One Of The Oldest And Most Primal Methods Of Cooking

Neo-primitivism is the new avant-garde.

- Sudi Pigott

Chefs around the world from Stockholm to Singapore are returning to one of the oldest and most primal methods of cooking inspired by the distinct flavours that only smoke and flame can impart. It couldn’t be further removed from the last decade’s obsession with sous vide when it seemed almost rude to be aware the chef was cooking. Cooking on flaming wood is visceral and almost invariably becomes the focal point in the dining room.

Cast aside any preconceptions that open fire cooking is simple. It takes great skill to be an alchemist with direct heat.

“Every time I cook with fire it is different. The heat becomes an active ingredient in each dish and every time it cooks differently. That’s what makes it so exciting and technically challenging to the chef,” says Tomos Parry. His new restaurant Brat (www. bratrestaurant.com) in London’s Shoreditch has wowed critics. Parry openly acknowledges that he is hugely influenced by Basque open fire techniques. Like many chefs firing away worldwide, he cites time spent at Asador Etxebarri (www.asadoretxebarri.com) deep in rural Basque countryside cooking with self taught fire master Victor Arguinzoniz as a lifechanging pilgrimage. Arguinzoniz even designed and built his own giant cooking racks.

He is credited with igniting the almost cultish obsession with varying the wood to impart different fruit f lavours to cook giant Palamos prawns, outstanding beef chop and even ice cream.

Getaria, a small coastal village, is another hearth of pilgrimage where the top chefs of San Sebastian (Elena Arzak, Andoni of Mugaritz) are known to eat.