Hola grilling friends!
I am hoping that this latest post finds all of you well and right into the daily "GTO" lifestyle as you all continue to expand your culinary horizons with your cherished ceramic oven of choice. Now let's be honest with each other for a moment and admit that we all like to be good at something in life and find that place where we can impress or perhaps show off our skill set and knowledge with our loved ones or our close friends or possibly perfect strangers. Some of us are great educator's while other's are great carpenter's or maybe you know someone who's got incredible all around athletic ability. Whatever the case, it feels great to be good if not great at something and I think we can all agree on that point.
I get asked almost daily if I'm a chef and if so where did I train, what are my credentials, how long have I been cooking for etc, etc,etc. When I answer people and explain to them that in fact I'm the furthest thing from a trained chef the first reaction is utter disbelief and confusion because the question always comes up after they have eaten a steak I have grilled them, or, a beautiful salmon filet that's come off any one of the six or so ceramic cookers that I own and they have truly loved the meal, hence the confusion. Now I'll admit that I have had close to a decade of practice and I have cooked thousands of meals and spent well in excess of 10,000 hours of my own time completely immersed in this ceramic grill world over the last few years but the bottom line is that I'm not a chef and I'm learning new things everyday when it comes to this cooking medium.
As I explained at the top of the post about people being good if not great at something, my unique ability and professional background is in sales and marketing and I happen to be incredibly passionate about food and beverage and without a doubt the ceramic cookers that have inspired me to create my company and concept "The Grateful Griller". I get a tremendous amount of pleasure and satisfaction as stated in past posts by taking ordinary people like myself and turning them into their own "Grateful Griller" in no time at all, hence the title of the post, "Griller Zero to Griller Hero". I often compare the ceramic grill experience for the potential newcomer to this cooking form to that of the ski industry back in the nineties and the massive impact that "parabolic" skis had on millions of people who for the most part couldn't really carve a turn and feel that rush or excitement of what its like to carve a turn on ice or snow and actually feel like they were a confident intermediate at best.
So by now your thinking where's the "griller" going with this post and why is he comparing apples to oranges? In fact I'm not and here's why. The ceramic cookers or at least the ones I have researched and extensively tested to date being Big Green Egg, Primo, GrillDome, Kamado King, and Dragon Fire have been nothing short of fantastic and they have all had one consistent character trait and that is that they are all forgiving, like those infamous parabolic skis. I have dealt and spoken to thousands of people in the last few years and personally sold and serviced hundreds of others who always come back to me raving about something they have grilled, baked, smoked, seared or whatever and most of these energetic new "GTO" enthusiasts have only had their brand new cookers for maybe a month or two along with a professional demo by yours truly at the very most. Like the marvelous hour glass shaped skis that I referred to that changed the ski industry forever and turned millions of beginner skiers into over night advanced intermediates sensations, I predict the same could be true in the bbq industry as it relates to ceramic cookers and here's why!
Due to the fact that these cookers retain their heat so well the risk of flare up is all but eliminated and as long as a person follows a few simple start up techniques like making sure the fire box is in line with the bottom draft door, and all vents are wide open, top and bottom when lighting, and the proper lump charcoal is being used, the novice can focus attention on learning how to regulate heat with the draft doors and voila! In no time at all one can be feeling like a guaranteed intermediate grilling gourmet, as I remember I did once upon a time and that's a really great feeling, especially if you've always been nervous about cooking, let alone over natural lump charcoal.
Thanks to modern day technology by some of the best ceramic bbq companies in the world, we can and should be confident that with a little practice and the desire to learn and share our food, our techniques, our stories and most of all our enthusiasm with each other for this cooking form, anyone entering into it will as I did, fall in love with it and become "grilled to obsession". Until next time my grilling friends, feed the fire and the desire to take it higher!
The Grateful Griller
Fire has its own language, spoken in
the realm of heat, hunger, and desire.
It speaks of alchemy, mystery, and,
above all, possibility.
It is a slumbering voice inside me
The ever-present beast within my soul
It is beyond words, beyond memory,
It comes from a time long before I can recall.
"Seven Fires" by Francis Mallman
