The ingredients, seasonings and grills might not look the same, but most cuisines around the world have their own version of live fire cooking. From Indian tandoori, Japanese yakitori and Nigerian suya to Korean bulgogi, American smoked brisket and Middle Eastern kofte, there are examples of barbecue traditions in every corner of the globe, most of which date back centuries and which today hold as much cultural significance as they do culinary. The Caribbean is certainly no exception, with links to cooking over flames that span back beyond most. It's thought that Taíno, an indigenous people who lived across islands including Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Jamaica, were responsible for the first examples of the technique that we now know as barbecue in the fifteenth century (the word barbecue is said to be a derivative of the Taíno equivalent, barabicu, which referred to slow-cooking over a raised wooden platform). Grilling and smoking have remained hallmarks of Caribbean cooking ever since, with the warming, fruity spice of jerk and its all spice becoming the best-known, and most-exported, example.

Chef Renemar – or Rene – Pinedo remembers his mum cooking at the hearth, preparing everything from grilled meats and fish to journey cakes, a staple Caribbean sweet treat which the family had for breakfast on weekend trips to his aunt's house. He grew up on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao, where cooking over fire is, he says, an important part of the culture. 'Everyone gets together, opens up the barbecue and then eats together,' he says. 'Open flame has always been part of Caribbean cooking; traditionally it would have been over pits and over time it has evolved. Most commonly, you see half an oil drum and people cooking over wood. It is simple form of cooking, but a staple.' Though Rene is classically trained, he's tried to weave that influence into his menus, and has now been given the green light to do so as the new head chef at Costwolds bolthole The Feathered Nest (he takes over from Matt Weedon). For Rene, that means a bigger focus on live fire cooking and seafood; there's grilled lobster tail, spiced barbecue octopus and roasted monkfish now on the menu, sitting alongside dry-aged beef cuts cooked on the Josper and more classically British pub fare. 

‘The goal is to cook classically, as I learnt, but with the influence of the Caribbean – cooking as much as I can on the Kondo and Josper and using pans as little as possible,’ Rene says. ‘It keeps it cleaner and lowers the fat. The Feathered Nest is known for classic British dishes and what I’m trying to do is put a fresh coating on it – change the flavours and push it a little out of people’s comfort zones.’ It feels like a good time for Rene to be blending influences; in the UK, we’ve started to develop a better understanding of Caribbean food, though it can still be limited to better-known dishes; jerk chicken among them. ‘When I first came to the UK, Caribbean food wasn’t that big and people weren’t doing it properly,’ Rene says. ‘But in the last few years it’s become much bigger – Jamaican food in particular has improved and now there’s good Caribbean food in the UK that almost tastes like home.'

Rene grew up wanting to be an architect, but was nudged onto the culinary path by a teacher who sent him for work experience in a local restaurant’s front of house team. He was quickly drawn to the world of service, finding parallels with his upbringing. ‘I just fell in love with it,’ he says. ‘It was the feeling that it gives to people – the same feeling my mum used to give people when she cooked for them. Family and friends would come over and we’d have fried plantain, saltfish, dumplings – she used to show love through food.’ Rene stayed in front of house for a while, moving to a steakhouse which benefited from a steady stream of cruise ship tourists. ‘The boss used to challenge us by saying that if we sold three, five, or however many steaks, we could go home with steak or wine – it was great fun,’ he says.

After two years, Rene moved into the kitchen and found an affinity with cooking professionally. Diving in at the deep end, he immersed himself in the rush of hotels, before building his experience in other kitchens, including during a stage in Chile. But it was his move to Holland to study hospitality and work at the esteemed Restaurant Rozemarijn that gave him a grounding in classical cooking. ‘The way Europeans cook is very precise, very clean, very elegant,’ he nods. ‘Flavours were elevated to a different level. Caribbean food is different – we use a lot of different flavours, but this was more elegant.’ As he graduated culinary school, Rene was offered a job at The Feathered Nest, a well-known Cotswolds gastropub whose alumni also includes Kuba Winkowski. During the eleven years since, he's also taken opportunities to work alongside Ollie Dabbous at HIDE and stage at Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons . ‘That was an incredible experience,’ he says. ‘Working in kitchens is one thing, but working at Le Manoir is a another thing entirely – you have to go in with open ears and observe as much as you can.'

Rene is relishing his latest challenge at The Feathered Nest, and enjoying the platform he now has to showcase his own style. One day, he hopes to bring his cooking to a restaurant with his name above the door – I ask what, if it went his way, that future would look like. ‘Every chef’s dream is to get a Michelin star,’ he says. ‘I'm ambitious, so a Michelin star and four rosettes, and maybe my own restaurant here and in the Caribbean. I’m just a Caribbean guy trying to make it in England, and trying to get that level of recognition with a Caribbean-influenced menu – there's a lot to aim for.’