The first time I remember was in the south of France in the late seventies when the children were small. The people in the gites got together for a barbecue using old vine cuttings from the surrounding vineyard. Can't remember what we had but it was delicious. Then in the 80s DH did lots of work trips to Texas and was invited to loads of barbies. We have had them a lot ever since. Tonight is pork ribs and greek salad as it is all we can face cooking in 35°. ?
Ooh interesting thread. We went with friends to an MG car club bbq about 1972. Remember there being a lot of bread and burnt offerings. Very little salad. Nobody had a clue really! ?
I was certainly grown up - probably when newly married on the beach - we were living by the coast in the Middle East so beach barbies were a regular thing.
We were still in that part of the world until dds were 7 and 10. On a rare mid-winter trip back to the U.K. when they were a little younger, they were amazed to see an open fire in my folks’ house, Much to our amusement, there was a cry of, ‘Granny and Grandpa have got a barbecue in the sitting room!’ ?
Late 70’s I think, at my Mum and Dad’s, they travelled a lot to America. We still use coals Shazza can’t beat it, we both take turns lighting it and cooking, filthy hands, but fun, the smell..?
I’m trying to think back but the best most memorable ones are the ones done over a real flame and coals. Yummy!! We have a gas one, not quite the same but hubby does it so saves me cooking.
In the mid/late 1950s. A friend had one for her birthday. Her birthday is in early March, it was cold and wet and everything, including the cooking, happened in a well-ventilated lean to beside the house.
We lived in the USA when I was seven (1964) and I can remember going to a barbecue in a huge garden and it being a real novelty. No recollection about what I ate, I just remember running down a sloping grassy lawn.
OH asked me this question today and neither of us could really remember. Our families and friends’ families definitely didn’t attend or hold them in our childhoods (‘60s) so it must have been the mid ‘80s, perhaps when people started holidaying abroad more (or watching Neighbours?!)