About

Hello and welcome to BBQ Like It’s Hot!

I have always been a great fan of barbecued foods. Growing up my favourite times were during weekends over the summer when my parents would have family friends over and we would spend the days playing in the backyard while the dads would gather around the ‘barbie’, beer in hand grilling steaks and sausages for lunches and dinners.

This is the classic Kiwi barbecue. Sausages, steaks, kebabs, burgers and chicken legs covered in Watties tomato sauce to cover up the burnt bits.

Years later, Kiwi barbecues still feature the staples, but thanks to local chefs such as Al Brown and the popularity of the American Low and Slow style of barbecue, the way has been paved for many more dishes on the grill and smoker. I am excited to share these ideas and methods with you.

I have no formal culinary training yet feel entirely comfortable behind a grill controlling a fire to achieve amazing barbecued results. Everything that I have learnt about barbecue has come from cook books, internet forums, TV shows and blogs much similar to this one. Not to mention lots of trial and error on the grill.

Fresh and Local Produce

The most enjoyable aspect of barbecuing is being able to create all of these dishes with fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Vegetables and herbs grown in the garden at home and meat from a farm down the road. I love using local produce to highlight my dishes.

About BBQ Like It’s Hot

BBQ Like It’s Hot started during the summer of 2012 when I purchased my first Weber kettle. I spent the next couple of years going from terrible to incredible as I learnt my way around the grill and how to use the Weber as a smoker.

I spent this time honing my skills on the grill and documenting my progress with photos that I posted to Facebook and a bit of Instagram. The desire to start a website soon took over and that’s when in 2014 BBQ Like It’s Hot became a blog.

My original intention for the blog was for it to be a repository of easy to find, read and follow articles on different techniques for grilling and smoking on the Weber Kettle. As I discovered the world of food blogging the focus turned into churning out recipes, as anything you could cook in the kitchen you could also cook outside.

I soon felt the burnout and was so dismayed at various trends in food blogging that I just lost the drive.

I didn’t stop barbecuing though.

I’ve taken the time during early 2018 to revamp and re-shift the focus of the blog. From now on all my blog posts will be focused on beautiful food cooked over fire with beautiful photography to back it up. I will not be making recipes for the sake of making recipes. If you do see something that you like on one of my posts and I haven’t shared any ingredients, don’t hesitate to leave a comment on that particular post. And don’t worry, all my old content is still there.

Over the years I’ve amassed quite a collection of barbecues, mostly Weber and most recently an offset smoker that has been a whole new challenge to learn how to cook on so expect more of the same, and all new stuff as I continue to cook outside in the backyard.

Thank you for stopping by and visiting my little corner of the web, I hope you find something interesting and learn something new. Please don’t hesitate to reach out and contact me either through the blog or on Instagram if you have any feedback or comments.