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Steven Raichlen doesn't waste time. Guys who waste time don't end up with outdoor cooking empires.
Raichlen started out as a fairly successful cookbook author with books like “Miami Spice” and several on healthful cooking.
But then he grabbed hold of grilling like tongs on a hot coal and set his career on fire.
Since “The Barbecue! Bible” (with recipes from all over the world) and “BBQ USA” (with recipes from all over the U.S.), he's gone on to his own line of grilling tools, TV shows (“Primal Grill” and “Barbecue University”) and a barbecue training camp.
When he made a swing through Charlotte last week to talk up a grilling contest, it seemed appropriate to meet him at Mac's Speed Shop on South Boulevard. He came through the door talking and grabbed a menu before he had even climbed up on a stool.
“We have to get hush puppies. We have to get collards. What else – what's on the combination platter?” The waitress is called over for a consultation – can he swap the beer-can chicken for a beef rib? The man who wrote a whole book on beer-can chicken is sort of over it.
That out of the way, he still doesn't slow down. He tells me he has a memory of me from a writing class we once took together, and goes on to actually quote from what I read in front of the class. Impressive, considering the class was almost 10 years ago and my own mother wouldn't remember.
At this point, Raichlen thinks he's circled the globe five or six times. He's visited 53 countries in search of outdoor grilling secrets. But while we talk, he still keeps yanking out his own notes and scribbling down places I mention, such as Keaton's BBQ outside Statesville.
“Wait – that's fried chicken, dipped in barbecue sauce and grilled? What's the nearest airport?”
That's sort of why Raichlen was here. He's holding a contest for “the next big thing” in grilling. He's looking for something as brilliant and obvious as beer-can chicken. If you come up with it and submit it on his Web site, www.barbecuebible.com, by July 10, you could win a trip to Barbecue U in Colorado and a Weber Genesis gas grill.
He's also sort of on a book tour for “Planet Barbecue,” which isn't even due until next year. He calls it the biggest thing he's done, the summing up of his grilling career.
Tucking into Mac's combination plate, he pronounces the pulled pork “excellent – great bark (outside brown), great smoke.” Baby back ribs get high marks, he loves the “dinosaur bone” beef rib and he eats every bit of collards and drains the juice from the bowl.
He tries to be nice about the brisket, which has a testimonial on the menu from Rick Browne of “Barbecue America.”
“I have to disagree with my esteemed colleague,” he says, pronouncing it “forgettable and tough.”
He's at the end of a five-month publicity tour. But Raichlen is happy to keep bouncing right through the barbecue firmament.
“There was a time when I wrote books and nobody bought ‘em,” he says. “So I just keep remembering how lucky I am.”
