The simple secrets of grilling success

For first-class grilling, you need just three essential items, says master griller Chris Schlesinger: a pair of long-handled tongs, a wire brush, and your favorite beverage.

It's not that Mr. Schlesinger, coauthor of "Let the Flames Begin" (Norton, $30), doesn't have other preferred tools – a huge Weber "ranch kettle" grill, for instance, and hardwood charcoal (instead of briquettes).

But, as he sees it, the flames themselves – not the fancy accessories – are the true essence of the craft .

Schlesinger can reasonably claim to be an authority on the subject. This latest cookbook is the third on grilling that he's written with partner John Willoughby. It's a follow-up to "The Thrill of the Grill" in 1990 and "License to Grill" in 1997.He's also started two successful Massachusetts restaurants – the East Coast Grill in Cambridge and the Back Eddy in Westport– both of which rely heavily on live-fire cooking.

His own love affair with fire began young, grilling with his father when he was 6 years old. Schlesinger remembers squirting the lighter fluid on the coals and watching the fireballs rise into the sky.

"We always liked everything that got cooked on the grill, regardless of how burnt it was," he says, relaxing in flip-flops and shorts in his stifling office above the East Coast Grill. "It was exciting to me."

That's an excitement many Americans share. Summer has come to be synonymous with the smells of outdoor barbecues, and even though many of those are from the gas variety that Schlesinger disdains, Americans are reaching far beyond hot dogs and hamburgers when they look for what to throw on the fire.

"I remember talking about 'The Thrill of the Grill,' and everybody saying, 'Oh, seafood. I've never grilled seafood,' " Schlesinger says. "And then vegetables – 'You can grill mushrooms?' Now it's almost passé, grilled vegetables."

In this latest cookbook, Schlesinger targets a more sophisticated audience, with recipes for Grilled Figs With Blue Cheese, Grilled Thai-Style Squid, Mexican-Style Grilled Mahi-Mahi, and Grilled Peaches With Vanilla Ice Cream and Fresh Strawberry Sauce, alongside some of the more usual suspects.

Even the recipes for steak, chicken breasts, and pork chops are generally dressed up with spice rubs or unusual sides.

But when it comes to choosing the fuel, he goes back to the basics. "With gas manufacturers being able to sell grills at $2,000 or $3,000 a shot, they had a lot of info out there that [gas] was pretty much the same thing [as charcoal]," Schlesinger says. "We acknowledge it's quicker and easier – but it's not as much fun, and it doesn't taste as good."

A live fire gets much hotter than any gas grill, he says, not to mention the fact that it's more unpredictable. "I like lighter fluid and charcoal and burning holes in stuff, and smoke.... And it's a little bit harder because you have this dynamic flame. To me, that's fun."

He encourages grillers to get a basic charcoal grill, but one with as much space as they have room for or can afford.

A two-tier fire, Schlesinger says, is key. With the charcoal higher and flames hotter in one area, he can push food from one side of the grill to the other, depending on whether he wants to quickly sear an eggplant or slowly smoke a roast.

He also encourages people to think about when to cover their grill. "A lot of people just throw the lid on all the time, whenever there's a fire. We say, only cover when you're cooking indirect – or for longer than 45 minutes."

But the only true secret of better grilling, he says, is learning through doing it.

Inexperienced grillers sometimes worry – especially with the unpredictability of live flames – about burning or undercooking food. To avoid those problems, he encourages them to use what he calls the "nick, peek, and cheat" test to determine doneness. This means to cut narrowly into the food at its thickest point and peek to see if it has reached the desired state of doneness.

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