Fire
Embers, plancha, kamado, gas, smoking, cooking on the move. By extension, any transformation by heat. What matters isn't the fuel: it's being able to read the heat and correct it.
Barbecue coach · Góis, Portugal
Fire isn't the subject. It's the tool.
25 years spent making fire my comfort zone. I help the people who want to stop circling the grill.
The filter
Three words, and everything follows
Matter
The product, the sourcing, the season. Fermentation, pickles, home-cured charcuterie. What changes when you give it time — smoke included: it's an ingredient, not a decoration.
Craft
The hand, the knife, the cut, the edge, the block — and the gear you take outside, judged by use rather than by a spec sheet. What can't be explained but can be shown, and repeated until it comes out right.
A subject that hooks onto none of the three isn't for me — whatever the opportunity.
The Workshop · free
Base camp
Short video modules on the fundamentals: lighting a fire, holding a temperature, choosing a tool. Free, in exchange for an email address — and unrelated to the professional training, which happens at your place, with your team.
These are my fundamentals, not a neutral course: I defend a way of doing things, and I explain why. It's where you start when you want to understand fire before deciding to go further.
The modules are in French for now — English subtitles are on the way.
Who I am
Régis Calcus, and 25 years of fire
Belgian, settled in Góis, in the Portuguese mountains. Training chef, cabinetmaker before that, twice runner-up French barbecue champion in 2024 and 2025 — and since 2026, judge at the France BBQ Masters and European ambassador for the BBQ World Cup. Fire was a way of life before it became a job.
I train professionals across Europe, I work with brands that actually manufacture something, and I coordinate the EBU Crew, a pitmaster collective active in seven countries. Between trips I cook outside, I ferment things, and I film what comes of it — including what had to be done again.
Educator, not influencer. That distinction isn't negotiable.
Working together
Bringing fire into your trade
I'm a barbecue and outdoor cooking coach, working with professionals — restaurants, caterers, food trucks. Three ways to call on me, depending on what you're after and the time you have.
Coaching
Sustained support, to build your fire-cooking offer end to end — you, not your brigade.
- One session a week, one objective at a time
- Your menu, your equipment, your constraints
- Remote, without blocking your diary
At your place
I come to your kitchen, on your equipment, under your service conditions.
- At your station, with what you already own
- The team learns in service, not in a classroom
- You come away with answers, not notes
One call's worth
One precise question, one decision to make: a purchase, a menu, a cook that won't hold. We book a call, you leave with an answer.
- One hour, with no obligation to continue
- Billed hourly, the rate given before we set a date
- No affiliate links — including “what you have is enough”
The journal
Notes from the embers and the road
What I try, what I start over, and what ends up holding. Techniques explained properly — temperatures, timings, equipment — matter left to work, and field notes from wherever the job takes me.
Recipes too — but with what makes them work: why that temperature, why that timing. Enough to redo them at home, on your own kit, and know what to fix when it didn't come out.
The fire bowl is a cooking tool, not garden furniture
Grillrost's fire bowl, and what its design says about cooking outdoors.
Foil-packet cooking on the barbecue
Healthy, flavour-packed barbecue
Cooking the perfect "côte de bœuf"
Tempering, salt, reverse sear, resting, slicing: the full method, and why every step matters.
The letter
Every now and then
What happens around the fire, on no fixed schedule. No promotions, no ten-part series.
Get in touch
A question? Write to me.
I read everything myself. A project, a date, a doubt about equipment — all of it is worth discussing.