Fire & Steel = Somerset Grills

Fire changes everything—how food tastes, how we cook, and how people gather. We sat down with Ben, co-founder of Somerset Grill Co, to explore the craft behind Argentinian-style, wood-fired grills built in the UK for serious durability and everyday joy. From a superyacht encounter with a $30,000 parrilla to welding the first prototype in a shipping container, Ben shares the gritty iteration path that led to their “unquestionable quality” mantra and the design choices that make open fire feel approachable at home.

We break down the real mechanics of live-fire control: why an ember maker matters, how grate height transforms heat management, and when to move coals instead of meat. Expect practical tips and plenty of inspiration: fast-cooked flank short ribs with chimichurri, porchetta with shattering crackling, charred pineapple thrown straight into the embers, and a light, clean smoke from a simple tapa on cold days. We also dive into accessories that earn their keep—the crowd-pleasing rotisserie, the endlessly useful ember grill—and compare open fire’s roast-forward results to heavier American smoke.

Holidays get the spotlight too. Think rib of beef slowly spinning while you baste with butter, cola-braised gammon finished with a hot honey glaze, and crisp sprouts in a cast iron skillet over live coals. Leftovers become strategy, not afterthought: brisket chilled and rewarmed in stock for extra smoke and gravy depth, short ribs turned into the richest eight-hour chilli, chicken skin re-crisped into addictive “crisps.” There’s honest talk about fails—seasoning switch-ups, underfuelled fires, even a duck ruined by a soapy board—and why they make us better cooks.

We round things out with the Asado Go portable, how engineering changes at smaller scales, and dream setups that blend live fire, ceramics, and pizza ovens. If you’re curious about parrilla-style cooking, grill design, or just want new ideas for your next cook, this one’s packed with insight you can use tonight. If you enjoyed it, subscribe, leave a review, and share the episode with a friend who loves cooking over real fire.

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Transcript

Sponsor And Guest Introduction

Dan 0:00

Today's episode of the Meet and Greet Barbecue Podcast is brought to you by AOS Outdoor Kitchens. They are the South's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists. Welcome to another episode of the Meet and Greet Barbecue Podcast. Today we're speaking to Ben from Somerset Grills, who do fantastic Asado grills and amazing accessories. So much so that Owen has got one. But we'll go through that in a second with Ben. So without much further ado, here's Ben.

Owen 0:38

Hi Ben, thank you very much for joining the podcast. Uh, really excited to have you here. Please do introduce yourself to our listeners.

Ben 0:45

So I'm Ben. I'm the co-founder of Somerset Grill Co. We're based in Somerset and we build Argentinian wood fired grills. All around making wood fired cooking easy and make it bringing it into your house so you can play in your house, into your garden so you can play with it and just enjoy it at home.

Dan 1:01

It's very kind of humble of you because I'd say you'd make it very beautiful as well.

Ben 1:07

Yeah, that is well, just fire does that, doesn't it? It just looks fire as you're gonna fire on the ground, you're staring for hours.

Owen 1:13

Yeah. Well, I uh the grills are pretty special as well. Uh having recently bought one, you know, what six months ago, uh every person that comes around is gone, oh my god, that's a beast. Oh I'm I'm I'm I'm assuming you kind of hear that a lot. That yeah, just kind of then they are big, big kits, aren't they?

Ben 1:34

Yeah, we go for the kind of like the wildfire. You want to walk in and go, like, oh, I want one of them. That's kind of like a key part of that. Everything we design is kind of like even like the skewers, you pick the skewers up, and it's like you're a kid again with a sword in your hand. It's like that kind of it's all kind of making it just fun and enjoyable and kind of making the fear away from fire. So it's like, oh, anyone can go and do this in the back garden. It's not need to mass trading.

Owen 1:58

I suppose it would be interesting. Well, we should probably start at the beginning, Ben. You know, how how did Somerset Grill Co come about and and you know, talk us through to where you are?

From Idea To First Prototype

Ben 2:08

So I start the idea came uh years ago. So I was on a yacht called Motor Octopus, and it like owned by the guy who started Microsoft, and on board you had like a uh a grill from a company called Grill X USA, and it's like a $30,000 grill, Argentinian style, prelast style, what have all the control you can wind ember maker and all that, and it was this really, really cool bit of kit, and I was like, that's really cool. And I kind of was like, That'd be that'd be a cool thing to go and build yourself, and then move on four years when I moved ashore. Me and my brother as an engineer, we kind of got together and we're like, Oh, let's try and build one. So we built the first one in a uh container in Taunton with like a generator welder, we'd learn how to weld ourselves and kind of got there, and slowly like and then we moved, it took about two years to get to from like 2018 to 2020, where we finally got the first first real kind of product. First one we made was a bit very sharp, a bit dangerous, and it's like just made together, basically made in a container in Tauton or a generator with two belt. So kind of so then we moved out so slowly, like different iterations, and then by two of 2020, just as after around COVID time, we got the first grills, first proper grills built, and then we started selling them, and then we just kind of grown each year since then and just kept on going and going. Today we're in a 4,000 square foot factory, built all in-house, and then ship all over the all over the UK and all over the world.

Owen 3:26

Wow. So just uh how many iterations did you go from that original prototype through to what you started to sell in 2020?

Ben 3:34

Oh 2020, it started probably like 15 iterations, and then the version now is probably like we're all because we everyone like from the me to apprentice have a grill, so it's always like iteration, iteration, because we and because we build it all in-house, we we evolve quite quickly, and so there's always little changes like oh, we can prove that I can get better. You just fix what fix what annoys you, and it just slowly gets better.

Dan 3:56

So is that kind of reiteration concept still going? Are you still tweaking and tinkering with everything that you're doing?

Ben 4:04

It's more we do a little bit now, it's not as there's very little bits of change. We don't really we've we always say, like, oh yeah, it's pretty much there now, and then we think someone else will change, then we just do a little tweak, a little tweak.

Iteration, Quality, And Design Philosophy

Dan 4:14

Plus, if you're busy, do you have time to tweak, right?

Ben 4:17

Yeah, well, that's one of my barbecue. You've got a really busy season, and then you've got the time in the winter to kind of think about things and try new ideas out and play with play with things and bring on new like new, try and bring on new accessory every year. Like so this year we're working on a it should be out in the new year, we're working on a hanging frame that sits on the back of the grill and then comes over the front, comes over to where the um crossbar is so you can hand like ribs of beef and all that kind of stuff on it. But gives you a bit of protect more protection around the Ember Maker. Sold. Yeah, yeah. It looks it looks really cool as well, which is always a is always a good uh good thing to do.

Owen 4:58

Yeah, again, so just interested to know because again, we're talking it's it well, it's first and foremost, it's heavy, it's very well built in in you know going through that process in terms of quality, and how did you kind of land on what you landed on in terms of you know the raw materials and heat control and all of the you know retention, I suppose is what we're trying to get out.

Ben 5:22

We build uh kind of one of our like mantras is like um unquestionable quality. So everything built should just be like just built like a tank to survive and because you because it is fire and it's wood fire, it's gotta be tough, it's gotta be well made to last the years, otherwise, it'll just like if you go thin and steel, it just doesn't really work. So we kind of we built everything to last and we built everything just to survive the hot like fire basically.

Dan 5:45

I I'm interested as well. So cooking over open fire is very different, right? From from kind of um whether it be like your camados, whether it be your your your kettles. Did you have experience in that style of open fire cooking first? Or was that also a learning process as you were making the grills?

