Interview with Weber Chef, Jamie Purviance

I sat down with Weber chef, author, and all-around grilling guru, Jamie Purviance, for an intesive Q&A on his favorite subject.

First off, tell us a little bit about yourself.
I graduated from Stanford University and the Culinary Institute of America (with high honors) before launching a career as a food writer for major magazines and newspapers, such as Bon Appétit, Better Homes and Gardens, Cooking Light, Fine Cooking, Town & Country Travel, and the Los Angeles Times. About 10 years ago, I partnered with Weber Grills to write a series of grilling cookbooks. We began with Weber’s Art of the Grill, which was so successful, I co-wrote a more comprehensive Weber’s Big Book of Grilling with Sandra S. McRea. In 2005, I wrote Weber’s Real Grilling (nearing one million copies sold), and most recently, Weber’s Charcoal Grilling, which is dedicated to those who love to cook with live fire.  I can be seen preparing many of the recipes from those books in the Grilling Classes section of WeberNation.com. Along the way I’ve also grilled on many national television shows such as Today, The Early Show, Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, and The Oprah Winfrey Show—as well as PBS, CNN, the History Channel, and the Food Network. Today I live in Foster City, CA, with my wife and three kids.

What are the most common things people do wrong when they grill meat?
A lot of people suffer from an irresistible urge to fool around with grilled meat. Almost from the first moment that the meat hits the hot grate, they want to poke it, squeeze it, flip it, turn it, and set it on fire. The trouble is, this way the meat barely gets a chance to brown on the surface and develop the charred and smoky flavors we associate with grilling. Also the meat doesn’t get a chance to release naturally from the grate. I’ve seen a lot of people rip the surface of the meat while they are trying turn it before it wants to be turned. The meat will often tell you when it’s ready to turn. It will pull away from the grate with hardly any resistance.

When should I grill indirect vs. direct?
For many recipes, I recommend using both direct and indirect heat. Usually I begin with the food over direct heat, to lightly char it on all sides, and then I finish cooking it over indirect heat. This is particularly important with food that takes more than 10 or 15 minutes to cook, like bone-in chicken pieces, thick steaks, and roasts of all kinds. Finishing these foods over indirect heat, which involves the heat circling the food on all sides rather than blasting it primarily on one side, means the interior of the food has gets the opportunity to “catch up” with the surface. The surface gets a great blast of heat on both sides at the start of the recipe. After that, it’s time for the center of the food to get what it needs. Have you ever been to a party where the chicken is black on the outside and raw in the middle? That’s what happens when someone tries to use direct heat only.

Speaking of which, how do you keep chicken from drying out?
Chicken comes to you with a certain amount of moisture, and that’s all it’s got to give. As you grill it, you certainly make it more palatable (not to mention safe to eat), but you also push out some of that moisture. The key is to get it off the grill when it is fully cooked yet still juicy. This requires the right combination of timing and temperature. There is a different ideal combination for each type of chicken pieces. For example, with boneless skinless chicken breasts, it’s about 9 minutes (give or take a minute) over direct medium heat (about 400F). If you give your chicken breasts a soak in a saltwater brine for a few hours first, you give yourself another minute or so in that window of time when the breasts are fully cooked and still juicy, plus you give yourself whatever flavors you added to the brine.

Do you prefer gas or charcoal? Or does it depend on what you’re cooking?
It does depend on what I’m cooking because I think of charcoal as an ingredient in a recipe. It can add as much to the final flavor of a dish as a spice rub or sauce. There are many times when I crave that charcoal flavor, particularly with barbecued chicken and fire-roasted vegetables. Then there are times when I’d rather not introduce that flavor, for example, with fruit desserts. Having said that, I do grill more often with charcoal, not only because of the flavor. What can I say? Playing with fire is just part of my DNA.

