RAW TRUTH: WHY WE DON'T CALL IT BBQ
People call us a BBQ catering company. They are wrong.
When someone hears "Meat the Fire" and sees images of flame-cooked food, the automatic assumption kicks in: "Oh, another BBQ company." I understand the confusion. In Dubai's dining scene, anything involving fire and meat gets lumped into the BBQ category. But calling what we do BBQ is like calling a symphony orchestra a garage band because they both make music.
The distinction matters more than you might think. It's the difference between technique and tradition, between craft and convenience, between creating an experience and simply serving food. So let's set the record straight about what fire cooking actually means, and why it changes everything about how you think about gathering around flame.
When Everything with Smoke Gets Called BBQ
Dubai's food scene loves labels. We have "fusion," "contemporary," "artisanal," and yes, "BBQ", a catch-all term that's been stretched to cover everything from American-style brisket to Korean galbi to whatever happens when meat meets heat outdoors.
Traditional BBQ deserves respect. Real BBQ is a specific craft with deep cultural roots; whether it's Texas brisket smoked for 14 hours, Carolina whole hog with vinegar-based sauce, or Kansas City ribs with molasses glaze. Each style represents generations of technique refinement, cultural tradition, and regional pride. BBQ masters spend decades perfecting their craft, and their expertise is worthy of celebration.
But here's where the confusion begins: Dubai's international dining scene has adopted "BBQ" as shorthand for any cooking method involving fire and meat. Grilled chicken becomes "BBQ chicken." Flame-seared lamb is "BBQ lamb." Even gas grill cooking gets the BBQ label.
This creates a problem for diners seeking something beyond the expected. When everything fire-related gets called BBQ, how do you communicate that you're offering something fundamentally different? How do you explain that what happens at a Meat the Fire experience isn't just premium BBQ; it's an entirely different conversation with flame?
The answer lies in understanding what fire cooking actually means.
Fire Cooking: Ancient Technique, Modern Mastery
Fire cooking isn't a trend or a marketing term. It's humanity's first cooking method, practiced long before the word "barbecue" existed. While BBQ developed as a specific technique for preserving and flavoring meat through slow smoking, fire cooking encompasses the full spectrum of what flame can do to transform ingredients.
The technical differences are significant. BBQ typically involves indirect heat, controlled temperatures, and specific time parameters. Fire cooking works with direct flame, multiple heat zones, and real-time adjustments based on how the fire behaves. Where BBQ seeks to control variables, fire cooking learns to collaborate with them.
Consider the difference in approach: A BBQ pitmaster sets up a smoker at 225 degrees and monitors the temperature for consistent results. A fire cook builds multiple heat zones within a single fire; some areas blazing hot for searing, others reduced to embers for slow cooking, spaces in between for everything else. The fire becomes a living kitchen where different techniques happen simultaneously.
This requires different skills entirely. Reading flame patterns. Understanding how different woods affect not just flavor but heat distribution. Knowing when to add fuel and when to let the fire settle. Recognizing the moment when meat needs to move from direct flame to ember heat to resting space away from fire altogether.
My French culinary training taught me precision; exact temperatures, measured timing, predictable results. Fire cooking taught me improvisation. The flame doesn't care about your recipe or your timeline. It has its own personality, its own rhythm. Your job isn't to control it but to understand it well enough to work with it.
This collaboration creates possibilities that neither traditional BBQ nor conventional cooking can achieve. Vegetables charred over direct flame while meat slow-cooks in buried embers. Fish wrapped in clay and nestled in coals while bread bakes on heated stones. Multiple cooking methods happening around a single fire, each ingredient receiving exactly what it needs when it needs it.
From French Kitchens to Fire Mastery
My journey to fire cooking wasn't direct. Like many chefs, I started with classical training: French techniques, Michelin-starred precision, the belief that mastery meant control over every variable. I spent years perfecting knife cuts measured in millimeters, sauce temperatures precise to the degree, plating that looked identical plate after plate.
That training matters. It taught me respect for ingredients, understanding of how heat affects protein, the importance of technique as foundation for creativity. But something was missing.. a connection between the craft and the soul of cooking that felt increasingly distant in sterile kitchen environments.
