Winter 2025
Issue 22
Welcome to the Winter issue…
It’s cold out there. So, put on a coat. At this time of year, we allow you to reflect the passing of the warmer months, but don’t stop barbecuing. The yuletide log – the one for the fire, not the chocolate sponge cake – is an ancient symbol of winter and thought to give magical protection to the home, so you even have a sacred reason to carry on grilling.
As ever, we have a collection of delicious and ingenious recipes should you invite Jack Frost round for a barbecue. How can octopus burnt ends, bacon and scallop brioche, or mustard and wild garlic crusted lamb rack not warm the coldest of days.
Meanwhile, recipe chefs Flame & Dame have sent our editor into raptures, for he loves bread sauce and would eat it all year round. Check out roasted onion and anchovy bread sauce with winter vegetables (p60). Parsnips are a personal favourite of Rupert’s too. You spoil him Andrew and Laura.
Depending on when you are reading this, we have a sack of Christmas present ideas, which will also keep for birthdays, Father’s Day and Mother’s Day into 2026 – and this year we have launched our first online gift guide, with prizes to be won and rewards to be redeemed at http://rewards.thebbqmag.com
In this issue we bust the myth that you have to be middle-aged to obsess about BBQ, as Isabelle Gray finds young food and drink entrepreneurs burning brightly.
Matt Burgess and Melanie Brown share a New Zealand heritage and also happen to be two of the finest BBQ chefs across both hemispheres. Melanie is a sommelier too, so she’s definitely hosting our dream dinner party.
Rasheed Philips hails from Georgia in the United States, via the Caribbean island of Jamaica. Is a ‘cool nerd’ a contradiction in terms? But what a BBQ life Rasheed leads.
There is the second part of our Outdoor Living series, featuring kit to dress your garden for food and entertainment and we even have a landscaper to help with the design – Tom Windle is a former chef too.
There is wine; there is always wine courtesy of Roger Jones, while Andy Clarke opens the saloon doors to whisky and bourbon with his latest cocktail book.
Finally, if you are still stuck for what to buy for the BBQ love of your life, turn to p45 and a map of the United States of America like no other.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Team BBQ Magazine