Grilling with a Pro: BBQU with Steven Raichlen

It’s funny how when one sets their intention toward something, life seems to open the door to the opportunity vault in support.

Last month I shared an item on my bucket list I’d wanted to learn more about for some time and was making the time to commit to it: grilling.

It’s a skill that doesn’t seem to interweave into a woman’s culinary path as readily as men’s, and to capably develop recipes I knew I needed to know more, to build a strong foundation.

Ironically a few weeks ago I learned about a boot camp style three-day course held at the extraordinary Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs.

‘BBQU’ (BBQ University) as it is aptly named is led by grilling luminary Steven Raichlen, prolific author in the field and TV host.

I’ll admit we own The Barbecue ! Bible, one of his many best sellers, however I was not fully aware of the scope of his stardom until starting the class.

This was probably a good thing as I may well have been completely intimidated to bring my itsy-bitsy grilling skill set into the presence of such greatness.

The class kicked off with a Sunday evening mixer allowing us to meet Raichlen as well as other BBQU students.

It was an eclectic group of 48 spread from throughout the US and even an attendee from Singapore.

There were married couples, grill buddies meeting up to take on the challenge, sisters, an alum from the prior year, and solo attendees seeking more skills or benefactors of early Father’s Day gifts (one attendee was plopped on a plane with a sealed envelope which he did not open until landing in Denver to learn where he’d be spending the next three days), all spanning a vast age range.

I must say I have not met a nicer group of people.

Everyone was excited, friendly, helpful and worked well together as we shouldered through the next fast paced days, stretching our learning often into uncharted personal territory.

The class is held annually with two sessions in June and is conducted only at the 5-star Broadmoor resort.

Each morning at 7:45 a shuttle snaked up the steep Cheyenne Mountain to the Lodge which holds an expansive classroom with one full wall of windows looking out to the east, where we’d begin our day with questions and a brief explanation of the day’s recipes before being broken into pairs to attack a certain dish from prep to grilling or smoking, styling and serving.

What I quickly deduced is the recipes are merely a vehicle to learn the forms of cooking and the device options on which to prepare them.

The huge outdoor deck was adorned with at least 40 types of grills and smokers over which our recipes would be spread.

The practical work became Raichlen’s platform to really teach as we moved in a large pod between the devices soaking in general and specific instruction to further our collective grilling game.

Raichlen’s expertise seemed to expand over the three days, or maybe it was that I became more open to realizing the hugeness of all there is to know about grilling, barbecuing and smoking (the latter something I knew nothing about but became somewhat obsessed with by the end).

His travels all over the world as a student of grilling practices have amassed an encyclopedic knowledge of history, techniques, methods and cultural roots allowing fluid education and an inspired flair for creativity.

I lost count of how many questions were addressed but also transformed into a ‘let’s try that!’ hands-on learning demonstration.

Dutiful culinary assistants were often called upon to pull a live lobster out of their chef’s hat or swap in an ingredient that might not have been part of the original mise-en-place for a specific dish in the dynamic spirit of the class.

If it wasn’t possible Raichlen would take it in stride, hoping to change things up for the next day or producing an inventive alternative approach.

The class was vibrant, well-structured with room to move past the planned recipes and program to meet the spontaneous interests of the students.

By the end I was starstruck, not by Raichlen’s accomplishments to date but by his fluidity on the fly.

‘There is no such thing as a mistake in the kitchen, only a new recipe waiting to be discovered’.

He lives and practices by this rule. More times than I can count we heard ‘I know what you are thinking; I have this extra {xyz} why don’t we turn it into ____’ and a new, unplanned recipe would be born.

The proof was in the pudding (actually both smoked sweet and savory Bread Pudding on Day 3), when we ended our final day preparing the intended 8 dishes as well as about 6 others that were spontaneous spin offs; apparently something that had not happened before at BBQU.

For me personally I found the experience exhilarating.

The first day I volunteered for a Tea-Smoked Duck recipe that turned into the recipe that kept on giving.

My partners Jeff and Marcella and I prepared a rub, sauce, the duck and hung it to smoke vertically in an industrial drum converted into a smoker with two pieces of rebar running through the top on which to hang the meat (I want one now myself).

As that went on, a collection of brined duck livers were added to a different device to smoke, along with hard boiled eggs and onion which eventually were turned into a creamy pate when combined in a food processor along with some butter and Jack Daniels.

Raichlen has an uncanny ability to orchestrate the somewhat chaotic scene and struck a bit of fear in my heart whenever I heard the fateful words such as ‘where are my duck people?’ 

One never knew where that call to action would lead. Think of making a Thanksgiving dinner in your own kitchen, having a sense of when everything has to start and finish.

Raichlen carried the group consciousness and with poise and grace orchestrated multiple groups to finesse an end result with military precision.

The guy has mad skills.

On the first evening while I feebly attempted to recount what I’d learned for that day, my husband (who did not attend the class) asked if we’d made anything I’d make at home.

Our repertoire covered cuts of meat such as brisket which would really be a weekend project to smoked ice cream that is created in a few minutes thanks to a handheld smoker (which I discretely ordered on Amazon.com during the last class so it would be waiting for me at home) and many dishes in between.

My head was still spinning with information which had yet to settle into clear forward action, however I felt a few dishes gave me a jumping off point along with a number of invaluable tips to truly begin my grilling journey.

Grilled Shrimp Skewers with Thai flavors was inspired by a shrimp dish prepared on day 2 that I’ve moved in a Thai direction using a few key tips for the grill.

Raichlen’s approach was to set the bar high, arm us with abundant knowledge and techniques, address any personal burning questions and set us to the task embodying confidence of our capability (at least outwardly so) .

He was constantly on mic so we could all hear everything he said no matter where we were at the lodge.

As a parent knows the wiles of their children, he’d occasionally calmly call out on the grilling deck ‘it’s awfully quiet out here, what catastrophes are about to happen?’ 

The class in turn developed an esprit-de-corps readily launching into planned and impromptu execution with determination.

There were no boundaries between this set of strangers entwined in smoke and ash, as we jumped in fully committed to forge into the next level of our own grilling expertise.

At the end of each half day we returned to the classroom to feast our eyes on the body of work we’d collectively created and to share the feast between grill-mates old and new.

You can check out some of the fantastic recipes we created here.

I chronicled many of the visual culinary delights on the Boulder Locavore Instagram and Facebook page with the hashtag #GrillingLikeAGirl.

I was inspired to create a quick grilling skewer that was inspired by two recipes at BBQU, Green Lightning Shrimp (from Raichlen’s BBQ USA) and Grilled Pineapple (from How to Grill and Project Smoke).

I migrated the flavors to more Thai spices and did not sweeten the pineapple but rather relied on its natural sweetness to contrast to the slightly spicy shrimp. It was delicious.

Try it yourself: Grilled Shrimp Skewers with Thai flavors.

A core tenant of grill hygiene was reiterated often at BBQU. The most important thing is to keep the grill hot, clean and oiled/lubricated.

We’d heat up the grills daily, brush them down with a wire brush and then slather them with oil before adding our items to grill or smoke.

Though I would normally do that at home it has been elevated to a more religious practice for me now!