My latest publication, entitled “Popular Plates: Fiery Foods” is now available on all the major newsstands in the U.S., including Barnes & Noble, Home Depot, Borders, Costco–all the big box stores. The publisher, Source Interlink Media has printed 200,000 copies, which is by far the largest print run of any of my publications. Essentially, this is a book in magazine …
Ask Chef Mike: Why Heatless Jalapeños?
Q: I heard about some guy who has developed a jalapeño pepper with no heat. Why would anybody do that? A: Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Some manufacturers of hot products prefer to use heatless chile varieties and add heat later during processing through the addition of concentrated capsaicin oleoresin. This provides a measurable, more …
Grilling Pimpalicious
Brothel owners rejoice! There’s finally a backyard grill worthy of your leopard print hats. BeefEater Barbecues in Australia has made the world’s first fully operational gold barbecue. It’s a solution to that age-old dilemma faced by successful pimps going all the way back to the ancient 1970s: “How do I stand out from my brother pimps when we all have …
It May Be the World’s Largest, But Where’s the Green Chile?
A new Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Commercially Available Hamburger was set on Saturday, July 2 at the County Fair in Alameda, California. Weighing in at 777 glorious pounds, the mutant “Juicy’s Outlaw Burger” was created by Juicy’s LLC. After a total of 13 hours’ cooking time and the obligatory weigh-in, the burger was split up and shared …
For Carnivores Only: The Meating Place of Smoke & Spice
By Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach The first outdoor cook to use chile peppers during a barbecue was Jaguar Claw, a somewhat hen-pecked paleo-Native American who lived in the Amazon Basin about 20,000 years ago. He had dispatched his prey with his spear, had butchered the world’s largest rodent with his new flint carving knife into chunks, and was contemplating …
Cool Down on the Fourth with a Firecracker
This drink looks too good to be legal…but it is, proving that epic July 4th fireworks can be served up in a glass as well as in the sky. Wow your Fourth of July barbecue guests with the Riazul Firecracker. This spicy cocktail, infused with Riazul Premium Silver, was concocted by Jorge Guzman, master mixologist and owner of Ofrenda, the …
Heat Wave: When and Where to Catch the Closest Cookoff
As millions of amateur grill masters fire up the coals (or gas) this weekend, we thought we’d give you a brief calendar on where you can catch the pros doing the same thing. Between the KCBS and the ICS, barbecue and chili competitions, there’ll be plenty of hot, spicy grub to check out as the nation celebrates another year of …
