Where the magic happens! I've acquired a nice collection of grills since my barbecue journey began. As time has passed I have had to refine my main kit, because there just isn't room in the shack. We've said goodbye to the likes of an Ooni Karu 12 pizza oven, a Weber Master-touch premium and a Traeger Ranger.

Meanwhile, the main stays of the grill shack now include:

Traeger Timberline 850. The Traeger joined collection in November 2022, I'd been intrigued by stories on Instagram of it's simplicity and it looked like a grill that could fill a void where I had less time to tend to a cook. I have two small children and sometimes during the week when you have children to bath and put to bed, it's just not practical to tend to a cook on live fire. The Traeger is very much my simple smoker. It's controlled via wifi which means I can put something on to cook whislt tending to the kids, and know that I can monitor the progress from my phone. If it happens to be ready before I am, the app allows me to move to 'keep warm' mode and when I'm ready, it's waiting for me.

Kamado Joe Classic 3. As the name suggests, it's the classic bright red Kamado Joe that we know and love. I bought mine in November 2021 and it's the work horse of The Grill Shack. It was used for the vast majority of my cooks in Restaurant Roulette and is my go to for anything where I can have a bit of fun. I've cooked everything from a full roast dinner on it (including yorkshire puddings!), to wonderful reverse seared steak, a banging curry or a simple English breakfast. It's incredibly versatile and once you fully understand how to 'control' the fire / temperature, there really isn't a great deal that you can't do. It's ideal for a simple burger, but at the same time you can just as easily smoke a full packer brisket on it for 12-15 hours.

Gozney Dome. This was quite the upgrade on my previous pizza oven, both in size and results. Then Dome is the OG when it comes to the Gozney range, it's dual fuel although I predominantly use it with gas. The space inside could easily smash out a huge pizza, and cooks a regular sized one in 60 - 90 seconds. It's also great for searing meat with a cast iron pan.

The Blackstone 22" Griddle. Think English breakfast, all cooked at the same time, on the same hot plate. Think feeding the entire family pancakes, in just a few minutes. Think cooking up a stir fry, meat one side, vegetables the other and then bringing it all together. The Blackstone is a great bit of kit, gas powered and ready in just a few minutes, it's a brilliant weapon to my grill shack armoury.

Delivita Wood Fired Pizza Oven. Delivita were kind enough to add me to their group of ambassadors, and I was honoured to accept. Learning how to master wood fire cooking is a real art form, one I have yet to perfect, but something I look forward to developing in the coming months.

My first time curing pork & making bacon