Cooking on fire doesn’t get more theatrical than this

I have come to Somerset for a party like no other. Tom Bray and his Galapagos-born wife, Ana Ortiz, are the founders of fire made (formerly known as Country Fire Kitchen), which creates South American-style fire cooking equipment for chefs like Marcus Wareing, Gordon Ramsay and Tomes Parry. They also host workshops and events, cook for private clients including David Beckham and Sam Taylor-Johnson, and know how to put on a show, even on the relatively modest platform, at least by their standards, set up in their backyard.

How to describe this thing? A cross between an animal cage and a medieval torture device, his “Portico” grill is made of metal rods, hanging chains, detachable grills, and removable and retractable legs. It might be the most functional grill I’ve ever seen, with different sections for cooking at different levels of direct and indirect heat.

Today, it’s a haze of sizzling produce. A piece of sirloin, flaked with salt, hisses on a grate half a foot above the burning logs. Having been smoked enough, you are about to switch to a higher grill for slower cooking. The rump of lamb on the side, however, remains in its place, tinged dark red by its Ecuadorian marinade of achiote paste with herbs, garlic, and chili. Next on the grill are lamb chops. Then the ox heart skewers (based on anticuchos, Peruvian street food), which cook up in no time on a grill set over hot coals. To finish, the tomatoes and chiles are cooked over coals, then pounded in a mortar to make ají (a chili sauce).

The rump of lamb is dyed dark red by its Ecuadorian marinade of achiote paste with herbs, garlic and chili

During lunch, which also includes potatoes with fresh cheese sauce (made with a version of cow feta cheese, bombarded with cream and parsley) and a pickled radish, onion and tomato salad with lime (a barbecue staple in Ecuador), Bray and Ortiz discuss the joys and tribulations of cooking together as husband and wife. Who is the better grill? They graciously nominate each other. However, neither is beyond a bit of competitive nit-picking. “If I criticize him, he gets very angry,” says Ortiz. And vice versa. “We have learned to coordinate,” says Bray. She oversees the larger cuts, which take hours to cook. “I’m never happier than tending the fire with a beer,” she says. “I’m super impatient,” replies Ortiz, who handles the smaller cuts, marinades, and sauces. Although his favorite way of cooking on the fire is not grilling; is to prepare soups and stews such as fritada, an Ecuadorian dish of braised pork with garlic, spring onion and beer. “It’s the kind of food my grandfather would make in big pots,” she recalls.

Ortiz grew up in Ecuador and his earliest memories of cooking over a fire revolve around his grandfather, Papi Polo, who used to raise pigs, sheep, chickens, turkeys and Andean guinea pigs. He would slaughter an animal on the farm and the family would cook a meal from nose to tail over the fire. He would earn enough to feed the entire family: eight daughters, two sons, and 20 grandchildren at a time.

Bray caught the fire cooking bug from his in-laws. “I loved the whole culture,” she says of the way Ortiz’s family would get together on weekends and pick their way through buckets of meat, fish and vegetables. “I was instantly hooked on the social experience and the relaxed atmosphere.”

The Fire Made business was an unexpected offspring. Bray, then working for the local government, commissioned a blacksmith to make a roast cross for his personal use. “A whole side of beef [cooked] on a cross is the coolest thing”, he says. He posted photos on Twitter and was inundated with people asking where they could get one. He ordered more to sell, made some grills, and suddenly: “I had people coming to my house to pick things up,” he says. “He was like the Del Boy of South American barbecue teams.”

In 2016, a showcase at the London Food Festival, meatopia, led to increased industry attention. Now, the couple designs and ships equipment to chefs around the world. “We’re seeing more and more restaurants, from fine dining to street food, adding grill or smoked items to their menus,” says Bray.

The domestic market is also expanding. Fire Made’s consumer range now includes a smaller Portico Home Grill, add-ons like chicken baskets and a flambadou (for heating and draining fat and butter), and a newly launched portable beach cooking kit. Needless to say, cross-roasting is still a big seller: “If you like meat and barbecue, there’s no greater show,” says Bray. It’s the original dinner show. firemade.es

@ajesh34