We've eaten our way across most of America over the years, but we learnt to cook this way in the Carolinas and Texas, standing around smokers with people who've been doing it their whole lives. Usually with a beer in hand. Turns out that's a pretty good way to learn.

And the more of America we saw, the more we realised how little of its food ever makes it across the Atlantic. The old stuff. The regional stuff. The dishes with a thousand years of fire behind them. That's part of what we chase now. The rest comes from everywhere else we've eaten along the way: if a dish has depth and it works over fire, it earns a place.

Back home, all our meat goes over oak on our traditional offset smoker, sometimes for the best part of a day. Everything else hits the Santa Maria grill, an old-school Californian ranch setup where the cooking grate cranks up and down over glowing coals. No shortcuts, no fancy tricks. Just fire, smoke, good produce and knowing when to leave it alone.