FIRE starter

Throw another shrimp on the barbie? Only if it’s fuelled by charcoal or wood, thanks. ALEXANDRA CARLTON explores how the old-school Aussie gas barbecue has fallen from favour as cooking with fire becomes our new national obsession.

- ALEXANDRA CARLTON

Take a walk around any urban neighbourhood today and you’ll almost certainly smell it. The charry tang of wood-fire smoke. There’s almost an umami taste to it as it snakes its way from your nostrils to your palate. You can virtually hear the crack of pork skin crisping or the hiss of dripping lamb fat as it flares into the charcoal below. In the last few years, what the world knows as the traditional Aussie barbecue – basically snags burnt over a gas barbie – has slowly given way to a taste for wood-fired cooking: a richer, more authentic way to create food outdoors.

Of course in reality, this isn’t anything new. First Nations Australians were the original wood-fire, earth oven and hot-rock cooks. Middle Eastern, Greek, Italian, Croatian, Malay, Indonesian, Turkish, South American and Japanese Australians – and many others – have been firing up their Cypress and konro and satay grills, their parrillas and their woodfired ovens, since they landed on these shores. But all of a sudden, it would seem, the rest of Australia is taking notice.