Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby bring a unique blend of exotic spices, American favorites, humor, and infectious enthusiasm that will put the thrill in your grill and have you coming back for seconds.
Among this book's unique features:
- Sound advice on which grills and fuels to use, how to lay your fire, and how to know just when the fire is at the right temperature.
- Descriptions of the few cooking tools you need for carefree grilling, with instructions on how to use them.
- A chapter elucidating the fine art of grilling, with tips on how to get the best, most flavorful results.
- A chapter of innovative, full-flavored grill appetizers, eminently suitable for combining into a full meal.
- A one-of-a-kind section on the art of barbecuing (smoke cooking), including all-new information on regional variations, barbecue terminology, and a guide to the colorful rhetoric that is an indispensable part of this cooking style.
- An original chapter called "Sambals, Blatjangs, and Salsas," or the "sauces" of grilled foods, easily put together with raw ingredients.
- Recipes for exotic beverages that are just the thing to wash down a spicy meal.
- Simple down-home desserts, perfect after grilled foods.
- 32 pages of four-color photographs of the recipes in the book.
- A pantry section that provides you with techniques for creating recipe ingredients such as braised garlic and roasted peppers; tells you what prepared ingredients you should have on hand; and describes the variety of chile peppers and exotic fruits and vegetables used in the book.
In his jacket photo, ace grill chef Chris Schlesinger has the look of Howdy Doody with a stomach full of barbecue. It's a speechless kind of look. Schlesinger, however, is not a speechless kind of guy. Starting with the motto, "Brown food tastes better," Schlesinger and his writing partner, John Willoughby, show the reader exactly why that is. The ride lasts nearly 400 pages.
It's hard to imagine a pre-Thrill of the Grill time in American culinary life, so mighty has the impact been. It's a book with a built-in virus of insidious and infecting qualities that will have even the least interested among us out at the grill, getting the fire glass-melting hot, trying a few ideas like Grilled Shrimp with Pineapple-Ancho Chile Salsa, or Grilled Chicken Rubbed with Ethiopian Berbere (hot, hot, hot), or Grilled Swordfish Steaks with Yucatan Orange-Herb Paste, or maybe Beef Heart Grilled and Marinated in the Peruvian Way (or maybe not).
Actually, that right there--beef heart--is rather telling. Who else in their right minds would include grilled beef heart in their cookbook? These guys, Schlesinger in the lead, breaking trail, will go anywhere, do anything, and bring it all home to grill and eat.
The sheer love of food pours off these pages--the way it tastes and feels, the way super spices fire up your nervous system, the way the juices run down your forearm and off your elbow--and that's the way it should be. Relaxed. Determined. Thrilled. And with Thrill of the Grill tucked under one arm, you are sure to have the time of your life every time you fire up your grill and start cooking.
Plan on buying a couple of copies. This is one of those cookbooks that will get so grease- and sauce-splattered it will become unreadable. --Schuyler Ingle
