Fanning the Flames of Grilled Foods

January 2003

Fanning the Flames of Grilled Foods

By Ted Reader

In 1974, James Beard called barbecuing an art. In “Beard on Food,” he wrote, “Grilling, broiling, barbecuing — whatever you want to call it … (is) one of the most appetizing methods of dealing with meat known to man, and it deserves to be done with some semblance of technique, accuracy and care.”

I love to cook, a passion that began when I was young, and this cooking method has become my life’s work. Just get me a basket of fresh food and watch me go. My father, a performer in his own right, took a big red wheelbarrow from the garden, filled it with charcoal and topped it with an old refrigerator shelf. In the face of the propane-powered monstrosities all my friends had, this was humiliating — until a 4-in. steak was placed over the white-hot coals and then sliced onto my plate. This taught me early on that with grilling, it’s not so much the equipment as the delivery and, above all, the flavor. Deliver on the flavor and the rest is just window dressing.

Grilling around the worldThis passion for food led me to become a chef. But it’s my passion for grilling that’s gradually steered me to becoming “King of the Q.” Consulting, television shows and writing have fed this passion, offering exposure to great meals and an amazing array of grilling styles. In the United States, I’ve experienced regional barbecue styles from New England to the Carolinas and from Texas all the way over to California. I’ve eaten authentic tandoori in India, cedar-planked salmon cooked up in British Columbia, satay in Thailand and gaucho-style barbecue in Brazil. The number of styles and variety of foods that lend themselves to grilling truly are limitless.

The small charcoal braziers of Thai cuisine produce quickly seared, tender morsels of meats and vegetables. These ingredients, rubbed with or marinated in delicate spice mixes, often receive additional enhancement with coconut milk.

In Morocco, market braziers are full of kebobs and spit-roasted rabbit or lamb. Meat marinates in mixtures of oil, Eastern spices, lemon and yogurt to tenderize before a quick grill, then it is sliced onto a piece of flatbread.

Brazil’s gauchos — inventors of the fire-in-the-ground grilling concept — are masters of the open flame and hot coals. They skewer all manner of meat and vegetables on swords and lean them over a white-hot wood fire, then mop them constantly with sweet and chile-hot oily bastes.

We are all fairly familiar with the palette of spices and seasonings in Pacific Rim cuisine, but Indian cuisine depends on less familiar seasonings that include fenugreek, cardamom, asafetida and kari leaf. Middle Eastern cooks commonly use spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, which we more closely associate with desserts.

The Caribbean is the home of fusion cuisine. Settled and resettled by waves of immigration in compact areas, its inhabitants took the best of every cuisine. It is not unusual to see spice mixtures with familiar garlic, onion and chiles combined with as diverse a mix as turmeric, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom and black pepper. These spices are combined into a paste and rubbed over a butterflied leg of lamb. Cooks then grill the meat while basting it with a blend of ketchup, honey, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce.

From backyard to five-starGrilling is to me, unquestionably, the most popular cooking style in history; and the first style, for that matter. It awakens our most primitive instincts. We like the sense of being outside in the elements. Besides, anybody can grill, right? According to “Grilling in America,” a report issued in November 1999 by The NPD Group, Inc., Port Washington, NY, eight out of 10 adults grilled in 1999. No longer just a way to cook during a summer picnic, people grill all year-round. Grilled foods also hold a prominent portion of the menu mix in today’s restaurants.

Consumers today are better-informed and more health-conscious than ever. They know what is healthful and they want it with minimal fuss. They want low fat, but they’re trying to avoid some of the carbohydrates that tend to fill in for fat’s missing mouthfeel. Grilled food creates the expectation of juicy, mouthwatering flavors with minimal fat. Put grilled on the label and you increase your chances of sales incrementally.

I see no reason to limit grilled foods to proteins. Potential grilling candidates include everything from vegetables to grape-leaf-wrapped Camembert, and even smoked chocolate. People’s tastes are changing and becoming slightly more adventurous. More and more consumers now include meatless alternatives as part of their diet. As we gain a greater understanding of the true value of fruit and vegetables in the diet, it is more important than ever to give them a more prominent position in a meal. Seafood is taking on a bigger role, and consumers want it cleaner and without the usual breading or batter. We have the creativity and the tools at hand to fly with this great palette of ingredients.

