TRENDS

Every summer our gardens burst into flames... thankfully contained in our barbecues.

What do anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, sociologist Ronan Chastellier and cook Steven Raichlen have in common? Fire! As in, they have all analysed an act that is a foundation stone of man's evolution: cooking over a naked flame. The subject is of global interest, as underlined by world specialist Steven Raichlen's The Barbecue Bible (1) selling more than five million copies. "Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, on every continent people practise the art of cooking over a fire." We'll leave perusal of Levi-Strauss's The Raw and the Cooked (2) to those with academic tastes, in favour of the more appetising information that in good weather 75% of French people feel an irrepressible desire to have a barbecue, as an OpinionWay survey for Campingaz revealed.

Breaking with modernity
Sociologist Ronan Chastellier sees this fixation with glowing embers as an expression of our need to "reconnect with nature through the quality time of enjoying barbecues with friends. A desire to rediscover nature, be out in the fresh air and socialise, all at the same time." According to him, modern-day living is in some ways discouraging us from eating together by developing new ways of consuming food: "Snack Boxes, Timballes, Cups… all these substitutes for real meals reflect an "accelerated" feeding dynamic but are also practices that in a way say "no" to life. Barbecues allow contemporary eaters to both "disconnect" and "detox" as well as rediscovering the pleasure of sharing meals with guests." In short, an aspiration along the lines of the American "neighbourhood" ideology, a desire to create local "little havens", and a way of paying more attention to others.

The "natural-glam" BBQ
But although a large majority of us is keen on cultivating our inner primitive, we're not prepared to do so archaically! The OpinionWay survey's second main conclusion is that 50% of French people want a barbecue that's easy to clean and 42% want one that does everything. A barbecue should make life easier, have "natural glamour" and be hot on little details including fast lighting, even grilling, the ability to cook all sorts of dishes etc. So manufacturers such as Campingaz are developing legions of products to answer those demands, as in the Instaclean system that lets you take the entire thing to pieces and put the dirtiest bits in the dishwasher, and the Culinary Modular concept that lets you expand your grill's possibilities by, for example, installing a pizza plaque or wok in its centre.

Study at the Grill Academy!
Professional gear essential for... grilling sausages? Obviously not, as the barbecue revolution isn't limited to ritual or equipment but extends to the very act of cooking by demonstrating that lighting a fire doesn't imply ignoring culinary complexities. To get this message across, Weber, inventor of the covered barbecue, has set itself the mission of initiating "serial grillers" to the art of "barbecue-nomy" through its Grill Academy (4). "We want to get away from clichés and show that it's a cooking appliance like any other, able to cope with all kinds of recipes," explains the Grill Academy's chef, Vincent Tiberghien. On the programme of these We Experience sessions (sign up on the web): whole chicken scored and stuffed with ricotta, semi-cooked/semi-smoked salmon with sesame, rib of beef in a salt crust, fruit pancake with carambar sauce, and suchlike. "The idea is also to teach preparations that everyone can throw together off-the-cuff from cupboard and fridge if friends arrive unexpectedly." What more could we want?