Learning Open Fire Cooking

Ben 6:02

It was kind of a learning pro. So I'd experienced on the yacht, like so the yacht was uh the LA Mitchell star chefs on the board. So you kind of see it, you got a little play with it, but it's like the the chefs would do in it, and then so most of the learning was like the first grill we ever built didn't have an ember maker, and you kind of go with like, yeah, oh it's amazing, you got all this wood, burn it down, got the embers, and you go along and the heat just disappears. Then you start trying to relight it, and you smoke yourself out, and like, oh, this is a bit rubbish. But then you go and put the then we then we put the ember maker on because it's like well that works better, and we put it at the back because that's the way grill works do it. They have theirs, they usually have it at the back, so we're like, that makes sense, and it's all economical, and also it makes the fire kind of the core part of it, so it's the visual, so you kind of like you can experience it sort of like off to the sides a bit, it's like off to the side, it's not really big like big part of the grill if that makes sense.

Owen 6:53

And then so again, I suppose during that process, how do you do a lot in terms of testing cooks specifically and trying to um explore the versatility of the different types of things that you can cook?

Ben 7:08

So, yeah, you go out and so like everyone, you go and get a tomahawk first, don't you? And just go and see get out, and then we got we've got it out to different people, like we we also got we got the grills out to different people to see. Like we had Marcus had one really early on, Alex had one really early on, and you just because everyone like you think like oh nailed everywhere you can cook on it, and then someone sends you a picture, like oh, I haven't thought of that, and it's just like everyone's got different ideas of what they can do with it and how they can play with it, and so it's just that Alex from Hunter Gather, yeah, Hunter Gather cooking Alex, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Owen 7:38

And Marcus Borden.

Versatility, Theatre, And Social Cooking

Ben 7:39

Marcus Borden, yeah, yeah. They they both had one from like really early on, and it's uh and just seeing like you get feedback from people, and then we do big, we usually do a big survey once a year from customers saying, What do you think's good, what you think's bad, and he'd put all that back in and then it erases back out, and it's just like and also we like like you say cooking wise, you just try you here, you're looking at all the books. I remember podcast in lockdown, and it was with Elkie and someone else, and they had um Kung Fu barbecue on, went for all his recipe favourite rush books, and that was listening for Chris. That was my Christmas list. It's like, all right, try that recipe, try that recipe, try that recipe, and just try different things. And it's yeah, yeah, it's just good fun, isn't it?

Dan 8:22

Oh, it's so playful, isn't it? I mean, when we first did the cook um on Owens when he invited me over, and we debated for quite a while about what we wanted to try and do on it because we said we've done so much barbecue, we want to do something different, particularly because of the theatre, and we ended up we did a gammon, um which we hung. Um we did a whole pineapple, I think, as well, didn't we?

Owen 8:47

Uh in the embers.

Ben 8:48

That's one of them one like people you say to people like, what are you like just hang it up and then sit them in a shrug at the end? It's like, yeah, yeah.

Dan 8:55

We literally just chucked it straight in the embers and just let it kind of charred up. Um it became like a bit of a pulp and then cutting off the skin and um serving it that way. We did a few bits with steak as well, didn't we? Obviously, because why wouldn't you? Yeah, you can't go with that.

Speaker 9:08

Um yeah.

Dan 9:10

But it's just a fun joke.

Ben 9:11

Yeah, it's it's more it's it's very much more cooking, I think, too. Because it's like a bit more, it's simpler, it's like it's less rugs, more salt and pepper, a few herbs. It's not like as it's it's it's different to American barbecue, isn't it?

Speaker 9:26

Mm-hmm.

Ben 9:26

It's kind of it's just a bit more like both have the thing, but it's just a bit more. And it I I like it because it's like it's a two to three hour activity. On most cooks, it's not a full-on eight hours, twelve hours where you've got a like big commitment. You can go out in the evening, have a good cook, cook with a fire, and cook some cook some steak. And it's been especially this time of year, it's getting two to three hours outside in October. Because you wouldn't usually spend two or three hours outside, but enjoying the weather.

Dan 9:52

It's a great session toy, isn't it? You know, for a few drinks, getting there, enjoy it social.

Ben 9:58

Nice fat of the evening, nice fat of the evening vibe, I know. Yeah, yeah.

Owen 10:02

Yeah, so I suppose that's I suppose that's what differentiates it, but in a good way, in terms of kind of creating that experience, is that it it's probably it's not a it's not a quick cook type grill, is it? In the you know, by the to you to get the kind of wood burning and get the embers, a good bed of embers, it's not like a 15-minute job. It's it's power.

Ben 10:25

Now we also and it's the big I would say the big difference between the two is like most traditional barbecue is you got the you what the line is um if you open the lid, you could if you're not if you're looking, you're cheating.

Dan 10:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ben 10:37

You want to kind of fight that if you put your hands in your pockets and go like and just trust everything's okay. Whereas with our with like an open fire Argentinian style, you're part of it, and you know you're putting the water logs on the fire, you're moving the embers, you're moving it up and down, you're tossed putting your hand over the flame, checking the temperatures, and you're kind of like you're part of the whole cook when you've cooked it, you've cooked it, like you've been part of it the whole way.

Dan 10:59

Yeah, and a winch.

Ben 11:02

That is just spend all day and then like lock it down there.

Owen 11:06

Yeah, so uh for for you then, what what is your favourite thing to cook on on the on the grill itself?

Favourite Cooks And Techniques

Ben 11:16

So there's a few things. One of them is um I like the things that are but like when people taste it, it's just like oh wow, and like uh flank and cut short ribs really quick, just try and then just cook them, then chop them up, and just do it some chimichimmi sauce. And it's like really good. And the best thing is like porchetta or any roast pork, roast rose pork and loin, and you just kind of dry brine in the fridge overnight, like the elke method, I call it, you dry brine in the fridge overnight, and you just stub it with like garlic, rosemary ginger in the bottom, and then as it's cooking, keep it quite high, get this right into this right internal temperature, and then just use a paper towel and dab the and dab the fat as it's going around just to keep it as dry as possible, and then when it's gotten the right internal temperature, just drop it down, and then just stop the motor for like five seconds at a time, and it'll just go off like popcorn, and you get like the most crack well, cracking, crackling, yeah, yeah, and that's that's a really good cook.

Owen 12:13

And and obviously, and I will I suppose we'll come on to it in a minute, but there's obviously a a fair amount of accessories that you can also buy to try different styles of cooking, yeah. And so do you I suppose on that basis, is there a particular accessory that you use? Like, for example, do you use the ember grill quite a lot where you're doing like direct searing, or is it actually you still use the normal grates majority of the time when you are cooking?

Ben 12:38

I'd say emma grills, the emmer grill is really good. I've start using bike, but if you're doing a full cook, then you're doing like a pot cook, like you're boiling some water because you can move it over the fire, pull it off again. You want to sear something really early on, black like if you're doing a salsa for tacos, you can like blacken your edge off, or if really good for resting towards the end of a cook. So you just kind of put a few emmas underneath, and then just can leave something to rest there. So, like um, and then my favourite accessory, I would say everyone's accessory things are a tissuery. People just love it. It's kind of like it's our best seller, it kind of just yeah, it just does and it's just meat turning round with fire behind it, it's just like yeah, it's really good, just good fun.

Owen 13:15

So, what I seemed quite interested in though is um we're talking about you've just mentioned about the lid, right? And if you ain't, you know, if you're looking, you ain't hooking and and and those types of things, but you've also got a tapper, which is uh it almost does create that kind of lid roasting effect.

