Michael Chiarello's Live Fire: 125 Recipes for Cooking Outdoors

by Michael Chiarello, Ann Krueger Spivack, Claudia Sansone, Frankie Frankeny (Photographer)

Overview

Go beyond the typical backyard barbecue with these 125 recipes using a range of outdoor cooking techniques from the acclaimed celebrity chef.

A fire adds flavor to your food, but it’s more than just a method for cooking. A fire transforms the meal into a gathering, whether you’re cooking for two people or two hundred, In Live Fire, Top Chef master and legendary restaurateur Michael Chiarello guides readers through the many ways to cook with open flame and embers.

Using different types of fuel—wood, charcoal, gas—Chiarello explores a variety of techniques and equipment. Here you’ll find the beloved backyard grill, as well as a fire pit, spit, rotisserie, and more. With 125 recipes for all courses, and one hundred sumptuous photographs, Chiarello shares his passion for outdoor cooking.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452127347
Publisher:	Chronicle Books
Publication date:	10/12/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	22 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Michael Chiarello is the chef/owner of Bottega, author of eight cookbooks, tastemaker behind NapaStyle, and one of the finalists for Bravo's Top Chef Masters. He lives in California's Napa Valley.Frankie Frankeny is a food and lifestyle photographer based in San Francisco, California.

Editorial Reviews

Chiarello, the Napa Valley chef and vintner, thinks big in this oversized and highly enjoyable harbinger of spring. These 125 recipes are not about traditional barbecue, they’re about taking a variety of heat sources and maximizing their potential. Seven fiery methodologies are explored employing the grill, the hearth, the plancha, the pit, the hot box, the rotisserie, and cooking in embers. The author’s Italian roots show through in dishes like grilled pasta with grilled meatballs, where the spaghetti is lightly oiled and cooked in a grill basket before being sauced. There are a few whole-animal bacchanals, including baby goat on a spitjack, and lamb on an iron cross; and for white meat lovers, a hot-box recipe called chickens for twenty. Sliders are ignored in favor of a three-pound burger, which is flipped using a pizza paddle and served on a bun made from an entire loaf of country bread split in half. Slightly smaller but equally playful options include a leg of lamb on a string, which hangs and twirls from a hook beneath a fireplace mantel, and “smashing pumpkins with mint pesto and goat cheese,” which calls for the entire gourd to be covered in embers, then slammed into a sharp object. Heatproof gloves are a necessity, and should liquid courage be required, there is a chapter offering nine cold drinks, including a smoked tequila margarita. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"Live Fire shines a bright light. This cookbook shares more than just the delicious recipes that have been expertly cooked over fire, it shares a timeless message of connection - of gathering around the ones you love to cook for and eat with. It seems only yesterday that Michael appeared at the kitchen door of Felidia hungry to learn, and has blossomed by cooking the food of his Italian heritage with a California sensibility. For him, food and the preparation of it tells a story of connection with the ones we treasure the most, and whether around a fire, or around the family table (as I always say), it is this very message of togetherness that resonates in each recipe found within this book's pages." — Lidia Bastianich

"Live Fire shines a bright light. This cookbook shares more than just the delicious recipes that have been expertly cooked over fire, it shares a timeless message of connection - of gathering around the ones you love to cook for and eat with. It seems only yesterday that Michael appeared at the kitchen door of Felidia hungry to learn, and has blossomed by cooking the food of his Italian heritage with a California sensibility. For him, food and the preparation of it tells a story of connection with the ones we treasure the most, and whether around a fire, or around the family table (as I always say), it is this very message of togetherness that resonates in each recipe found within this book's pages." — Lidia Bastianich

"Live Fire shines a bright light. This cookbook shares more than just the delicious recipes that have been expertly cooked over fire, it shares a timeless message of connection - of gathering around the ones you love to cook for and eat with. It seems only yesterday that Michael appeared at the kitchen door of Felidia hungry to learn, and has blossomed by cooking the food of his Italian heritage with a California sensibility. For him, food and the preparation of it tells a story of connection with the ones we treasure the most, and whether around a fire, or around the family table (as I always say), it is this very message of togetherness that resonates in each recipe found within this book's pages." — Lidia Bastianich

