About Meat Smoke Fire

Big Green Egg

Serendipity, that’s how it’s been described.

My background was 20 years of IT Consulting and IT Project Management. However 2010 was one of those years that started the process of me reflecting on life. The outcome was that I was able to engineer leaving my job after almost 20 years.

In what some might say was a typical Nic Williams move, I went out and bought myself a Big Green Egg. Most people would look for another job I guess, I was planning on taking a little time out though.

Three weeks after leaving my job, I went back to London for the evening to celebrate my leaving do. It was a great night of saying goodbye to some great colleagues and friends. After the celebrations, I boarded the last train back to Cambridge, it was packed to the rafters as usual. However I spotted a spare seat and I sat down to find myself sitting directly opposite a great friend and ex-colleague, from a previous job, Nigel.

We got talking about barbecue, after all I’d just ordered my new Big Green Egg. After probably 15 minutes of chat, we were interrupted by an American sitting across the carriage from us with the question:

‘Have you ever cooked pulled pork on a Big Green Egg?‘.

The three of us then chatted all the way back towards Cambridge. The American never said what he did but I put two and two together and in my drunken state asked him if he owned Big Green Egg, the Company? It turns out he did and so I promised to drop him an email in the morning, telling him I was going to work for him.

Once I got cooking on my Big Green Egg, I posted photos of my dishes online. This led to a friend asking me to do some demos at The Gog farmshop. Then through The Gog, Big Green Egg asked me to work at the Chelsea Flower Show. After that I joined their team and worked for them for a while. I looked after their dealer recruitment as well as working on many events with them and project managing the move from their original web site to the one launched a few years back.

Cooking Classes

Following the success of the Big Green Egg demonstrations, The Gog asked me to run group classes.  These proved very popular with every class selling out.

I ran some private classes and these really took off.  After several years of travelling to customers houses, we launched the cookery school here, at our home, in Cambridge. Whilst I no longer offer private classes, we have some trusted partners, Julie and Eddie, who host these now. 

I also ran cooking classes in Austria three years in a row to a team of chefs, who work for the high end chalet company, Kaluma Travel.

Aeronautical Engineering

Yes you read that right, aeronautical engineering.

My old school friend, Paul, runs a small company but with some big clients. A few years ago he was under pressure to deliver a service to Roll-Royce jet engines that he didn’t have the time to do. So that’s when he called me. I ended up being trained to take apart their Trent XWB engines and have been doing ever since, when they need a repair doing.

I also run Paul’s in-house calibration service for some of the instruments they sell mainly to the aeronautical industry but also to other sectors using high tech composites such as McLaren Motorsport.

Live Cooks

In April 2020, we had to temporarily shut the cookery school during COVID.  So, we started our ‘Live Cooks’ to inspire other Big Green Egg and Kamado owners to use their ovens to their full potential. Initially, I was supported on the Live Cooks by Helena, interacting with the audience on comments and Andrea, our trusted cameragirl.  Mama, now also regularly joins the Cooks sitting at the bar, enjoying a tipple! We’ve now built a library of over 400 recipes for the Big Green Egg and Kamado users and have a created a great online community.