Ben 13:31

Yeah, you can get it's more roasting effect on a cold day, so you can like trap the heat in and just like like if you uh if you've ever done a really cold night and you do the chicken, it just kind of traps the heat in. But it also lets you do kind of like a light scandal. We call it like a light Scandinavian smoke, it's not a full on, it's never gonna be full-on American, like 18 hour amazing brisket. But it's like a light, it just impregnates a bit of smoke into the meat, so you get that flavour, and it just works really well. I just put it on and just kind of and the smoke will just go round and round it, and it works really well. It's just one of them extra, just a nice little accessory that helps you kind of keep makes life a little bit easier for you. I was presuming that helps with kind of heat retention and like you if you've if you've uh if you've stopped your fire bit too early, so it's really good, you can like keep your and you just to get the last bit of heat into whatever you're cooking works really well.

Owen 14:19

Yeah. So is there is there anything on the list from a from a cook perspective that you've either seen one of your customers do or you've sort of a recipe that you would love to try that perhaps wouldn't be a first choice, but you'd love to give it a go on the on the bread?

Ben 14:35

Well, uh it's on my lips, Alki's done it quite a few times. It's like um you do top the chicken tiker on the skewers, and then you've got the you make your curry next to it, and then you carve the meat into the curry, and that that looks really cool.

Tapa, Heat Retention, And Light Smoke

Dan 14:47

That's so good to do. I I that's how I standard do a curry now. It like just on the skewers, the chicken cooks so much better. You can you've got more control over the the sauce and the flavour, and it looks sexy while you're doing it. Do you know what I mean? It looks good when you're doing it.

Ben 15:03

Yeah, curry and five is like uh one of the best things is like uh lamb chops. Curried lamb chops are so good. That's like just the flame gets it and it'll go so nice. And then so I've got your question now.

Owen 15:17

Um just got lost in the thought. Um, was there so what did I ask? Oh, is there any is there anything that is there a particular recipe that either you've got in a book or or you've seen customers do that you haven't yet done that you want to kind of give a go at yourself on the grill?

Ben 15:39

There's loads you see them all because they pop up on our Instagram, you're like, oh that's cool, that's cool. Um there's a there's the one where the guy they take the you take the joint of beef and they put the bone marrow around it, and they strap the bone marrow to the beef and then that and then put it on the rotisserie and cook it that way. That always looks really good. And I've never I haven't gone around to trying that yet. And there's always I want to try, I've tried it, it was unsuccessful. Um crispy crispy duck, yeah, and which would be really good. And then the other week I managed to do a uh upside down uh pumpkin, uh no pumpkin, upside down pineapple cake in the oven plate with the oven plates, so it's like trying to explore more what you can actually do. Like one of our customers did to your battery the other day. Oh nice, really cool. So stuff like that is just like that, yeah. Just trying what you could do, really.

Owen 16:29

Yeah, especially baking.

Bucket List Cooks And Experiments

Ben 16:32

That's the matter because you just don't think of it like Martin. Like no, I wouldn't have thought of that either. I really invest, he's he's always his big thing is like we need to make a Victoria Sponge Cake in it. So that's on what that's one of the aims to try and do with this year is trying to get a Victoria Sponge Cake done.

Dan 16:47

You've got we've got like we've got the big C-word coming along, Christmas. Uh, depending on this episode goes out, people might have already seen what what you've put on social media or what you have kind of around that season. Are you are you planning on how you're using Dagwill over the festival?

Ben 17:03

Um I'm away for Christmas Day. But Chris, what I've done in the past is I did double double ribber beef on yes, really good. That is like, and it's such a good way to start Christmas, eight o'clock in the morning, setting fire to stuff. Yeah, slowly, slowly cooked throughout the day, and it's already about one o'clock. And then we've done like um porcetto, really good, massive porchetto one year, and uh the last year I did a re I did a rib ribber beef, but I put it on the rotisserie and then paste it with butter throughout the whole thing, and that came out really good. Yeah, it's like and they've done like three free meat roasts before with like chickens, picania.

Dan 17:43

Yeah, it's just like uh ohcanna, meat on a sword on that must look so good.

Christmas Cooks, Leftovers, And Hacks

Ben 17:48

It's just meat on a sword, yeah. That is, yeah, that is good, yeah, yeah. And who else is like probably chick yeah, probably finger ones? Just keep just probably doing some stay or really good ribs. I've done ribs one year's, you've like it's more like uh not Americans, it's more like Spanish style. I was in this restaurant in Barcelona and they kind of they put it in a wood-fried oven and it's ribs cook really quickly, and it just comes out absolutely amazing. So you just put them on the I think Mark is it one, you just put it, you put it straight onto the regrills, and you just cook it for like two one hour, two hours, and just flip them over, and it's like, yeah, really good. And short, have you tried short ribs yet on the you grill yet?

Owen 18:24

No, I haven't yet.

Ben 18:26

It's different, it's such it's more like a roast beef, which is really weird. Like it's from from what you expect from American smoke, and you are like three quarters down on the bone, flip it, and then finish it on the last the last quarter on the top, and it's just like, yeah, is that is a really good cook. And you just do this loot a do a wet brine over it throughout the cook, and it's just like, yeah, get the flavor into it.

Owen 18:48

Yeah, so I've not done any kind of short ribs or I was half tempted to sort of see how you could try and get a go with a brisket, but no, I've done I've done you know, rib of beef, I've done gammon joints, I've you know, chicken, things like that, but not yet. Sort of rib short ribs, yeah.

Ben 19:06

Brisket's in um, you know, sushi or sausage, he does all the that you're making. He managed to do it, him, he managed to do a brisket at Carfest one year on it. But it's I think he said, well, it's like it comes out more like because it's not as intense smoke, so it's more like a roasty beef nearly than uh American smoke, but yeah, you can do it. But if it I think he said it was a challenge, but yeah, there's where short ribs is sure it was just natural to be open fire, kind of yeah, or legs of legs of lambs are really good for Easter. Because again, you just hang it up and then just do a slute over on it all throughout the cook, and it's just yeah, really good fun.

Owen 19:39

I can imagine like um if you can get like a small supplement pig or something as well, that would be quite quite good. Yeah, that'd be quite good. Yeah, yeah. Just get up. I've never done one myself though, but I can imagine from a again, from an experience point of view, you've got the open flames, then you've got pretty much you know, a whole pig kind of sp almost spat like a spatch cock and kind of

Ben 20:00

And and laid out with uh again you'd probably have to have it fairly high up, but yeah, just think it's low and just cook it for yeah. What are you guys thinking for Christmas?

Dan 20:12

Well, I'm I'm tempted to try something a bit different. Um, I've not told Owen this, yeah. So I've left it late, so it depends what I can get, right? But my daughter always asks for brisket anytime, any year. And we've discussed multiple times that if you cook brisket and then if you either freeze it or keep it for a cook in the future, it's much more smoky on the second day. That's interesting. So what I'm considering doing is I love leftovers anyway, so I've experimented a lot with brisket, and I'm tempted to do it on Christmas Eve. Cut it up, freeze it instantly, yeah, and then the next day bring it back in almost like a bath of stock.

Speaker 21:06

Oh nice, yeah.

Dan 21:07

And then I want to use that stock and the extra smokiness it gets from the brisket as the gravy, as the base for the gravy.

Ben 21:15

Nice.

