Thrill of the Grill

"Twenty-five years ago, at a time when Americans were fascinated with fancy, fussy French cuisine – with all those painterly plate presentations and precious ingredients air freighted from all over the world – Chris opened a revolutionary restaurant called East Coast Grill in Cambridge. I reviewed it at the time – I was the restaurant critic of Boston Magazine . Although Chris went to culinary school, he found nothing he learned to cook there as satisfying or as flavourful as the beach barbecue he had in South Africa or the smoked pork shoulder he tried at a church supper in Virginia. He was one of the first guys to make a wood-burning grill the focal point of a restaurant and one of the first guys to spurn demi-glace, hollandaise, and other Frenchified sauces for salsas, chutneys and other explosive Third World condiments. So the restaurant was a complete revolution and an overnight success, and it’s still packed to the gills 25 years later. Chris and his writer partner John Willoughby wrote this bookas a guide to the grilling revolution. I’ve written eight books on the subject, so a lot of people associate the modern grilling revolution with my books, but I picked this one because Thrill of the Grill is what really ignited my interest in grilling. Even 20 years later, it’s full of fabulous techniques, great recipes, great flavours and a lot of kitchen wisdom. I think what Chris was trying to get at is that we came from a world of French-dominated cuisine where recipes began with sweating vegetables until they were translucent or involved poaching fish and poultry. But maximum flavour comes when you caramelise meat proteins or plant sugars over a hot fire and nothing does that better than a grill. So browned tastes better than poached. Freud coined the term “sublimation” for when man takes an unhealthy animal urge and finds a way to channel it into a socially productive activity. The fact is there’s something fascinating about playing with fire. Why do you think so many boys sign up to be boy scouts? Like Chris, I had a childhood fascination with burning stuff. Neither of us became an arsonist; we both channelled this urge to play with fire into books and TV shows and restaurants. We used a primal urge to make it a positive contribution to society."