Variety of dishes will spark an interest in barbecue cooking

Martin Hesp shares his love of cooking outdoors and creating tasty wonders over a live flame using locally-sourced charcoal

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The other day someone I know was talking about the weather and he said: "I'll tell you how hot it is... We rolled out the barbecue for the first time this week and we've been grilling sausages and steaks and goodness knows what else.

This simple statement reminded me that not every UK household likes the idea of cooking over a live flame. It took this chap and his family a UK record of four officially designated heatwaves before they were eventually persuaded to cook outdoors.

And I need reminding that a great many folk do not barbecue, because I am forever lighting up the charcoal and cannot imagine why anyone with as much as a tiny terrace, let alone a full blown garden or other open air space, would not. Which is probably why I keep returning to the subject of barbecuing. I make no apology, because I really do believe it is a superb way of preparing hot food as well as being a deeply satisfying thing to do.

Indeed, for a long while I have been marinating the theory that there is a primitive man or woman lying just beneath the surface of us all. We humans are not quite as civilised as we like to think - just look at our penchant for killing one another in all those wars happening at present. That reflects the bad side of being primitive - the upside is that by getting in touch with our Stone Age innards we somehow get to appreciate basic things like food and cooking much more profoundly.

Here's what well-known Westcountry based chef and food writer Gill Meller says about barbecuing... "There's purity in cooking over fire that I love. Whenever I smell wood smoke in the air it captures my soul for a spell."

He also writes: "Sometimes the simplest ways to cook are the most rewarding and mindful" and that cooking outside "is far more engaging" than using a conventional kitchen.