Dan 21:16

So I'm kind of I I want to get the extra smoke in the brisket from doing it that way while also infusing the gravy with smoke is the theory. Whether it'll work or not, I don't know.

Ben 21:31

Yeah, you've got to try, haven't you?

Dan 21:33

It'll feel like blasphemy if we also don't have some of that brisket on Christmas Eve, and then it'll feel like we're having the same. I'm worried about it feeling like the same meal two days in a row is kind of what I'm thinking in the back of my head.

Ben 21:45

What's your favourite uh leftovers meal?

Dan 21:48

Um oh so I I love short ribs, I like low and low and slow short ribs. I think short ribs um diced up, or and actually leaving some bits quite thick and chunky as well, into a chili, so you get like different bits uh of a chili. Um, probably I think that's the best thing you can do with leftover kind of barbers.

Ben 22:12

I full bit like the full bit put into Jamie Oliver's slow road, it's like an eight-hour chili. There's a video on YouTube, he does it with a fresh bit of brisket, but you do it with leftover short ribs. You're like the smoke thing, it's so tricky. It is the best flavoured chili you'll ever have in your life.

Dan 22:29

It's so good, so good.

Ben 22:31

Yeah, it's the point when you make it, you're like, all right, I'm gonna I'm gonna smoke a bit extra to make sure that enough to go in your chili because it's that good.

Dan 22:40

Yeah, it's um the other thing which I was surprised at. The last time I did like a whole chicken, in the past, I chicken skin's amazing, right? Anyone who isn't obsessed with chicken skin, we need to have a conversation to see if they're actually okay. But um, normally I just eat all the chicken skin in instantly like this is for the cook, as like carving or whatever. Yeah, um, but I I kept it on like some leftover legs and stuff, and and what I was doing, I also had like a leftover breast. But then when I came to reusing that and ripping it up to put it in, I think it was like a random like pasta dish or something. I thought, well, actually, what I'm gonna do this time is when I bring it back to life, I'll cook it skin side down in a pan so it crisps up, and it almost felt like it got more crispy than the first time, and it was it almost had like chicken crisps to go with what we were doing. So good, so good.

Ben 23:39

That's awesome, innit? Say taking barbecue into the middle of the week, isn't it?

Sponsor Break: AOS Outdoor Kitchens

Dan 23:43

Yeah, that's why I like what I love doing it. Uh, whenever I'm cooking anything on the barbecue for the family, I'll deliberately three or four times the amount that I need, just so I know that I can have that and pull it out whenever I want for quick, low and slow barbecue effectively, you know, during the week.

Ben 24:02

Living the dream earth.

Other Grills And Ideal Setups

Dan 24:04

What about leftovers for you, oh? It's something that I think you eat everything when it's cooked, right?

Owen 24:10

Well, that's half the problem. And the reason I'm never ever going to be a skinny man is because I don't leave stuff for leftovers generally.

Ben 24:19

Definitely do it with shore reasons or higher J Modern recipe is just it's so good. Yeah. Yeah. Even if you get like a bit of fresh and you just put a bit of like the smokiness into it, and it just you cook it for like eight, seven or eight hours, and it just fuses for until they're pulls apart, and it's just so simple, you just chuck it in, bum blah blah blah, chuck it in the oven, and then just sort sort itself out.

Owen 24:41

I did I did do some short ribs actually in the weekend just gone. Um so ages and ages ago, I got some um red wine cask. It was a some chunks of red wine cask, so I thought, oh, that would be quite good, because why not? So I ended up smoking it on that for a couple of hours um and then putting it into a red wine beef stock bath and then just kind of let it let it go. I really enjoyed it. Um, me and Dan have had this conversation before. He prefers short ribs, so I'm more of a brisket man, but it's not a I'm almost coming onto a barbecue fail. It's not really a fail, but only in that I really enjoyed it. I and my wife just turned a nose up at it. It was just like, oh, it's too fancy, I don't like it, and just left most of the meat. And I was just oh my god, I've just spent five hours doing this. Just say I threw a little paddy was uh like you.

Speaker 25:46

No, exactly.

Owen 25:47

All this effort, and you've just sat there and you know, you know, like a almost like a child, and you're just going, don't like that.

Ben 25:53

Yeah, don't like that. Yeah, just chopping all the bit off like in one little bit.

Owen 25:57

Yeah, exactly. I was like, Oh, you've left half a bloody rib there. There we are. So for Christmas this year, I'm uh I'm doing three meats. Oh, nice. So turkey brisket gammon or ham. Um, I wouldn't have done brisket, but uh my dad's coming up uh and he doesn't get to eat it. Well, he only eats it the once a year or whatever he comes up. So uh I kind of didn't have a choice. So uh he was very much he put that, he was like, make sure you both order some. So uh yes. But I plan to be fully outside doing potato, you know, everything from the all three meats, the potatoes, the you know, the the the accompany uh vegetables all be cooked outside this year. Nice.

Ben 26:44

So you cooking your are you doing the ham on? Is it like you're doing the gammon like hammo yeah? Like Christmas ham. Oh yeah.

Owen 26:52

So in truth, Ben, I I haven't thought that far ahead in the I've I've ordered it.

Ben 26:58

I've always thought about doing it because I've seen people do it on the bot on the on the KJs before and stuff like that. And I was like, that'd be quite cool.

Owen 27:05

Yeah, I think I think what I'm gonna do is uh I've not done it before, but you know, a lot of people kind of almost um leave it in Coke. Yeah, that's what I did last year.

Asado Go: Making It Portable

Dan 27:19

Yeah, I did a Coke ham last year.

Owen 27:21

Um so I think I think that's what I'll do is almost I'll leave it in there for 24 hours or whatever, and then take it out and then try and get some smoke into it. Um uh and and then maybe kind of finish it off with a bit of JD's hot honey or something like that, just to kind of give a bit of sweetness back into it after the smoke, uh, and then kind of slice that up. But that's probably more of I'll probably end up cooking it Christmas Day, but I think majority of it will get you know a box, that's almost like a boxing day.

Ben 27:48

Like boxing day, it's like cold or low, it's even good at fry open it, you fry it off like black pudding and stuff, so yeah, really nice.

Owen 27:55

But I think definitely um again, because the uh all the people that are coming have not seen me use the somerset yet. So I'm planning to get that fired up. I'll get my cast iron skillet out, and it'll be you know bacon laden with Brussels sprouts all cooked over the you know, on and skillet and things like that.

Dan 28:12

So for the record, I'm definitely also doing turkey at least. I'm normally a three-meat household, but um, I'm gonna probably just do a crown this year, just so I have more temperature control around the bird. Um is what I'm what I'm thinking about.

Ben 28:30

It's mad that because the first year I'm in my house, I did it all in the oven. And like it's that point when the middle like 11 o'clock when you start turning the wet temperature down, it's because the red light's been on all night, all day. Yeah, yeah. I was like 20 degrees. I was like, shit. And then the year after I've had the grill, so I did the uh short rib straight on the grill, and then all the veggies in the oven, and it's so easy because everything's just temperatures, everything's on the right temperatures and cooks, bam, bam, bang. I was like, if you overload the oven, it just doesn't work.

