SOME TRUE AND SOME POSSIBLY (UN)BELIEVABLE LEGENDS OF THE GRILL!

Happened in the French Quarter of New Orleans in 2011, when around 17,500 people attended a surprise 40th birthday party, drinking over 85,000 bottles of beer and gallons of rye whiskey.

Is supposed to have been a beach BBQ in Montego Bay, Jamaica in 1995 which allegedly lasted for seven months until fatigue and a lack of anymore ‘jerked’ food, drink or money brought this mammoth grill-in to a halt.

Following a bet, the largest ever single BBQ cook-off occurred in 1999 in Kansas City when 5 steers were roasted in a huge pit for nearly 2 days, with a 100 gallons of BBQ sauce, the subsequent grill-fest lasted for a further 3 days and fed over 175 hungry BBQ fans.

Occurred just outside of the town of Waterberg on the Limpopo River in the Limpopo region of South Africa in 1952 when a crocodile ate a springbok and was then caught, coated in a special spiced mud and barbecued whole, the resultant Braai meal was enough to feed 40 people.

Was not actually a single Barbi occasion, but a continuing method of cooking food which used to happen in the Australian Outback when Bushmen on walkabout would prepare and grill specially prepared meat with ever increasing amounts of Bush herbs added daily to make it more palatable!

Probably not the best of locations and slightly scary was the Stag-night BBQ party held in Tijuana in 2013, which was organised by the Groom’s best friend and somewhat unwisely held in a graveyard with the guests dressed as ghosts. Proceedings were brought to an abrupt halt when the event was raided by the local Polizei on suspicion of cannibalism!

Grizzlies are a common problem in the Canadian Rockies, so it was perhaps no surprise that a Hunting party’s Barbi held in a remote part of the Banff national park in the Spring of 2018 was invaded by two Grizzly bears who ate most of the food before departing after one of the bears unfortunately toasted their paws on the fire!

Adrenalin junkies would find this a hard to beat Barbi feat. Held on Lake Walapoa in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2017 a bungee jumper plunged down to grab a burger that was being grilled on a Barbi floating on a raft 250ft below. Believe it or not he managed to not only take, but eat most of the burger, although he did suffer from acute indigestion as a result!

  Probably the most stupid and dangerous BBQ ever happened in Brazzaville, Congo when soldiers decided to use the ammunition compartment of a burnt-out tank as a BBQ, unfortunately they didn’t check to see if there was any live ammo on board, which then exploded; although somewhat shocked, luckily no one was hurt!

  Active volcanoes should be avoided, so it was possibly not the most sensible thing to do for a group of scientists who held a Barbi at the base of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, in Iceland 2010, just after it had erupted using the molten lava for charcoal although sensibly wearing heat protective suits and breathing equipment!

In typical LA style, the world’s most expensive ever BBQ was held at the famous ‘celeb’ Colony Club on Malibu Beach, California in 2016. 30 people attended a ‘glitzy’ Beach BBQ, with everything being done to excess including the Krug and Oysters. The total bill, a massive $1.1 million!

Occurred at Balmoral in 1972 when Prince Philip, a highly proficient grill master, held a BBQ on the banks of the river for the Queen and the Royal Family, ably helped by Princess Anne.

Happened at a Covid briefing in Downing Street on 28^th May 2020, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that despite the Lockdown, it was OK for family and friends to have a BBQ. It’s fair to say that this message was met with equal amounts of delight and concern, also giving a new perspective to the ‘Partygate’ saga