The Weber Q

 

 

For someone who spends such a large amount of time dining in the finest restaurants in Europe as well as grilling chefs as a food and travel writer it was a radical departure from the culinary path to pleasure for me to adopt the all important role of the chef, taking charge of the innovative Weber Q.

This new grill is certainly an innovation; the design and style are immediately noticeable, standing out amongst the more standard grills and barbecues standing in garden centres across the length and breadth of the country. It is designed to be portable, easily transported from home to garden, or from home to another destination where the grill can be unpacked and ready for use with ease. There are no coals as found in most gas barbeques and it was very easily lit. On closer inspection many small holes in the heating tube allowed an extremely controllable and even heat.

My experience as a barbecue chef has never approached Michelin star status, previous excursions to the garden on sunny days have resulted in two distinct barbecue dishes, regardless of ingredients, and they were raw and cremated, with little to offer in between!

The Weber Q, unpacked and assembled within three minutes, promised to transform my culinary skills to such a level that members of the family would flock from miles to enjoy my outdoor dishes, whilst the guidance notes did not promise those actual goals, I felt I had to set some targets with the latest addition to our household looking so good as it was assembled on the patio, adding the gas container ready for the initial switch on.

Gas connected, switch on and off we went, first time. Confidence levels at an all time high under the summer sun, I was putting steaks, chicken and salmon on the grill fifteen minutes later, adjusting the heat to a suitable level to allow me to sip my celebratory Pimms as I listened to the welcome of the sizzling sounds from the grill. There is little better in life than the healthy smell of food cooking in the grill, particularly under the summer sun, even more so when the food was cooking evenly, looking very much like a professional display of barbecuing skills.

All my own work? Well, no!

Actually if the wonderful Weber Q could take a bow, it would certainly attract more than a round of applause. The uniformity of the cooking on the grill, the fold out arms allowing sauces, marinades and seasoning to be close to hand, the thoughtful hooks for the barbecue tools on the ingenious folding rolling cart, all combined to elevate me to the status of a chef gaining genuine respect for my culinary skills from my own family, previously only offered to names like Blanc, Ramsay and Delia.

The pressure is now off, I can hold my head high, the Weber Q has enabled me to call myself a cook, and I can say there is much more pleasure to be gained from grilling meat, fish and vegetables than grilling a chef!

www.weber.com

Alan McColm