"There is nothing more soulful and satisfying than cooking over an open fire and Chiarello's LiveFire is the perfect guide. His style of cooking is a natural fit for open fire cooking." — Marco Canora, Hearth Restaurant New York

"There is nothing more soulful and satisfying than cooking over an open fire and Chiarello's LiveFire is the perfect guide. His style of cooking is a natural fit for open fire cooking." — Marco Canora, Hearth Restaurant New York

"There is nothing more soulful and satisfying than cooking over an open fire and Chiarello's LiveFire is the perfect guide. His style of cooking is a natural fit for open fire cooking." — Marco Canora, Hearth Restaurant New York

"Whether it's in a pizza oven or directly over a flame, wood-fire cooking brings an entirely new dimension to food. Live Fire takes summer meals to the next level. It'll have your neighbors coveting the delicious smell from down the road." — Mario Batali

"Whether it's in a pizza oven or directly over a flame, wood-fire cooking brings an entirely new dimension to food. Live Fire takes summer meals to the next level. It'll have your neighbors coveting the delicious smell from down the road." — Mario Batali

"Whether it's in a pizza oven or directly over a flame, wood-fire cooking brings an entirely new dimension to food. Live Fire takes summer meals to the next level. It'll have your neighbors coveting the delicious smell from down the road." — Mario Batali

"Michael has really outdone himself with Live Fire. Talk about technique, he covers everything from making a whole lamb on an iron cross to grilling pasta and meatballs. It's unreal." — Emeril Lagasse

"Michael has really outdone himself with Live Fire. Talk about technique, he covers everything from making a whole lamb on an iron cross to grilling pasta and meatballs. It's unreal." — Emeril Lagasse

"Michael has really outdone himself with Live Fire. Talk about technique, he covers everything from making a whole lamb on an iron cross to grilling pasta and meatballs. It's unreal." — Emeril Lagasse

"Live Fire is a masterwork, celebrating one of our most primal urges. Michael, you're a genius." — Tyler Florence

"Live Fire is a masterwork, celebrating one of our most primal urges. Michael, you're a genius." — Tyler Florence

"Live Fire is a masterwork, celebrating one of our most primal urges. Michael, you're a genius." — Tyler Florence

"Forget what your parents told you about playing with fire. Michael Chiarello will teach you how to understand, master, and - above all - enjoy a return to cooking's primal roots. This is a revelatory and inspiring book." — Chef Michael White

"Forget what your parents told you about playing with fire. Michael Chiarello will teach you how to understand, master, and - above all - enjoy a return to cooking's primal roots. This is a revelatory and inspiring book." — Chef Michael White

"Forget what your parents told you about playing with fire. Michael Chiarello will teach you how to understand, master, and - above all - enjoy a return to cooking's primal roots. This is a revelatory and inspiring book." — Chef Michael White

From the Publisher

With collaborators Ann Krueger Spivack and Claudia Sansone, celebrity chef Chiarello translates primal cooking techniques—such as roasting whole animals over a fire—into doable recipes for ambitious cooks. Like Barton Seaver's Where There's Smoke and Adam Perry Lang's Charred & Scruffed, this cookbook mixes rustic and upscale dishes with distinctive seasoning blends, condiments, cocktails, and side dishes. Comparatively, Chiarello's work has more desserts, entertaining menus, safety tips, and cooking methods (e.g., fire pit, rotisserie, hot box, plancha) than Seaver's or Lang's book. Readers looking to feed a crowd can attempt pig pickin' or whole lamb on an iron cross, which each serve 30–40. VERDICT Though challenging, these recipes boost the drama and sophistication of outdoor entertaining.

Library Journal