Author Interviews: Steven Raichlen “Man on Fire: Of Life, Love, Literature, and Really Good Barbecue”

Okay.

Now, now they've heard all of that, and they can go to the books, and I've ...

This one in particular has some interesting recipe.

I'm gonna take advantage of you at this point to say that what struck me most, and the piece that I wanted to spend a few minutes with, is Japan.

You were-

Mm-hmm

... bo- you, you were born in Japan.

Is that correct?

I was.

My dad was in the service.

My mom came to, uh, visit, and I came nine months later.

But then you went away, and then you returned.

And when you returned, it was to engage in something of a competition with a Japanese-

Uh-huh

... chef.

And-

Oh, boy, was it-

And-

Was it ever

... and that was kind of-

Yeah

... that was kind of, of interesting, I thought, because what it did was touch upon something that I've been interested in, in the sense that I have had ...

I have been to Japan a couple times for a while, and I was struck in particular by the grilling of yakitori.

Mm-hmm.

And what I'm, I'm wanting you to talk a little bit about is at the present time, there are all kinds of ways to barbecue, to grill, and there are big devices you use, or there's the smaller type of Japanese approach to it.