Fireside flair

Open-flame cooking has caught on like, well, wildfire. Once the domain of backyard barbecues, today, fireside cooking has become the latest must-do when it comes to luxury dining. All the techniques of open-flame cooking, be they grilling, smoking or charring, or now being embraced by fine-dining chefs who are looking to fuse their well-honed craft with primal cooking methods. Where's the appeal, you may ask. The answer is not hard to find. The atmosphere of communion that open-flame cooking creates, the hiss of flame, the smoky meat and all the drama and theatre it brings to the table is enough to draw in more fans. The trend traces its origins to restaurants in South America and Spain, where chefs have been elevating fireside cooking to true-blue haute cuisine. Australian-born Chef Jack Jarrott, Head Chef at Sand & Koal, Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental, is in town for a pop-up that is running till September 14 and focusing exclusively on open-fire dining. "I aim to fuse the fresh produce I have found here in Bengaluru with the element of fire...the flavours are clean, the tastes classic," says the chef. So if there is roasted bottle gourd with Gondhoraj lemon, there is also the pitfire-roasted bell pepper with fresh sourdough, not to mention the classic flame-grilled snapper. Trained under Gordon Ramsay, Jarrott pioneered open-fire dining at Sucre, Dubai, earning Michelin recognition and hopes to popularise the concept "everywhere".