Ainsley's Barbecue Bible

Flamboyant chef Ainsley Harriott goes global in search of sizzling barbecue ideas. This program kicks off with a complete guide to cooking on coals, from lighting the fire to the barbecue essentials. Gardeners on Birmingham's Uplands Allotment are amazed when Ainsley turns up, looking for recruits to help him test the different types ofbarbecues. He also prepares Uncle's Pork Calypso, korma courgette-and-chickpea burgers, his own classic barbecue sauce, and a roasted sweetcorn and red pepper and avocado salsa.

Ainsley Harriott travels to the tiny Greek island of Alonissos in his search for the world’s best al fresco recipes. He arrives during the Easter celebrations - a holiday period which marks the start of the barbecue season. Ainsley visits an open-air festival, where he samples spit-roasted lamb and hortopitta, a tasty filo pastry pie with a filling of wildspring greens, herbs and feta cheese.

Ainsley Harriott samples the distinctive barbecue, or braai, style of the Cape Province in South Africa. The region’s cookery has a strong Malay influence, a result of the cooks brought to the area by Dutch settlers, and most local recipes make good use of the Cape’s abundance of fresh fruits.

Thai people love cooking, especially al fresco entertaining, making barbecues out of anything from buckets filled with bricks to portable pots. It’s hardly surprising in a country which takes its food so seriously, as Ainsley discovers when he visits Bangkok’s 24-acre Chatachak market.

Ainsley travels to the Caribbean to investigate Jamaica’s barbecue roots, stretching back 1,200 years to the Arawak Indians. They created the island’s most famous barbecue dish - jerk pork - and Ainsley Harriott drops in at Fuzzy’s Jerk Stand in Boston Bay. The home-made sign says it all: “Best in Boston - Jerk Pork and Chicken in Fine Style”.

Ainsley goes Down Under, to the home of the barbecue, and discovers that Australia isn’t all T-bones and tinnies. Four hours inland from Alice Springs, he reaches one of the country’s most sacred Aboriginal sites, Mount Conner in the heart of the Outback. Here he meets Vic Cherikoff, an extraordinary man whose mission in life is to prove just how good native Australian food can be. Working with his Aboriginal partners, Vic shows fellow countrymen, and foreign tourists, how even one of the world’s most hostile environments can furnish food for a three-course meal.