Summer 2026

Welcome to the Summer issue

Big names and big feasts to set us up for an epic summer of BBQ, be it your own backyard with mates, a restaurant treat with family, or an immersive outdoor dining experience that quickly sees strangers become friends, as the fires are shared.

Jamie Oliver retains all the charisma and energy that first hit our cooking consciousness as The Naked Chef 27 years ago. A polymath of the kitchen, it might be that the BBQ is actually Jamie’s natural home.

Kaleb Cooper may have turned into a TV star on the back of the hit series Clarkson’s Farm, but he much prefers to be sitting on a tractor, and if there is a BBQ in his barn, using the meat from his livestock, so much the better.

If you played rugby and NFL and now make a living as a gladiator, you’re going to have a healthy appetite, as Alex ‘Apollo’ Gray dines at Cinder. Meanwhile, food and drink pairings do not come much better than at the home of Michelin Star chef and BBQ drinks writer Roger Jones. Add the mixology of Andy Clarke and the rugby legend that is Alun-Wyn Jones and you have quite the party recipe.

Our US correspondent, Rasheed Philips, reports from Memphis in May, while Isabelle Gray heads to a country house hotel, conquers her dough demons, and learns how to make wood-fired pizza.

Venison is all the rage or should be, if we value nutrition and land management, says Nick Weston of Hunter Gather Cook, and we look at the culinary map of the Caribbean with Zana Millen and Rawlston Williams.

Jodie Tonks. Remember the name. Jodie triumphed in the young BBQ Chef of the Year competition run by Kamado Joe and Great British Chefs, with her winning dish wooing head judge Paul Ainsworth.

The Beefy Boys have another book out and it is great. It is actually called Great British BBQ and reminds us that the UK is quite good at this grilling game and has been for 400,000 years.

Our own recipe pages are book chapters in themselves every issue, with some delightfully playful and tasty takes on BBQ cooking. We can be restrained or set free by the size of our backyards, but there is no doubt that buyers are increasingly looking outside first before making an offer on a new house, as our Outdoor Living feature reveals.

Yours in live-fire cooking

The BBQ magazine team