Get Fired up - making barbecue sales sizzle this summer

Richard Fox looks at how, weather permitting, you can make barbecue sales sizzle at your pub this summer

It's summertime, and that's great news for pub chefs. This is an opportunity to get outdoors and strut your stuff with the best of them.

There's no need to be jealous of all those sitting around in the sun trying to eye up a prospective summer partner, because all eyes will be on you as the provider of barbecue perfection. Frozen, processed burgers and dodgy chipolatas will be banished to the back of the queue next to your prize offerings. And it's a great opportunity to interact and generally show off the entertainer lurking within you.

Before you kick off, it's worth spending just a little time and money quite literally setting out your stall. Think of it as a kind of hardware mis-en-place. This can vary - depending on budget and size of your outdoor area - from a canvas gazebo and domestic "barbie" to outdoor bench seating and tables for 100 people, along with a spit roast for a whole pig. I can recall a local pub from my youth, which rented an empty barn at the back of the pub for the summer. It was set up for the whole period with bench seating and long trestle tables and lit by fairy lights. It was permanently packed, and in spite of the diversion of having to go to work, that summer felt like one long holiday.

On the barbecue front itself, gas-powered ones are the most practical and least time consuming, and will certainly save you a good deal of laundry. It's also worth looking at the possibility of some kind of outdoor PA system, or simply running an extension speaker from your existing set-up. If you're in a rural location, the possibilities for outdoor barbecue discos, barn dances or any other kind of summer themed party nights are unlimited.

On the actual food front, the barbecue season does not have to mean dumbing down the menu. In fact it's a real chance to show off your ingenuity.

Barbecues can dry out food, and there's also the lack of opportunity to introduce more moist items - unless, of course, you opt for my "sausage and mash" burger.

Simply make each pattie from minced pork, loads of herbs and seasoning and divide it into two halves; make a well in one half and fill with some chilled-down, buttery mash. Put the other half of the pattie on top and seal well around the edges. Not only does the mash ooze out as a buttery purée when it's cut into, but because the meat doesn't have to cook all the way to the centre, it stays lovely and moist.

This "inside-out" principle works for all sorts of food and is a great opportunity to introduce variety, extra taste and texture into otherwise one-dimensional dishes: chicken breasts can be butterflied, batted out between clingfilm and then stuffed with all manner of fillings, from cream cheese and mushrooms to chicken mousse.

To minimise cooking time, try wrapping in clingfilm and then kitchen foil to create a sealed sausage shape, and then poach. Thick sirloin steaks can be stuffed with cheese marinated in beer - just make a small slit in an outside edge of a thick piece of meat and then create a pocket, rather like a giant, edible pitta, stuff with the cheese mixture and secure the gap with a cocktail stick that's been soaked in water - absolutely delicious.

On the vegetarian front, halloumi cheese is a heaven-sent creation. It's cheese that cooks, rather than melts, and can be easily cut into cubes to thread on to skewers for more imaginative and tasty veggie kebabs.

You're not just limited to using the barbecue as a char-grill either. Once again, with a good kitchen-prepped mis-en-place you can deliver all kinds of barbie surprises. Try baking some large, flat mushrooms with a little butter, thyme and seasoning, loosely wrapped in foil and then spread with a blitzed-up garlic, parsley and breadcrumb paste. Just re-wrap in foil and put straight onto the barbecue coals to warm through.

Using the barbecue as an oven works well with cheese-stuffed peppers, too. Now all you need to complete the job is a range of "house salads". These can vary from a light, herb-and-tomato-concasse laden crushed-new-potato salad with olive oil (instead of mayonnaise), to a Thai noodle salad with prawns and coriander.

Finally, make sure you've got a range of top-quality bottled beers. Herby, zesty wheat beers such as Erdinger and Hoegaarden are fabulous barbecue beers, particularly with fish, while a good pilsner will cut through the fat of steaks and burgers.

Go get fired-up!