The first time I intentionally cooked over open flame, everything changed. Not the dramatic transformation that makes for good stories, but the gradual realization that fire demanded a different conversation. I couldn't bully it into submission like a gas burner. I couldn't set it and forget it like an oven. Fire requires presence, attention, and respect.
I spent years learning from fire masters around the world, not celebrity chefs but traditional cooks who had spent decades in conversation with flame. An elderly Lebanese man who could tell meat doneness by the sound of fat hitting coals. A Patagonian cook who read weather patterns to predict how wind would affect fire behavior. Masters who taught me that fire cooking isn't about showing off technique but about honoring the element that makes cooking possible.
Each teacher shared the same philosophy: fire doesn't belong to you. You belong to the conversation with fire. Your role is to facilitate what fire wants to do to transform ingredients, not to impose your will on the flame.
What Fire Cooking Looks Like at Meat the Fire
When we arrive at your villa, event space, or desert location, we're not setting up a BBQ station. We're creating a live kitchen where multiple fire cooking techniques happen simultaneously, each chosen specifically for what it brings to your experience.
You might see whole chickens suspended over flame, slowly rotating as skin crisps and smoke penetrates the meat. Vegetables charring directly over coals while their natural sugars caramelize and smoke adds complexity. Lamb wrapped in aromatic herbs, buried in embers to cook gently while flames handle the more dramatic preparations above.
Each technique serves the ingredient and the moment. Fish needs quick, intense heat to sear skin while keeping flesh delicate. Root vegetables benefit from long, slow cooking in ember heat that concentrates flavors. Fruits like pineapples transform completely when charred over direct flame, their sugars caramelizing into something entirely new.
And the cultural integration happens naturally. Lebanese za'atar meets Greek olive oil over Mediterranean-inspired flame. French technique precision guides traditional Middle Eastern spice combinations. Each element respects its origin while contributing to something new and unified.
But the real difference lies in how fire cooking changes the gathering itself. Unlike traditional catering, where food appears fully prepared, fire cooking creates theater without performance. Guests watch ingredients transform. They smell smoke building throughout the cooking process. They understand that what they're about to eat couldn't happen anywhere else, at any other time, with any other method.
This isn't dinner with entertainment added. It's dinner where the cooking process becomes part of the experience, where the flame connects everyone present to something primal and authentic. Conversations change around fire. People put down phones. Stories emerge. Strangers become curious about each other. That’s experiential dining.
Fire Cooking's Place in Dubai's Dining Evolution
Dubai's dining scene has evolved rapidly from functional to exceptional. The city now hosts world-class restaurants, innovative concepts, and dining experiences that rival any international food capital. But with sophistication has come a certain predictability, beautiful restaurants with carefully curated experiences that sometimes feel more focused on appearance than authentic connection.
Fire cooking offers something different: authenticity that can't be manufactured, experiences that can't be replicated, moments that resist the urge to perform for social media because they're too engaging to document.
Dubai's international community appreciates craft and cultural exchange. The city celebrates traditions from around the world while creating new ones. Fire cooking fits naturally into this environment, honoring ancient techniques while adapting to contemporary tastes and expectations.
The timing feels right. After years of increasingly complex dining concepts, there's appetite for something elemental and real. Fire cooking strips away pretense to reveal the fundamental magic of transformation; raw ingredients becoming something extraordinary through human skill and elemental power.
This isn't nostalgia for simpler times. It's recognition that some experiences become more meaningful, not less, when approached with respect for their essential nature. Fire cooking doesn't need bells and whistles because the fire itself provides all the drama necessary.
Experience Fire Cooking Yourself
The difference between fire cooking and BBQ isn't academic; it's experiential. You taste it in vegetables that maintain their structure while gaining complexity from smoke. You feel it in meat that's been transformed by flame rather than simply heated by it. You experience it in the way fire cooking creates space for genuine connection around something ancient and universal.
This September, Meat the Fire is back with experiences designed to show Dubai what fire cooking means in practice. Not demonstrations or performances, but real gatherings where fire does what it's always done best – bring people together around transformation.
And did you know that your fire personality determines which dining experience calls to you? Are you a Fire Connector who creates unforgettable gatherings? A Fire Leader who builds teams through authentic shared experiences? A Fire Keeper who honors tradition while creating new memories? Or a Fire Student eager to understand the craft behind the flame?
