Compiled by: Tracy Knox | Book Review: Ultimate Braai Master by Justin Bonello
Justin Bonello's Ultimate Braai Master is a breathtaking 8,000 kilometre culinary road trip that redefines the rules that govern cooking on the open flame. Join Justin and his 30 new friends on a fireside journey across South Africa, where the great outdoors becomes your kitchen, your cooler box converts into the kitchen table and the roaring fire replaces your stove.
This book is not only about the road trippers and mouth-watering recipes they create, but also about the astonishing places in South Africa that many of us only get to dream about. The bonus? Your man gets to become the Ultimate Braai Master in your home.
About the Author:
Justin Bonello is a South African filmmaker, chef and television personality best known for starring in his own cooking and travel show, Cooked, since 2006. He’s the guy messing about with the braai, burning his fingers on one hand, with a beer in the other; or in the kitchen fearlessly experimenting with flavours and ingredients, playing with his food. Justin’s other books include Cooked in Africa, Cooked - Out of the Frying Pan, Cooked - Weekends Away and Justin Bonello Cooks ... for Friends.
Q&A with Justin Bonello
1. What is your favorite braai dish and why?
At the moment I’m particularly partial to klip rib. You use lamb ribs (generally terrible to cook because of all the fat and flames that flare up when it drips onto the coals), but Cobus Hough taught me an ancient method of cooking ribs when I was last in the Karoo. What you basically do is take two flat igneous rocks (they have to be igneous, otherwise they’ll explode) and place them in the fire, pyramid style. Leave the rocks to heat up for an hour or so, and then take them out using something to protect your hands - be careful, they’ll be hot as hell! Season the ribs with salt and pepper, then place them on top of one rock, and place the second rock on top, sandwich style. Now sit back and watch it sizzle (the heat will burn most of the fat off). It’ll take about 45 minutes for the ribs to cook through. Lip-smacking good!
2. What are the basic necessities a person has to have to have a great braai?
The first necessity is obviously good friends - without those, you’ll be standing on your own in a wind-swept corner of your garden, and that’s not my idea of a braai. The second necessity is great meat (free-range / organic) and it’s got to be fresh. Third necessity? A braai without beer is like a month without sunshine.
3. Of all the amazing places you travelled to, which is the place that stands out the most for you and why?
I’ve travelled the length and breadth of South Africa and each place has something that stands out. My great love is still the Wild Coast, but I also love the Orange River, Breede, West Coast, Karoo … I can’t narrow it down like that … what an unfair question!
4. If you were stranded on an island with only one braai tool, which one would you choose?
Have you ever seen my cooking shows? If I was stranded on a desert island with no tools I’d still survive, as my braai-singed fingers are the only tools I need.
5. Does a braai need a salad? Many ladies would say 'yes', but what is your opinion?
I think narrowing down the possibilities for a braai with just a salad is a bit average. After Ultimate Braai Master, we realised anything you can cook in a kitchen or restaurant, you can do on a fire. So to limit yourself to just a salad? Ha! We can do anything as a side for the braai.
6. What does 2013 hold for Justin?
Shoooooo! ϑ We’re obviously shooting the second season of the Ultimate Braai Master, which will be on air in September. In February I’m finishing my Magnum Opus on the Karoo (a six-part series that delves into life and lifestyle in the Karoo. We’re finishing off Charly’s Cake Angels, Season 2, and then we’ve got a couple of secret projects that we start filming from July onwards.
7. You have cooked a stew in a car engine, please explain this concept?
Understanding how food is cooked is a very simple process. You need a heat source and an understanding of the alchemy, timing and flavor combinations. The engine block is just a heat source - no different to an oven or a fire. And just think about it, it’s an eco-friendly way of cooking. If you’re going to use the energy to get from A to Z, then you might as well use that energy to cook your meal.
8. Out of all the Challenges that were held, which stood out the most for you and tested the contenders beyond their comfort zones?
Every challenge was designed to test the contestants’ food knowledge in the great outdoors. If I have to be completely honest, the final episode was probably the worst. It was the ultimate bring and braai, where old contestants arrived every hour for seven hours with something different for the top three teams to braai. Even with my skills, I don’t think I would have survived that challenge.
9. If you were asked to choose any three people to accompany you on a new Ultimate Braai Master trip around the country, who would they be and why?
C Louis Leipoldt, Keith Floyd and one of those overseas chefs, just so we can show them how to really cook food in the great outdoors.
10. Do you have a favourite quote? There are no bad cooks, just friends who aren’t hungry enough.
11. What are you most proud of accomplishing so far in your life?
Everything. If I think of work, the fact that my little company on the tip of South Africa is producing fantastic shows. If I think in terms of my personal life, it’s my wife and two boys, and I think in an emotive state the fact that I’m getting little older, wiser and greyer.
12. What are the top three things on your bucket list?
Listen, I don’t have a bucket list, I have a book. If I had to add three specifics onto it:
1. Walking the entire coast of South Africa (I would give my eye teeth to have the time to do that).
2. Learning from some real Italian mamas and papas how to really cook Italian style.
3. Publishing my first fiction novel.
dinFO:
Title: Ultimate Braai Master
Author: Justin Bonello
Publisher: Penguin Books
Pub date: November 2012
ISBN: 9780143530459
Price: R200.00
The Ultimate Braai Master: Roads Less Travelled cookbook will be available at all good book stores across the country from Monday 4 November 2013.
