Food

Big Grill Festival To Fire Up This Weekend

By Publications Checkout
Big Grill Festival To Fire Up This Weekend

Ireland’s first ever international BBQ festival & competition, The Big Grill Festival, will take place this weekend in Herbert Park in Ballsbridge, Dublin.

It promises to be a celebration of the art of cooking with fire & smoke, which will allow you to smell, taste, discover and learn about all kinds of BBQ’ing, grilling, smoking, meats and delicacies from around the globe, washed down with a choice craft beer or cider.

The festival will be open from 5pm-9pm Friday 15th August and 12pm-9pm Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th August and there'll be events taking place across the weekend.

The Grillster Academy will teach you how to cook the perfect food on your BBQ; giving tips on BBQ'ing, grilling, smoking, meat selection & preparation, rubs, sauces, sides, beer brewing and more. John Relihan, senior sous chef at Jamie Oliver's Barbecoa restaurant in London, will be running a series of demos & workshops including how to cook the perfect ‘man steak’, beer can chicken with smoked baked beans, pork filet with charcoal roasted veg & chipotle glaze & pulled pork, as well as grilling techniques, charcoal selection & rubs.

Over in the BBQ, Smoke & Fire section some of the finest locally sourced meats will be cooked by some of Ireland's top chefs & eateries, including Diep Thai and Pitt Bros, using multiple BBQ styles. Relihan’s team will be manning ‘Carnivore Corner’ cooking whole animals primitive style over open flames. There will also be tasty vegetarian options on offer.

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Of course, no festival would be complete without a couple of competitions. The Cú Chulainn BBQ Cook-Off Competition will feature over 20 participants competing to be crowned the first ever Cú Chulainn cook off champ. There'll also be a Wo(manly) Competitions section, involving Chilli, Hot Wing and Meat Eating which will see who has the toughest palette. The Ready Steady Q competition, hosted by Toby Shea (3rd Place Memphis in May, Whole Hog Cook), will encourage Big Grill goers to take part and cook up their choice of meat, sauces & rubs under the clock to see who is the best Q'r. A kids Qing competition will also run, with prizes for the winners.

To wash down all that delicious food the Best of Brews section will offer a handpicked selection of some of the best Irish Craft Beers & Ciders from Tom Creans, to Orpen's cider. A choice selection of wines and soft drinks will also be available. Wineonline.ie will host the wine bar while soft drinks will be manned by John Lemon Lemonades. Not forgetting coffee lovers, 3FE will handle the coffee brewing.

Finally, there'll be a top selection of entertainment throughout the weekend, in it's Not Just About the g(rub). Top DJs programmed by Discotekken will be laying down a soundtrack of funk, soul, blues, brass, hip-hop & disco along with some dry-aged classics. DJs on the bill include Scope & Splyce (Choicecuts), 45s king Baz Hickey, Billy Scurry, Lex Woo & iZem.

For more details check out biggrillfestival.com