Chef Yen guides Mumbaikars through that perfect BBQ experience

I'll never forget my first barbeque party. It was the winter of 1998; we were barely out of junior college. We had the grill, we had the meat and potatoes and we had plenty of beer.

What we didn't have was experience, and as we waited for hours on end for the meat and potatoes to cook on the slow flame of the barbeque, we got drunk and forgot all about the food. We finally ordered pizzas. But after talking to Chef Roger Yen, of the popular Barbeque Nation in Khar, I know exactly where we went wrong.

"Marinade," he says emphatically. "You have to marinate the meat for at least two to three hours before you put it on the grill. With a good flame, it takes 10 to 12 minutes to cook the meat." That was mistake number one.

The kitchen shelves of the restaurant are packed with trays containing skewered meats and vegetables as the stew in the different sauces - Teriyaki, Korean, Lebanese and the indigenous tandoor masala.

But before you even think of the marinade, choosing the meat is important. "It has to be fresh and firm," he says. Yen suggests experimenting with bite-sized pieces of meat and veggies before moving on to more ambitious steaks and burger meat.

What is it about this simple, almost primitive style of cooking that gets the blood roaring, as our testosterone levels go into overdrive? It's something to do with our caveman origins — meat and fire. Yen concurs.

From the tribal areas in the heart of India to New York City, barbeques have always been in vogue. "When we think barbeque, we think mainly of meat. It's only now that people have started experimenting with vegetables." Potatoes, red and yellow peppers and zucchini make for great barbeque veggies. If you're working with a variety of sauces and marinades, bread works as a great neutraliser.