexico, okay it was actually London’s Marylebone, to meet Adriana Cavita at her eponymous restaurant Cavita to hear her story – her work experience was at El Bulli for goodness sake – and her native Mexico’s place in the food firmament. Then, not far down the road to Soho and Bodean’s smokehouse to catch up with Richard Turner. You could smoke a brisket in the time it takes to read his BBQ biography, but Turner only looks forward and loves what he is seeing.

The recipe pages are, as ever, lit – as I think the kids call something awesome, delivered by cooks of rare ability, marinated in fun. Roger Jones drinks rosé with his rib of beef; Andy Clarke drinks rum and asks the help of a sporting legend to make a cocktail.

Adam Purnell, Shropshire Lad, heads to Texas with BBQ Travel Club, taking in Fort Worth, Austin, Lockhart, San Antonio and Houston. We feature his Lad’s Rum this issue too, distilled through charcoal, of course.

We review two caveman steak size books. The authors of Barbecue and The Meathead Method may be American, but there is plenty of international inspiration and flavour to absorb, and so much knowledge imparted. I’d have them both on my BBQ quiz team.

At the end of the day, we’re all Team BBQ.

Team BBQ Magazine