Outdoor cooking gear
John Sootheran picks 10 superb grills, barbecues and ovens for our essential outdoor-cooking gear guide
John Sootheran picks 10 of the best outdoor grills, BBQS and ovens
Great for couples
Bodum Fyrkat Grill
Price £58
Web bodum.com
Bodum products have a slightly premium price, but you certainly get what you pay for. These well-engineered, compact, charcoal grills ooze quality and are lightweight, portable and easy to use and clean. There’s plenty of room to cook for two on the grill, more at a push, and you can do all the ‘hard work’ sitting down.
The silicone handle stays cool, while silicone clips lock the lid in place for transportation. The leg design has been tweaked slightly for the newest models.
Ideal for the beach
Grill-2-go
Price £39.98
Web amazon.co.uk
A clever idea from Calor – a single burner and hotplate, which simply clips on to a Calor 5kg Patio Gas bottle.
It’s ideal for picnics and beach fun, and lets you boil, grill and fry quickly and cleanly. The reversible porcelain enamel, cast-iron cooking griddle is quite heavy, but it’s nothing like lugging a full barbecue around, and you get more control and quicker cooking than a disposable.
It comes with a five-year limited warranty. A 5kg Patio gas cylinder costs £20.50.
Charcoal or gas?
‘Real men’ like to cook on charcoal, not gas… real men also like to put on fake smiles as they devour raw chicken in a granite-hard, carbon coating!
Yes, charcoal is more ‘manly’ than gas (it appeals to our inner caveman), but it’s almost 2020, and gas has to be the way forward for more clean and controlled outdoor cooking – and less gastro-intestinal tomfoolery to boot.
Perfect pizza!
Ooni Koda
Price £244.99
Web uk.ooni.com
You’ll be the culinary king or queen of the campsite with one of these bad boys. The gas-powered Ooni reaches up to 500°C and cooks perfect pizza in 60 seconds. Take it out of its box, fold out the legs, pop in the pizza stone, connect the gas and off you go… Pizza making just got as fast as a Formula 1 pitstop!
Prep your homemade pizza bases, let everyone pick their toppings, then you’ll all be sitting down to tasty, fresh Margheritas or Vesuvios in under five minutes.
When space is tight
Lotus Grill
Price Mini £130; Std £150; XL £225; XXL £450
Web lotusgrill.co.uk
This features a battery-powered fan that blows air across burning charcoal briquettes to speed up the burning process and reach cooking temperatures more quickly (three to five minutes). It’s a neat, compact (3.7kg) and very ‘designer’ device, in some cool colours. A metal cowl prevents dripping fat from flaring up and burning your food, and, for big eaters, there are XXL versions with more cooking surface.
Perfect for families
Outdoorchef City 420 kettle grill Price £168
Web amazon.co.uk
The Outdoorchef City 420 is a beautifully crafted kettle barbecue, that’s big enough to cook for a family of four or more. It also packs neatly into a carry bag for easy storage and transportation.
The build quality is exceptional with a tough black-enamel coating.
It features push-button Piezo ignition and just one knob for controlling the temperature. Inside are funnels, which can be flipped over to ‘target’ the heat. Alternatively, pop the lid on and let the heat build up to use it like an oven.
We’ve cooked a whole leg of lamb in ours, on many occasions.
It can take a little while to heat up and the funnels need to be cleaned occasionally, but for portability and versatility we find it hard to beat.
The legs can be set at standing or sitting height, and there’s a range of great accessories – such as pizza trays – to choose from.
Available on Amazon, with similar grills also to be found on sale from outdoorchef.co.uk.
Best for lightweight versatility
Cadac Safari Chef 2
Price From £99.99
Web cadacinternational.com Cadac gas grills have been the go-to brand for caravanners for years… but do they deserve the rep? Well, we’ve never met anyone with a bad word to say about them. They’re light (from 4kg), strong, stable and versatile, with six interchangeable cooking surfaces available. These include a pizza stone, which, combined with the Safari’s ability to reach super-high temperatures, makes them ideal for cooking crispy pizzas. The Safari has folding legs and all the parts pack into a handy carry bag. This model is really easy to clean, too, and comes with a two-year warranty.