COOKING UP A TREAT

With hazy, lazy days gliding into balmy August nights, now is the perfect time to cook and enjoy your meals outdoors. Let Adam Frost be your guide as he looks at the very best ways to cook in your garden, from fire pits and barbecues, to stoves and pizza ovens

- Adam Frost

There is something magical about bringing people, food and fire together. As much as I have a passion for growing my own veg, herbs and fruit, it's driven by a love of cooking and spending time in the garden with my family. So much of life for me is about creating memories; I'm not sure life gets much better than sitting in the garden with friends or family, chatting over a meal you've grown and cooked yourself.

I think being a chef is probably the only other thing that I could have been happy doing for a living. We do most of our cooking outside in the summer, but I have been known to fire up the pizza oven on Halloween or bonfire night - you can still get a lot from the winter garden.

It's about continuing those traditions with my family and friends as well as creating new ones. And most of all, it's just about having fun together.

Where to cook

If you are going to use an outdoor oven, fire pit, or barbecue, it's a good idea to think through where you will put it and how you will use it. Consider what time of day you are likely to cook and where the sun might be. Is it a windy part of your garden? How many people do you want to sit around it? Will it affect next door? Not everyone likes the smell of a barbecue! Some people may want a fixed place to cook, while others might like to be able to move their stove around. As well as practical issues, I like to think about how the area will look from the house and how many months of the year you will use it.

Four easy ways to cook in your garden

1 CHARCOAL STOVES