Barbecue in Nice France may not be the first food experience that comes to mind, but the city has a smoky side worth discovering. At Bootgrill, Thierry “Big T” Cornuet combines French cooking techniques with North American live-fire barbecue, creating bold, generous dishes rooted in fire, flavor, and good company.
Barbecue in Nice, France: Gallic Fire
Go to Nice for many reasons. Nestled in southeastern France on the French Riviera, you have the Mediterranean Sea to one side and the French Alps to the other. You’re a mere 12 miles from Monaco, 20 from the Italian border, and if the season is right you can get to the ski slopes in an hour and a half. They have 300 days of sunshine a year. It’s called Nice la Belle – Nice the Beautiful – for a reason; it oozes history and culture, earning it a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation.
If it’s culture you want, then walk in the steps of Matisse and Chagall (don’t forget a visit to their eponymous museums) or wander the streets looking for inspiration as did Chekhov and Nietzsche, both Nice visitors. The city boasts a book festival in May and a Jazz Festival in July, the latter the world’s first jazz festival, which has hosted the likes of everyone from Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong to the Black Eyed Peas and Lauryn Hill.
Barbecue Comes to Nice
But what might not be on your list of Nice must-do’s is barbecue. Yes, that’s right: barbecue. But if it’s not, it should because Nice boasts a world class barbecue establishment, thanks to French Canadian, now Nice restaurateur, Thierry – Big T – Cornuet. There’s now the requisite merch and even a BBQ school where Cornuet shares his secrets – or some of them. He’s also written a book – The Art of BBQ – so you can bring the Big T vibe back home.
Cornuet comes by his BBQ credentials rightly. “I grew up around fire, hunting, fishing, mushroom picking, family gatherings, and simple meals cooked outdoors,” he says. “Long before cooking became ‘gastronomy,’ it was first about survival, sharing, and instinct.”
The Big T Approach to Barbecue
His French roots – developed first in Canada and now in France – have shaped the way he thinks about the food he shares with guests at his restaurant, Bootfire. “French cuisine taught me respect for technique, sauces, regional traditions, and seasonal products. North America gave me generosity, outdoor culture, large-scale live-fire cooking but also creativity and inventiveness,” he says.
Think French bohème with smoke and spice. Meats slow roasted over open fire, flame-kissed fish and shellfish– all cooked with a simplicity and respect for the ingredients that are signature Big T. “We cook with instinct, smoke, flame, and passion. I want people to feel warmth, generosity, and total immersion,” he says.
The Story Behind Bootgrill
Visit and you’ll see Cornet doing what he does best at Bootfire – the restaurant that almost wasn’t. Cornuet arrived in France in 2013 with a plan to develop Canadian brands for French audiences. He was a businessman – not a chef – but business came to a halt after the tragic bombing in Paris on November 13, 2015. He landed in Nice, without a plan A, let alone B or C. “I found myself with nothing. No money. A pregnant wife. A child about to be born. And countless sleepless nights searching for a solution.”
One night, the answer came in an unexpected way. “It was 4 a.m. I was sitting on my terrace, facing my 57-inch Weber barbecue. I looked at it…and in that exact moment, something shifted. And I still cannot fully explain it, but I knew that barbecue would change my life.”
And it did. He borrowed one hundred euros from his son’s piggy bank, bought a tent for thirty euros, some sausages, and set up shop on the side of an unlikely street in Nice. He called it Bootgrill – an ode to cowboy boots and cowboy spirit. The name stuck. “People simply started saying, ‘Let’s meet at the Boot.’”
A Serious Grill Master
What’s so charming and welcoming about Bootgrill is that there is no pretense. A sign on the wall reads, “No Beer, No Beef…No Life.” But don’t be mistaken – this is serious cooking by a serious grill master (Dominique Lory, Executive Chef of the Alain Ducasse group, is a fan).
His son Gaspard (the loan paid back) is learning the ropes and is in charge of their seasonal maple syrup Christmas hams. “I am extremely proud of him,” Cornuet says. “My only real foundation came from my grandmother, an excellent cook, who taught me taste, respect for products, and above all, the desire to bring joy through food.”
So yes – by all means go to the Musée National Marc Chagall. Stroll along the Promenade des Anglais. Explore the cobblestoned streets and squares of Vieux Nice. And when you’re done, visit Bootgrill – a blink-and-you-miss-it gem—for some of the best barbecue you’ve ever tasted.
The Art of BBQ: Techniques & Recipes, from Appetizers to Desserts by Thierry Cornuet is published by Tra Publishing.
Story by Julia Platt Leonard
Principal Photography by Rabien Breui
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