The issue is how to mesh the technology with the flavor. If you look at the growing influence of New World cuisine, you see the preponderance of bold flavors from countries where grilling is the most common cooking style: Asian, Hispanic, Mediterranean. Grilled foods stand up to bold flavors and, by their very nature, have the added bonus of being low-fat. If you intend to impart this drama to a processed food, however, think it through with care. The delicate balance of grilled notes, complex spice mixtures and consumer expectation is not reached easily. Too often, the flavors found in processed foods become muddy and indistinct.

Cilantro, chiles, lemongrass and/or kaffir lime, combined with coconut milk, is a basic combination in Thai cooking. Ginger, turmeric, chiles, cinnamon, cloves, coriander and black peppercorns turn up in nearly all Indian spice mixes, along with flavors that distinguish the mix as tandoori, tikka or any of a myriad of masala mixtures. In each of these cases — as in the case of the many complex mixtures that also make up Hispanic cuisine — each ingredient contributes character to the whole, but remains distinguishable on its own, especially to an educated palate.

Granted, the average consumer will not have a sophisticated palate, but — although they may not have the correct words to describe the reason why they don’t like it — they will know when something does not taste quite right. They may say it doesn’t taste like anything except hot or sweet. If one spice — for instance cumin in a masala — comes on too strong and takes over the whole, the consumer will react strongly.

Taking it bigBackyard grilling is one thing; chicken breasts traveling down a belt-line grill over gas jets are quite something else. For the product-development chef, the challenge is creating the appearance, flavor and texture of the grill in a production facility with its various limitations. Technology being what it is, there is no shortage of flavor-injection marinades, rubs and coatings. Product can be tumbled, rubbed before and after processing or packaged with marinades and sauces that will impart smoky, charred notes. The effect of starches that mask flavors and processing methods that diminish or intensify flavors make the developer’s job more difficult. Developers must also anticipate how those flavors will carry through the life of the product. Pepper is one thing straight off the line, but after eight months in a freezer it’s a different animal entirely. Grill flavors are immediate, fresh, sharp and distinct, qualities not easily overcome by shelf-life issues. It has become more and more essential for the chef and the food scientist to sit down together and discuss these types of issues.

My reputation is built solidly on the premise that there are no rules. In my book “Hot, Sticky and on Fire,” I’ve included a recipe for smoked chocolate crème fraîche ice cream. Since smoking serves as one of grilling’s first cousins, this recipe presents a perfect illustration of my philosophy. Smoking chocolate is not a normal, everyday-cooking thing. Innovative culinary thinking serves as one of my best attributes. So, to my more technically bent brothers: Open your minds. Thinking outside the box is not just a new-products conference cliché.

So, how do grilled chicken breasts stuffed with peaches, Brie and shrimp evolve into a fabulous frozen entrée, complete with slightly smoky grilled notes on the chicken; the caramelized notes from the peaches; the bitter, creamy Brie notes; and the sweet, distinct shrimp flavors under it all? Can it be done? This is the challenge to today’s product developers. We need to show more willingness to really get outside that box and tease the consumer as we never have before.

The distance between food processing and foodservice is closer than it has ever been. The technology already exists to mass-produce food that can stand up to anything a chef can produce à la minute. One day I dream up a spicy horseradish-pineapple barbecue sauce; six weeks later it’s in a bottle with my label on it, a perfect reproduction of that first impulse.

Most of my work is taking fresh, in-your-face flavor profiles and commercializing them. I have come to realize that this is where the chef and the food scientist must join hands. The two disciplines carry equal weight. In this evolving marketplace, we owe it to each other to become close friends. A chef’s training encourages him to think without limitation; nothing is too outrageous to try. In my case, my technical partner has the task of reining me in and making a product marketable. As consumers’ expectations rise, I look forward to seeing this partnership of creative and technical minds grow ever stronger.

Mass-producing the bright, in-your-face flavors and textures of the grill presents this professional bond with its biggest challenge. Grilled means so much more than just sear marks on a chicken breast. Together, food scientists and chefs are moving the manufactured-food industry toward a new category that offers intensely flavored, healthful choices. Our better-educated consumers want clean, crisp flavors in less-complicated formats. While grilling is my passion, taking it forward to a new level is my new vocation.

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