Owen 29:02

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Owen 30:06

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Cooling, Fuel, And Use Cases

Ben 30:16

Oh yeah, I'm I'm I'm a barbecue and nut job first. Um I've got uh at home, I've got uh I've had a Weber Weber map summit for like Eva. That's where I do like short ribs and stuff like that. And it's like that's really good. And then I just recently got a rock box, which is insane. It's like it's you can you can see why Gosni's so you use it, yeah. Okay, that's why Gosny's so big. Yeah, it cooks a pizza in like three or two minutes, and you come in like 20 minutes, turn it on, to at temperature in 20 minutes, and then just ready to go in it. It's like awesome big kit. And then I've always had an eye on a KJ and an egg, big green egg, and we've actually and all because we started doing the stands now, but they're in we've actually got a KJ and egg just sitting down there because it's showroom, I can't actually lighten them, so it's just like so. I've always wanted one, but I've and I look them all day, but I'm not actually so I'm not actually fired them up yet.

Dan 31:09

Chimney, you need to get a chimney, smash a hole in the roof, little chimney down.

Ben 31:13

I know it's more just to keep them looking pristine for like so when customers come, they can have a look at them. So it's like at some point they'll put we'll break it, but so far I've kind of resisted the temptation.

Owen 31:23

That that's pretty good of you. I don't think I could have done that.

Ben 31:26

No, yeah, yeah. It's like well, they all turned up in my right in the middle of uh busy season, so it's just like a bang, bang, and you just sort of kept on going, but yeah, it's on the list. Perfect setup in BR grill, uh, some sort of ceramic for like low and slow American style, and then like pizza and just kind of like go like full on with the hydrations and get all fancy doughs and that that's my uh boxing day plans.

Dan 31:50

So I want to do like festive pizza or like flatbreads depending on how you want to do it. But I was thinking like cranberry sauce instead of the tomato sauce with the turkey over it, bit of ham, some maybe some of the veggies, if there's anything left.

Ben 32:05

Yeah, that'd be good.

Owen 32:06

Yeah, everything tastes better in a pizza, doesn't it?

Ben 32:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And even a bad pizza is a good pizza, isn't it?

Unusual Meats And Trying New Things

Owen 32:13

So yeah, yeah. I did a I did a full English on a pizza once. I was spoken, I was speaking to some people recently, and they were like, what, a full English? I was like, yeah. Sausage, bacon, black pudding, you know, egg.

Ben 32:27

It's a sandwich at the end, isn't it? If you thought exactly, yeah, it's like yeah, it's red, isn't it? What what do you guys have at home then?

Dan 32:33

Like roadwise, and oh uh Owen's answer is yes. Um just yes.

Owen 32:40

Basically, yeah, yeah, what oh yeah, everything. Yeah, well, in terms of the perfect set of what you just said, yeah. Uh having recently got an outdoor kitchen installed, um actually it's the first time I've sort of spoken about it on the podcast, but um, so AOS that sponsors the podcasts, uh Jodie. Um I got a kitchen from him recently. Um, so I've got a wood-fired pizza oven, so I've got a Dela Vita, obviously I've got yours center stage in the middle, uh Somerset Grill, uh, and then I've got a broil king keg, so a cast iron version of a big green egg or or KJ. Um that's kind of in the kitchen bit, and then you know, I've got blackstones and Webbers and Unies and other bits and pieces kind of spread out uh elsewhere as well. So, but I can only fit so much into the space that I've got.

Barbecue Fails And Lessons Learned

Dan 33:34

It's like a showroom, it is like a showroom, and it's nice whenever I get over there and play on it. Um, so I've got um monolith ceramic, um, which I do the majority of my cooking on, and then I've got a blackstone, um, kind of completely different, but it gives me that flat top for like searing and pancakes and everything like that, and then I've got uh rock box as well, and th those are the three that I just jumped between.

Ben 33:59

Yeah, that's good, and that's a good setup, isn't it?

Dan 34:02

I just uh I really enjoy playing with the Blackstone and the Rock Box, but I could easily just live with the ceramic because of the versatility, but I think I'd get bored, you know. Um I I was spoken to her in a few times about this. I keep threatening to get one of the Kadai fireballs.

Ben 34:28

Oh, yeah, that's cool.

Dan 34:29

You can do like the hanging and also a fire pit at the same time. So, you know, I can't get moaned at that I've bought another barbecue because at first I'm like, That's nice, you've bought us a fire pit. I was like, Yeah, and then just quietly get out the little tripod to go for the top.

Owen 34:52

So Ben, you've uh you've also gone mobile now with the Asado Go.

Ben 34:57

Oh, the little go, yeah. So you can take it, it's just about 2025 kg, so it's like a two-person lift. So you can walk, it's not like you can't climb a mountain with it, but it's like if you want to take it down the beach, and it's just little kind of and it's probably small gardens, or if you like just like sell also quite a lot of kitchens to put under the hood and run over charcoal. That's that's been pretty good.

Owen 35:19

This sounds like this probably sounds like a silly question, but was it as easy just to go Sardo shrink it? Did you have to did you have to kind of make any adjustments to make it?

Ben 35:33

So we had the idea in we had the idea in the July, August, I think, and then we started doing it, and then we were literally so the way we worked was so we'd we get it Tom and Broad would do the drawings on the weekends, we'd have a laser cut spot booked on the Monday, it would get cut, delivered by the Friday, we'd build it on the Friday, test it on the Friday, iteration, and so we l it went through like so we can iterate reiterate really quickly, but it probably went through because like little things that there's obviously little movements on the asado, but when you shrank it down, them little movements made everything break go and just stop. There's little like the strengthers and just things that slightly moved on the asado that doesn't affect anything. When you shrank it down, it made massive effect. So it did take quite a lot of like if you look on the go, it's got extra foot, it's got a strength and fold on the side with the sport of hand up, strengthening bar across, just ridge everything up. So it's kind of it, yeah. It looked, you think it'd be really simple to side, yeah. It's dude, well, that's what we when we started, like, yeah, we'll just reduce it, it'd be well easy. And we kind of we'd already started the original, original, original grill. What was it was called the allotment grill because I lived in a flat and I was testing in the allotment and it was similar go size, just a box with like a little windy thing. So that we kind of thought, oh, we've done it before, we're just gonna take make a better version of that. But no, it was like I think like another 15, probably 10 or 10 versions maybe to get it to ready to sell. I mean, then we got it went live in the so we went to folk shoots in November and then went live in December. So it was quite quick, quite a quick build process to get it to ready to go out.

Owen 37:08

And again, just kind of on on that, um obviously there is a fair amount of heat retention, and we were talking about the the tapper and stuff and heat retention, and obviously the fire bricks do hold heat for for quite some time. Yeah. But presumably, and more often than not, with a go one, if you're at the beach, you kind of can't have it lasting for hours.

Plans For 2026 And Cooking Goals

Ben 37:31

Does No, we don't actually have any fire bricks in the bottom, it's just straight onto the straight onto the metal. Oh, I see, right? Just because of that advantage, like as soon as you get the embers out of it, it does cool down quite quickly, especially if you're a windy beach and you've got a bit of wind on it, it'll go down, it'll go down like half an hour, you'd be able to take it with you. Yeah, it's not like kind of ceramic where you're kind of like it's hot and hot for hours, it does cool down quite quick, and it sits like Alex when 100 half cooking, you had it up in Scotland, I think last last year, and he had it on a metal sheet on snow, and you took the sheet up and he melted. Yeah, so it's like yeah, that's quite cool. And it is good, it's a good little grill for like in the summer, because it's like you can get if you use charcoal, you can get going in like 20-30 minutes. You put charcoal, fill the ember makeup with charcoal, put a little um violighter in, like it, and then just knock them through, and then you're ready to go. So it's a good little kind of like full up. It's it's like if you just want if you've got a lot of barbecue kit already, it's a really good one. If you just want the prella style, if that's just what you're looking for, and it's add to your collection, works really well for that. But it just just because size is a bit limited on the size of like um like the accessories you get for it. We just have the ember grill and the chapter, whereas the the asado you get like there's like all the extras we do.

