Fire, Food, Fun for Dublin

After its return in 2022, the BBQ and food festival “The Big Grill” is back in Herbert Park this summer, running from August 17th - 20th. Over four days of fire, food and fun, Irish and international chefs, restaurants and barbecue experts will come together to celebrate and explore the challenges, techniques and pure magic of cooking over live fire.

In a first round of names announced, Big Grill Festival 2023 welcomes Brad Leone, internet chef and former host of the popular Bon Appétit YouTube series It’s Alive and celebrity-guest show Taste Testers. Award-winning food writer and live fire cook Melissa Thompson, author of Motherland – which explores the evolution of Jamaican food from the island’s indigenous population – will lead BBQ demos inspired by her background and cookbook. 

Also making their Big Grill debut, and flying in all the way from Nashville, are Trevor Moran of Locust (whose pedigree includes Nashville's The Catbird Seat and Noma in Copenhagen) and one of the South’s most acclaimed pitmasters and author of Life of Fire Pat Martin, renowned for his West Tennessee-style whole hog BBQ. Also joining them from the States will be restaurateur and pitmaster Billy Durney of Hometown Bar-B-Que and Brooklyn’s Red Hook Tavern, the man who took eight months to perfect his legendary cheeseburger – those are some secrets you won’t want to miss!

A Big Grill favourite, Andy Ricker, is back. The two-time James Beard Award winner and founder of PokPok restaurants and Som beverages will make the journey from his base in Thailand to cook Chinese-Thai food with Dublin’s Hang Dai. Also returning is BBQ expert Genevieve Taylor, who has literally written the book on barbecue — 12 of them so far, including the bestsellers Charred - A Complete Guide to Vegetarian Barbecue and Foolproof BBQ — and will give in-depth masterclass demos in Bastecamp.

Restaurants feature too, including Hawksmoor, From the Ashes Barbecue, Hang Dai, Bites by Kwanghi, Bahay, Parrilla by Baste, Happy’s, Crudo, Reyna, Reggie Does Pizza and Bahay.

With more names to be announced and a detailed schedule with an increased focus on niche, skilled and in-depth demos happening this year also imminent, further information and tickets for Big Grill Festival 2023 are available on https://biggrillfestival.com.