A grill is "the remote starting-point, the very genesis of our art... gradually intelligence supplanted rude instinct; reason began to deduce effects from supposed causes; and thus cooking was launched upon that highroad along which it has not yet ceased steadily to advance." Auguste Escoffier, called the "king of chefs...

Meat names are confusing, to say the least, so Thursday's announcement that The Beef Checkoff Program, the National Pork Board, and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have agreed to new labeling standards in an attempt to "make things easier on the consumer" should elicit unbridled joy from a...

The world of hams is confusing, and that's an understatement, but it is worth getting a handle on things because a little knowledge will make your ham dinners much much better.

Hams are cut from the top of the rear legs of hogs,...

On November 10, Kingsford Charcoal broke new ground in the rapidly growing world of competition barbecue and wrote a check for $50,000 to the winner of the first annual Kingsford Invitational, a showdown designed to unify the title and name one pitmaster the best in the world.

It...

Grilling has been around since the first time a forest fire trapped a wild hog and a band of homo erectus hunters noticed a wonderful scent wafting from the rubble.

It probably wasn't long before the tribe...

Let's begin by noting that for six weeks one of the producers of the Kingsford "BBQ Pitmasters" has been telling me the finals will be broadcast on the new Destination America network on July 8, a fact I have published in...

"Give a man a burger and he will gladly pay you Tuesday. Teach a man to make a burger and he will feed his family as if every day is Sunday." Meathead

Close your eyes and think of the best hamburger you've ever...

"I think Beer Can Chicken is a religion. We need a little separation of faith and science here." Sterling Ball, BigPoppaSmokers.com

Think about this: You've never seen a fine dining restaurant serve Beer Can Chicken, have you? That's because...

Sunday, June 24, was the last of the prelims of the Kingsford BBQ Pitmaster series, and now we know who the five finalists will be.

The broadcast was shot in late April in Salisbury, MD, at Pork in the Park. The Maryland-Delaware peninsula is a virtual henhouse with more than...

A full figured family man who scrapes together a living selling barbecue from a trailer has won the fourth of five prelim cookoffs in the Kingsford BBQ Pitmasters and will advance to the finals airing on July 8. He and four others will...

Sunday was the airing of the third of five preliminary cook-offs in season three of the BBQ Pitmasters. The contest was in Thomaston, GA, in early April at a larger competition called Smoke on the Water.

The cooks were, in order of finish:
1) Johnny Trigg, Smokin' Triggers, Alvarado...

Last week, in episode 1 of season 3, BBQ Pitmasters unveiled a new and significantly improved format. Click here to read my review. This week it aired the best show ever in the series.

Taped in Memphis in late March, three...

After three seasons of practice, BBQ Pitmasters, a reality cooking competition that is decidedly not Top Chef, has finally found the recipe.

The broadcast premiered on Wednesday, May 30 and will settle into a new time slot starting this Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastern.

Last year's version was great fun,...

The flame war between charcoal grill purists and gas grill hotheads burns brighter than the debate between Mac and PC users. You should read some of the slop slung on the barbecue message boards. On second thought, don't. Let me try to sort it out for you with a few...

Bourbon is the quintessential American whiskey and the drink of choice of many Southerners. Made primarily in Kentucky, mostly from corn, when properly made, filtered, and aged, Bourbon can rival the finest Cognacs in richness, depth, and complexity.

Mint is a weed. Plant some now and you'll be engulfed by...

This is the third in a series of articles by Mike Sanson the Editor-in-Chief of Restaurant Hospitality magazine, a great trade mag and website for restaurant management. Every issue he tweaks his readers into passionate responses. The issues he confronts them with...

"I give you Chicago. It is not London and Harvard. It is not Paris and buttermilk. It is American in every chitling and sparerib. It is alive from snout to tail." HL Mencken

According to historians, the river that ran by the...

This is the second in a series of articles by Mike Sanson the Editor-in-Chief of Restaurant Hospitality magazine, a great trade mag and website for restaurant management. Every issue he tweaks his readers into passionate responses. The issues he confronts them...

Washington D.C., is the nation's most international city populated by long term locals and many many imports. Much of the local population comes and goes with the political tides. According to the Washington Post, only 15 percent of the white population was...