Dan 38:47

You're gonna release a tiny little rotisserie for like jumbo hot dogs, and yeah, it just didn't.

Ben 38:55

It was like it's you'd have to be cooking partridge all the time. Or yeah, called quails, or yeah, quails, that's the one, yeah. That's the word big partridge is probably quite big, but yeah, quail quails are like it'd just be cooking quails, basically. We looked at it quite hard because we've got we've had so many people ask for it, and we're like, it just doesn't, you just can't make it work, it's just not on the space.

Dan 39:16

You're like, I'm gonna do a whole suckling rabbit, yeah. It's that kind of a bunny, yeah.

Ben 39:21

Yeah, yeah.

Owen 39:22

Rabbit's probably too big, yeah. Squirrel. Yeah, squirrel. Lovely bit of squirrel. So I appreciate my go on, sorry, Ben.

Ben 39:35

Have you tried any random barbecue meats or like try randomly barbecued anything?

Dan 39:40

I I've I've had I've had random meat, but I haven't paired it with a barbecue yet, if that makes sense. Like I've tried I've tried kangaroo before, I've tried ostrich before, I've tried zebra before, um, all from the same market where uh I used where I grew up. Um but it's Think when I'm barbecuing, I'm focusing more on I'm doing this because it's fun, and I'm worried that if I'm just gonna do something random, like if I'm trying something different, I'd prefer it to be like fellablade or something that I know if I crack it, I'll get it right. Whereas crocodile, I don't even know if I'd like it once it's done. Do you know what I mean?

Ben 40:20

Yeah, but it's pretty quite fishy, isn't it? Crocodile. I guess Penn has wrong.

Owen 40:25

Yeah, I've not tried, I haven't done too much in that time. I'm a bit type of exotic, exotic uh meets. Yeah, I'll give it a go though for sure. Um so talking about cooking and and your setup, um, obviously one of the things that we hold really dear on the podcast, Ben, is barbecue fails. Um so uh I'd love to kind of touch upon that actually, and your own experiences, and it may be with the Somerset Grill or maybe not, but um, have you got any kind of hopefully some funny stories for us in terms of barbecue fails?

Barbecue Bingo And Ingredient Pick

Ben 41:02

I've got a really good one. I think it was volume. Was it last year? It kind of almost had a cracking air, uh cracking duck. So it's a long cook for what I think it was like four or five, three to four hours, and then it cooked it all the way through, got it ready, put it on the board, like went through the whole thing, made the sauce, made pancakes, everything, and was shooting it. I was shooting on my phone the whole time, and then we put it on the board and then like carved it and I tasted it. I was like, Ah, it's weird taste, that's a weird taste, and then I was like, that's Vicar. And I cleaned it for some stupid reason. I went to clean the board and I cleaned it with Vicar right at the beginning. Oh it was completely gone. The cup was done from like the second it started because I put the put the thing, put the fire spice on on the board. Oh no, mixed with the Vicar off the porn, and it's just like, yeah, and he just Johnny, you're like, there's something weird with this. No line scale in you though.

Owen 42:01

Exactly, it proper cleared you out, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ben 42:06

Because I remember my dad saying he'd like back used to do bitter parties when we were kids, and he did one where if crisp crispy duck, and he's seen like they put all the pancakes in and that in the tea towel, yeah, in the restaurant. So he tried to copy it and then you served it, and it was literally like all those pancakes were soapy tasting. There's a tea towel obviously hadn't been minus but and it all just tastes the soap. It's like, yeah, it's obviously a family train.

Owen 42:30

Oh god, you must have been so frustrated when you spent such a long anything that you spend any considerable amount of time and effort into, yeah, and it's one then where you're just like, oh god, and the best ones like I've done I've done so many times where it's like you do the whole cook, whole cook, whole cook, and it you got it all, got it all, got it all.

Ben 42:45

And then last when the certain just like because you've got three kids and everything, it's just like nuts. So like servings are like, oh, food's ready, you know, oh I didn't take the shot. You just haven't got the final bit of it, yeah. Okay, so quite a lot. If you look quite a lot of our reels, it kind of just ends randomly. Oh, we've all been there, yeah. A lot of them, there's a lot of music over the top of them because there's like screaming kids in the background, or like or that's you going, shit, I didn't get a screaming final shot. It's like the right, yeah, the reality of the reality of Instagram, isn't it?

Dan 43:18

Yeah, yeah. I um I accidentally um managed to put what I thought was dry rub, but effectively seasoned chicken with uh instant ramen uh mix the other day. So Angus and Oink um do uh like there's one that's called nudes, and there's another one as well, but it is like teaspoon per, I think it's like 100 mil, will make like a ramen, and so like I do a lot of like lunches with that, and I got out I got out their teriyaki rub, but I must have moved the ramen out to get to it and had it on the side. So like cut up the chicken, stick it in a bowl, put everything on it, fry it off. I was like, that smells not right, but it's probably and yeah, it just it was a mess. It was it was it was not right, and also it's not the meal I was trying to make, you know. I should imagine it was quite salty, wasn't it? It was it was salty, but also even though it smelt weird, I still was like, Well, I don't maybe there's something where it's gonna taste fine, and it just didn't taste right, and it's that disconcerting. Well, what's gone wrong? And it took me too long to work out what happened as well. Do it like embarrassingly long time. Like, is the oil off? Has the oil gone straight? Is it this? Is it that?

Ben 44:45

It's like, oh yeah, yeah.

Dan 44:46

But um, so yeah, I check check your label, kids, when you're making stuff, is what I'd say.

Ben 44:52

Yeah, definitely. I must have had some other ones. I've done things like where you just like similar that where you pick up the wrong thing, like especially with kids and you're trying to make food that's not spicy.

Dan 45:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ben 45:04

I picked a hot tab paprika instead of cold pot instead of normal paprika, and you go, and you know, tasting it, you're like, this is this is got a weird taste, this is hot, yeah. Yeah, and then you're just like okay, I've got to kind of find a whole new dinner for the kids now because blow their heads off. So yeah.

Owen 45:19

Yeah.

Ben 45:20

Yeah.

Owen 45:20

I did the uh uh so I um what did I cook the other day? Oh so I randomly picked up a turkey turkey thigh from uh the supermarket uh recently, and then I randomly was fancy doing a butternut squash as well. And then in the end I kind of started to build a bit of a roast dinner with a turkey. Um but I decided to use the rotisserie, but then I put the so I put the whole butternut on the rotisserie as well, straight through the middle, and the turkey joint. Um so a couple of things. First and foremost I left it for 20 minutes, half an hour cooking, but the turkey had the as the turkey was spinning, obviously the weight of it just kept it down so it didn't actually spin. So it was very cooking on one side and not cooking properly on the other side, which was the first problem. Uh and then um just a schoolboy era of I just don't think I put enough charcoal in the barbecue. So uh I got to the point where the uh potatoes that I I also did under underneath the rotisserie, I had some stuff in, I had some potatoes, um, uh, and a couple of other bits of veg as well. Everything was cooked, but the turkey wasn't, and it just the it the temperature just died of death. So I ended up having to finish it in the oven. Oh uh, which it just it pains me to see, you know, because the amount of times you go, Oh, you can't you you shouldn't have to finish things in the oven when you barbecue, but yeah, schoolboy era just clearly didn't put enough charcoal in, and it I just I lost heat completely before I'll finish cooking.