How do you keep the charcoals evenly hot for long periods of time?
Teaching someone on a blog to tend a charcoal fire is a little like teaching someone in a conference room how to sail a boat on the open sea. Sure, I can give you some guidelines, but you should know that cooking with a live fire means cooking with several variables. So much depends on the size of the grill, the type of charcoal, the wind/weather on any given day, and the griller, too. For example, if the griller leaves the lid off quite often, the fire will burn much faster than if the lid is down, because of the additional oxygen. But let’s assume that you grill with the lid down as much as possible (always a good idea) and you use ordinary charcoal briquettes with a 22-1/2-inch grill on a perfectly average summer day with little or no wind. I recommend lighting a full chimney of briquettes (90 to 100 of them). When they are ashed over, spread them in a single, tightly packed layer over 2/3 to 3/4 of the charcoal grate, leaving some room on the opposite side of the grate empty. After you dump the coals, you will have high heat (450 to 550F) for 45 minutes to an hour. If your goal is to maintain high heat, add about 20 briquettes about 45 minutes after you dump the coals and continue to add 20 briquettes every 45 minutes or so. If your goal is to maintain medium heat, add about 10 briquettes about 45 minutes after you dump the coals and continue to add 10 briquettes every 45 minutes or so. Try this a few times and see how it works for you and your particular situation, then make adjustments.

What are your favorite things to grill?
My favorite veggies are slices of red onion and spears of asparagus, though lately I’ve been “branching” out. I recently grilled some broccolini. I discovered that if you soak the thin stalks and florets of broccolini in water for 30 minutes or so, then brush them with oil and season them with kosher salt, they grill beautifully. The little bit of absorbed water steams them while they take on a little char from the grill. Delicious with grilled steaks. My favorite animal of all to grill is wild salmon. For me, nothing can compete with its flavor and richness. Unfortunately some mismanagement of its habitats has led to a serious decline in supply and a serious increase in price.

When you’re at the grocery store, what do you look for in a steak?
Mostly I look for the integrity and thickness of a steak. By integrity I mean that I prefer a steak that is a solid, uniform piece of meat. If it looks like sections of steak are barely holding onto each other, I know that steak is apt to fall apart on the grill. I like a solid steak with a thickness of at least 1 1/4 inches. That allows me to sear the outside really nicely without overcooking the center. Of course, marbling is crucial, too. That’s where most of the flavor and moisture is, so I look for a coarse marbling of milky white fat running across the steak. If too much fat is running around the perimeter, I avoid that steak. Who needs to pay for something that has to be cut off and discarded before grilling (to avoid flare-ups).

What’s so special about compound butter?
If flavor and succulence matter to you at all, compound (or flavored) butters should be on your short list of brilliant grilling ideas. Mashing softened butter with whatever ingredients rock your world and then spooning this concoction over hot steaks, fish fillets, or chicken breasts is perhaps the fastest way to enrich and round out a dish. It’s an easy, instant sauce. Suddenly, you have melted butter carrying its nearly universal appeal along with glorious possibilities like fresh herbs, citrus zest, caramelized onions, hot sauce, and garlic. Does it get any better than this? I doubt it.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve grilled?
Once I attempted a grill a chocolate soufflé. It was a flop.

What’s in your grill arsenal?
Here’s the line-up in my backyard. All of these are made by Weber.
• Performer charcoal grill
• Summit S-450 gas grill
• Weber Q 200 portable gas grill
• Weber Char Q  portable charcoal grill
• Smokey Mountain Cooker Smoker

If you could grill any animal that you’ve never grilled--even extinct ones--what would it be?
I get weak in the knees just thinking about my most adored comfort food, pulled pork sandwiches made from abundantly marbled pork shoulders that have been slow-smoked for nearly a day. I have heard about a certain breed of pig from England, Large Blacks, that has fallen out of favor with large pork processors because of the black pigment in its skin. Apparently the flavor of the meat is mesmerizing. You know that feeling when food is so good you can even speak? That's what Large Blacks can do to you, I am told. That breed is hard to find these days, especially in the United States, but I intend to try it myself one day.

Finally, what’s on the menu for tonight?
Tonight I’m doing a vegetarian first course of grilled polenta with a roasted tomatillo salsa, avocado, and queso fresco. Then I’m making fish tacos with mahi mahi and a grilled corn relish. Both recipes will be in my next book, which will be out next spring.

--Spanno