‘I don’t think I’m happier than when I’m watching over a long slow cook’

Andy Noonan knew that his relationship with barbecuing was going to be a life-long one when he grilled his first whole cow. It happened at the first annual Big Grill Festival in Dublin’s Herbert Park in 2014, when he and his friends hit on the idea of roasting an entire animal.

It was a great plan in theory, but it turns out that cooking something that size is a pretty labour-intensive exercise.

“It takes 24 ...