Ben 47:00

If you talk quite a lot of commercial caterers, that's how they kind of get the smoke in, don't they? And then they'll put it into the steam oven to like then you can't say you sit in 200 people, you can't just can you so they'll they'll smoke in a smoker and then they'll send us a room and flight just to guarantee they'll get a bang on whatever they're cooking.

Owen 47:18

But at home, that feels wrong, doesn't it, Ben? Yeah, yeah. You spent all that effort putting it outside and going through the love and pain of barbecue, you know, doing it outside the city.

Ben 47:26

It's like in case of cave is a fight away, doesn't it?

Owen 47:29

Yeah, yeah, stick it in the oven, it's like the walk of shame back into the room back into the house.

Dan 47:33

Yeah, that that that is a cry shower situation out afterwards at the end of the day, isn't it? Yeah, washing the shame off yourself.

Owen 47:47

So what does um what does 2026 look like for for for you from a cooking perspective, but also you know, for for some setup you just try cooking perspective, just getting out and do more do more cooks.

Ben 47:59

So it's good. It's kind of like it's trying to find the time to do it. But yeah, getting out and doing more kind of like and just trying to think, getting the getting that curry cook done. So that's been on my list. Like we write a list of what content you want to do that year, every year, and that's always on there. Let's just never quite get to the because it's quite like you want to do the proper, you want to make the you want to make the sauce, you want to make everything like the way Aoki does it, right? Like right grinds and grinds it all like makes it from scratch. You don't really want to get the sauce out and just go there. What you call them. Um what's that source back in the day where you had two jars?

Owen 48:32

Oh, like the Pattock, is it sure Sharwoods? Showwoods yeah, yeah.

Ben 48:37

The footballer, what you call him, was uh oh, righty he was in yeah, yeah.

Dan 48:41

Oh, chicken tonight. Chicken tonight, yeah.

Ben 48:43

You don't want to go down that route, you all want to play made just sticking chicken tonight. Yeah, it's always getting the herbs and spices, right? Always have the idea like oh, this would be really good. You know, well, I'm going near this on a Saturday, so you just need a planet. So that's on the list. Trying to finally get a non-soapy uh crispy duck sword. I think that's a really good one to get done. And then yeah, and the Victoria Sponge is definitely on there. Martin's might as well. Yeah, nice. What you guys got any got anything big, big plans?

Dan 49:13

Uh for me, it it's similar to you. It's I'm finding it harder to win time for cooking outside. I mean, we were talking before we started like bedtime tonight with the kids. I didn't get done until half eight. I've been working during the day. If it's then for not forcing yourself, sounds bad, but it's good for me to be out and cooking outside. Um, it is ahead, doesn't it? It's really good. Um and and I love I love cooking in the winter. I think it's great to be outside in the cold and the wet with a fire. I get that. But a bit like football on a cold, wet night in Stoke midweek, is not top of my priority list. And I need to bring it back up to that level. Do you know what I mean? I need to be forcing myself out there more because I love it and it's gonna be better for me and it's gonna be better quality food. So that that's top of my priority list.

Ben 50:06

Nice one, yeah. Yeah, you remind me about the like my favourite type, September Christmas, September cooking.

Dan 50:13

Oh like the the the Christmas cooks, like you know, um, and I don't mean you're family owing. Um like it's there's nothing better than lighting the barbecue at like 6am on Christmas Day, or being out there on Christmas Eve at like 10 or 11, starting it off then and putting something on overnight and then being out first thing because the kids are all excited about the presents and stuff. And yeah, exactly. My rule for Christmas Day is that I'm not allowed a non-alcoholic drink. That that is my that is my rule for Christmas Day. I don't have a problem. Um, I have bad life choices on wrong days, but that is that that that is again. Food's so important with that because it keeps you level. I wouldn't be able to do that without eating constantly throughout the day, right? That's why it's a 10,000 calorie day, right? Minimum. Sounds good. That's that's the rule, right? Yeah, what about you, Owen? What's what's your plans? You you you getting more for the outdoor kitchen and more more barbecues on the go?

Owen 51:12

Uh well, I famously said I wasn't gonna buy anything. Yeah, we've done the opposite, and and and then bought and then bought a somerset grill. So I can't say I won't buy anything new, uh, but I don't plan to at the minute. Apart from a Somerset cage, right?

Ben 51:30

Oh yeah, that's yeah, that's yeah. Yeah, that's it. I just thought about what was cooking or what we're doing.

Owen 51:35

Yeah, um I don't know. I wanna I wanna I I I'll just continue just to just enjoy it. Um I'd actually like to try and go out and do more. Uh I want to get out to more events next year because me and you didn't do much this year, Dan. But actually, what I want to try and do a little bit more um is go and try some more UK smoke houses and you know, like restaurants, haven't we?

Ben 52:03

Yeah, yeah. Um we did what did we do this year? We did Fume Festival, which that was actually really good. They kind of got well because they're getting they're getting out of London more, so Fume Festival in Manchester, which we did. It was that was like this the vendors that were really good. Like this was a really good from Keswick, and they would do like Smoke House in Keswick, like you just know what you heard about. Yeah, they were really good, they were, and then um uh we went to oh them Glas meet we did Mewtopia, and that was in Glasgow, and then the one in London was like go for years, but they were yeah, both were really good. I definitely recommend them. They were they were a good quite good sign, and they're quite different because like the Miwtopia is more like chef-led. Yeah, yes, whereas Fume is like more body the barbecue, the barbecue actual like shops who make in like restaurants who actually doing it day in and day out. Yeah, it's really good.

Owen 52:52

So we've been to Miwtopia before, but not Fume. Oh yeah, that that's that's one to try.

Ben 52:58

One to try. If you're looking at somewhere to go, Rack City Ribs that he that they their ribs were good.

Owen 53:02

Yeah.

Ben 53:03

Some good stuff, yeah.

Owen 53:05

We might have to plot a little tour for 2026, Dan and Place you can go, isn't it?

Ben 53:12

My list of places just keeps going. You've got like Sagradi, and you've got the Devonshire with the amazing, like the amazing like wood fied oven. In London itself is open, but then you go to Manchester and you could like every day, you probably eat every day at some epic place and not cook for yourself, will you?

Dan 53:31

Oh mortgage though, yeah.

Ben 53:34

You need might need to guess with a bit good sponsors, but yeah, that would be exactly.

Owen 53:41

Um, so actually, what whilst we were just going back to we were talking about some ingredients and things we're going to be cooking, I think we should probably come on to barbecue bingo.

Dan 53:50

Yes, great, great shirt.

Owen 53:52

Um, uh so Ben, this is the part of the show where um we get you to cook something. Okay. Uh that so we've got a list of ingredients that's on a big spinning wheel. Um, it's all of the ingredients have been left by previous guests. Okay. So whatever it lands on, we'd love for you to cook something, but at the same time, we'd love you once once we've given you what you're gonna cook, um, we'd love for you to leave an ingredient for a future guest to cook something.

Ben 54:22

Sounds good, yeah.

