So where do you start? Well, it depends what you fancy for breakfast – if you’re a continental coffee and croissants sort of person, the barbecue is not really going to work for you. But if you fancy an English ‘fry-up’ or an American-style breakfast, the grill can be your early morning friend.

Well let’s start with how not to barbecue indoors. The one thing you definitely cannot do is move your outdoor barbecue into the house. Traditional barbecues are designed specifically to be used outdoors and would be very dangerous indoors. This is not just because of the fire risk but also because the fumes produced could be deadly.

Think about fridge space. Check that you will have enough space to store everything safely and if not, invest in some heavy duty cool boxes or ask a neighbour if you can use their fridge.

Barbecue grilling and other cooking methods that expose meat to smoke or charring contribute to the formation of PAHs; unfortunately this isn’t an uncommon occurrence with a barbecue grill! When meat is placed too near the grill burners and the temperature rises excessively, fats and oils drop into the burners of the grill and are partially combusted to form smoke (flavorizer bars help to counteract this).

9. Use Marinades. Marinades not only improve food taste, but there’s also good evidence that reduce the risks we have been discussing. Research carried out at California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found that by marinating chicken in a marinade of olive oil, cider vinegar, garlic, mustard, lemon juice, salt, and brown sugar it was possible to reduce the level of carcinogenic compounds formed during cooking by over 90 percent. We don’t yet know why marinating does this.

If you’re keeping things really simple, you could just stick to burgers in buns and sausages in rolls, and provide extras such as cheese slices, onions, pickles, ketchup and mustard. This way, you can also keep the cutlery requirements down to a minimum. You could even get away with supplying some good quality napkins, rather than plates.

• Dot buckets of ice around and stick bottles of beer into them to chill.

It’s has been a well-established fact for over ten years (perhaps longer) that grilling meat produces at least two types of potentially dangerous carcinogenic chemicals: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and hetrocyclic amines (HCAs).

If there are vegetarians among your guests (and it is more than likely) you may need to set up an extra grill so that their food isn’t tainted with the meat. Make sure the grill is well oiled, as non-meat products are more likely to stick. Alternatively, use an oiled frying pan to cook vegetarian sausages and burgers. If you want to get more adventurous, grill vegetable slices such as courgettes and aubergines, or kebabs made with vegetables and halloumi cheese.

Assuming you’ve done that and you’ve already picked a nice spot, next would be preparing for your barbecue on the beach. There are various grill types that you may use for barbecuing on the beach – you have the wood or charcoal grill, gas grill or you may also use a campfire tripod. Be sure to station your grill in a stable spot, away from any flammable material and safe from people possibly bumping into it.