I was already intrigued by the flame, but I fell head-over heels in love with outdoor cooking when the makers of Weber grills became my client. It’s hard to believe today but in 1992 when I started to promote Weber grills, there were very few barbecue and grilling books to use as references. So, I set about teaching myself how to grill and/or barbecue anything I could. Well, everything I grilled tasted great! Buoyed by my success, I tried more and more and with every new item that I grilled, I became more and more attached to my outdoor grill, using my oven only to bake and my stove only to boil water.

Along the way, I also started hanging out on the barbecue circuit as a sponsor representative, and evolved into a judge and finally as a member of two competition teams. I am currently a member of the Memphis in May team, Swine and Dine, and you can get a taste of pork heaven by making their super secret Cook’s Ribs on page 252. One thing that I noticed was that more times than not, I was the only "girl at the grill," not necessarily a bad thing—I got a lot of attention, but this didn’t make sense to me. We live in a country where 95% of the cooking is done by women. So, why weren’t they using the grill? When I cooked on the grill, I got way more raves for much simpler food, there were very few dishes to wash and the food was intrinsically healthy. It was a win-win way of preparing food. I decided that I was going to lead the charge to get women to embrace the outdoor grill and make grilling and barbecue an everyday cooking technique.

I had to wait a few years until America traded in charcoal grills for girl-friendly gas grills and realized that there was nothing to lose in the taste category. I chose gas as my preferred grill the first time I made pulled pork on it and a houseful of male barbecue aficionados couldn’t tell the difference, and couldn’t stop talking about how it was the best pulled pork they’d ever eaten! I figured with the proliferation of well-made gas grills, the rest of America would join me.

I figured with the proliferation of well-made gas grills, the rest of America would join me….and join me they did. And now I invite you to join me in Taming the Flame.