The Three Blue Ducks' guide to barbecuing like a legend

• Barbecue prawns with buttermilk, avocado and parsley
• Lamb, pumpkin and charred prawn salsa

Darren Robertson and Mark LaBrooy, the salty chefs behind the Three Blue Ducks Bronte and Byron Bay, are back in Sydney and this time they're wielding a 500-kilogram barbecue.

The duo may have released two cookbooks to date (Three Blue Ducks and Three Blue Ducks – Real Food) but the one I really want them to write is The Blue Ducks – How to Live. Because they kinda have it nailed, even if they're reticent to to talk it up too much. "Don't be fooled," says LaBrooy, flipping an octopus tentacle on the giant barbecue out the back of their new Rosebery digs on the old Kitchen by Mike site. "Right now we're at a time when we're all putting in some big hours again. It's not like we come up with an idea, hold hands, skip down the road and build a restaurant."

Well, no. But they certainly live a pretty rich existence, heavy on the sea. When they're not at work, they're spearfishing, surfing, hanging with their respective families, and making their restaurant work around their lives, not the other way round.

And somehow, among it all, they manage three very different restaurants with three very different vibes in three very different places. "We didn't want to create a facsimile of Bronte or Byron – we needed to do something that was completely different," says Robertson, of TBD Rosebery, where they've also employed the service of ex-MasterChef winner Andy Allen. "The menu's completely based around the oven, the charcoal pit and the barbecue."

"The funny thing is without the experience of Byron, we would never have been able to do Rosebery," adds LaBrooy. "At the Farm, we started to play properly with barbecue and the coals and rotisserie and cooking with the Argentinian-style grill."

LaBrooy helped make and design that grill back in Byron Bay, where the pair split their time. The barbecue was originally meant as something that could be transported easily to music festivals, and ended up being a half tonne behemoth they've nicknamed ''Bob''.

"You can do so much volume," says LaBrooy. "This barbecue is the size of a king single bed and can hold three lambs at once, so you always win the 'mine's bigger than yours' battle. You're owning it there a little bit."

On top of the barbecue, there's also the wood-fire oven – a hangover from the Kitchen by Mike days, which the guys had never used before. It was actually an encounter with Africola's chef Duncan Welgemoed cooking together in the Adelaide Hills at Ochota Barrels vineyard that really got the chef duo thinking more seriously about cooking with fire as a sole source of fuel. "He kind of took us aside and told us what to do," says Darren Robertson.

"We'd been cooking with the barbecue at the 'Ducks in Byron but this was the first time we'd used a proper wood-fire oven. He was like 'put the coals there, keep it consistent, fruits and vegies, leg of lamb. At night before going home, put in stocks to use all the residual heat and make the most of it.' It was a real masterclass. And then we got in here and we were like 'f--k, this is unreal."

Cooking with an entirely new medium has got to be a pretty daunting thing. And while brings a world of opportunities, LaBrooy says it offers up an equal amount of limitations. "Learning to control this beast of a coal pit, you realise the different areas you can work with and where the hot and cooler patches are. For the first six weeks, I worked every shift on the back pit because I wanted to learn how to work the oven properly. It was amazing."

The really exciting thing, reckons Robertson, is the fact that Sydneysiders are suddenly keen for some colour on their food. "I think Sydney as a city has become more accepting and embraced proper cooking and imperfection."

Which is lucky, really, since barbecuing can be a bit of a wing and a prayer situation. "Everyone's an expert, says LaBrooy. "It's amazing how people have their own little ways. And it's great that everyone's particularly invested in that particular style of food. Honestly, if we hadn't had that time up north and a little bit of a crash course with Duncan I don't know if we would have been able to do anything as good."

Join Mark, Darren and Bob the barbecue at Spring Social
This year we wrap up Good Food Month in true style amid a sea of fashion and entertainment. Join us for a unique picnic and barbecue catered by the best in the game – renowned chef and restaurateur Matt Moran hosts a Chiswick pop-up, the Three Blue Ducks boys will be there with their barbecue and dessert wizards Alistair Wise (Sweet Envy) and Andy Bowdy are on hand to sweeten things up. A festival highlight not to be missed. Tickets $95, includes two beverages and four substantial snacks – one from each of the four stallholders. Tickets from the Good Food Month site.

What you'll eat…

Three Blue Ducks
Free-range piri piri chicken thigh fillets over hot coals with salad
Vegetarian option – barbecued whole pumpkin with sauerkraut and baba ganoush

Chiswick
Sydney rock oysters (natural or finger lime dressing)
Warm pastrami bun with English mustard and Chiswick pickle

Andy Bowdy and Alistair Wise
Soft serve sundaes
CWA style high tea plate mashed with a car boot sale (fried apple and cheddar pies, pineapple tart, vanilla slice)

What you'll drink…
Pimm's sparkling cups
Coopers Beer
Thatchers cider
Yalumba wine

What to wear…
Pull out the linens and spring frocks and your best enormous hat

Good Food Month presented by Citi is filled with events during the month of October. Head to goodfoodmonth.com for more.