Owen 54:23

Um, so honestly, we've got some good ones there, aren't there? There's definitely some different ones. Um, yeah, everything from chicken hearts to alligator to trite, uh, marshmallows, you know, there's quite a range of things. The only thing that that's on there that it's called my signature dish. So uh in effect that's your signature dish. So, what are you best known for in in terms of what you know what you cook, Ben? That it's uh if that landed on it, what would you cook?

Ben 54:54

It uh this is like so the the best dish I've ever had in my life. It's from so on one of the best things of super yachts is when you like work on board, is like the chefs are like Mitch and style chefs. Food, if we got the right chef, the food is insane. And then there's one time we've done a whole Bigsy season, and like we went, we were short first run ashore, and then the boss told us we'll go back, and the whole crew like the boss is coming back, and they just worked for six weeks. So the whole crew must just like boo. And then the chef hung over Zenithin. He got this fillet tail of um like yeah, whole fillet tail, seared them off with like really thin French fries with chimmy chimmy sauce, and just like chopped it down, and it was like the great, like it still sticks in my head like it's one of the greatest meals I've ever had. Because everyone's just like, oh god, we're gonna go back to work now, and then yeah, it was yeah, one of the best name down so Darren. So I put his name down. He's called yeah, Darren uh Darren Goodwin. Yeah, epic chef and epic, like it's just the food was just yeah, it just sticks in my mind. And it's so it's the style you would cook on on open fire, so you could you could eat it on the on the chimp, but you'd easily do it on like um over fire, sear off the sail oil, or see off the spin it and then salt it, sear it off, chop it down into chunks, so you get like a perfect medium around the middle, and like amazing bark on the outside, and then just really thin chips, trim it sauce for you. It's like the best meat you can ever have.

Dan 56:24

This is when we spin it and we uh land on granulated garlic. Oh granulate loads of that, can't I?

Owen 56:31

Right, let's let's let's give it a spin and see what see what we're gonna get. White pudding.

Ben 56:40

White pudding, that's a good one there.

Owen 56:42

Have you ever done have you had white pudding before or done anything with white pudding?

Ben 56:46

I've had black black puddles, is I guess it's similar-ish to kind of that kind of I guess yeah, it's just more, I think it's just more oat-based rather than blood-based. The Spanish do really good with like they don't like we have we use it as like a breakfast, but in Spain you kind of do it on like um so you get some really crunchy toast, and then you spread it on the toast as like more like a pate, and then you can put like you put whatever you want, so you do like chucho on top, or like like I guess I I do quite a lot with black pudding, not white pudding. Um I'm assuming it's similar, and it's you like your bacon sandwich, so you use the black pudding as like a spread, brown bacon in your sausage, and then maybe bar, and it's like yeah, that's bad.

Dan 57:27

That is dirty.

Ben 57:27

I've never thought about using black pudding in that way, but that is something especially on crushed crushed crunchy bread and then put black, and it just yeah, it works so good. And it could it's a bit of a putting a sandwich, it's not some people love it, but it's a bit of a big bite in it. Whereas you put on the bread, it's just that flavour's there and it just comes through. So, yeah.

Dan 57:47

I love using it. Yeah, yeah. I I like using it in um burger mixes.

Ben 57:54

Oh, that'd be bad, yeah.

Dan 57:56

Yeah, so good doing that. Like the depth of flavor that you get is so good.

Ben 58:00

It's like when you go to uh they go to English breakfast and it's got a black pudding, you're like, What's the English breakfast is that so uh Ben, what are you gonna leave for us?

Owen 58:11

What ingredients are you gonna leave? Are you gonna be nice or mean?

Ben 58:14

Tri-tip, yeah.

Owen 58:15

Tri-tip.

Ben 58:16

Tri-tip's always good kind of yeah it's very kind, yeah.

Dan 58:20

That's good though, you know. Every single person we've had is like you don't have to be horrible, you can leave something nice, and then it's always been like, Yeah, it's gonna go off the wall.

Speaker 58:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ben 58:35

Well, try to for quite a lot of you like you don't because it's such a it's always a really good way to test your butchers. So if they do if they do full carcass butchery, you can you they'll usually do any cut. Yeah, ask you just gotta usually just say, Oh, you can you just book it on a Monday. Well, if you go in on a Saturday, we'll have it for next weekend because we'll get the full carcass in. Yeah, but if they say no, we can't do it, it usually means the bind it all pre-cut. Yeah, there's a good way, like especially with cannas and stuff, like you can just try it. Might not be a perfect exact example of a cannon, but they usually just they'll do it for you, but you just gotta pre-book it like a week in advance. It's like, yeah, yeah, it's good. And it tastes, and it's weird, even though it's the same, it's that the same beef, it just tastes different. I don't know, it's just like yeah, like whole is one of the really good cuts to cook. There's quite a lot of people size it up, but if you cook it whole like a roast beef, it's that's pretty bad.

Dan 59:29

I'm so hungry. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Owen 59:33

Considering we're we're recording this at what it's now ten past ten at night, we're just like, oh, steak, food.

Ben 59:40

Iron everything up and uh get going.

Owen 59:45

So uh as we kind of come towards the end uh of this episode, Ben, is is there anything that um perhaps we haven't covered yet um that that you would like to discuss uh around barbecue?

Ben 59:58

Kind of covered everything. Yeah, it sounds pretty good. It's just really enjoyable to be on.

Speaker 1:00:02

Yeah.

Ben 1:00:03

And then just if you if but if anyone's listening to one of our customers, just thanks for thanks for supporting us and thanks for like who wouldn't be here are the owners and who own the grills and and just keep us going every day. So yeah, thanks for everyone who's who's bought a grill from us.

Dan 1:00:17

Owen says you're welcome. Yeah, yeah.

Ben 1:00:22

It's like it's quite, especially in the early days, quite adjust to like, oh, this company on a website, they're looking at a cool bit of kit, I'm gonna order it. And it's just like, yeah, people just ordered and backed us early, so it's good.

Owen 1:00:32

Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. Well, they they are great bits of kit. So on that point, please do plug where where can people find you socials website?

Ben 1:00:42

So Somerset Grill, uh, if you're on if you're on Instagram, just put Somerset Grill in and it'll come straight up. Um, website is uh SomersetGrill.com. Uh Facebook is Somerset Grill Company, TikTok Somerset Grill, and YouTube Somerset Grill. And if you've got any questions or like if you're interested in it, we do video calls if you're not local, or you can book in a video, you can book in a showroom visit so we can run you through the grills and show you all about them.

Dan 1:01:06

Fantastic. Well, it's been great speaking to you. Thank you so much for coming on. And um, hopefully, we'll see you at some point in the future at one of the events that we've talked about.

Ben 1:01:17

Yeah, see, I'll be on your restaurant tour around the country.

Speaker 1:01:19

Yeah, uh you can come join us.

Ben 1:01:21

There's one near us called the Home. You should try that one, yeah. Written down. Sounds good. Awesome.

Owen 1:01:29

Thanks, Ben.

Ben 1:01:30

Thanks a lot.

Owen 1:01:30

Thanks so much, Ben. Cheers. Bye. That's it for another episode of the Meet and Greet Barbecue Podcast. Thanks so much to Ben for coming on from Somerset Grill Co. Uh, I personally I love the brand and have been using it for the last six months. It's an awesome bit of kit. Uh, please do go check them out. Um, as ever, we want to hear from you. Please tell us the things that you would like us to talk about on the podcast. Um, get in contact through us through our social media channels, the Meet and Greet Barbecue Podcast website. Um, but until next time, keep on grilling. Today's episode is brought to you by AOS Kitchens, the South's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists.