Grilled guacamole. Grilled pizza dough. Whole smoked mahi-mahi. Barbecued bloody Mary. Grilled pork belly confit. Grilled peach pies.
Big Bob Gibson's Bar-B-Q executive chef Chris Lilly wanted his second cookbook, "Fire & Smoke: A Pitmaster's Secrets" - which boasts more than 100 recipes, including the creatively-charged ditties above - to be more diverse than his 2009 debut "Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book: Recipes and Secrets from a Legendary Barbecue Joint."
Mission accomplished.
But Lilly's sophomore tome is more than just curveballs. The 256-page "Fire & Smoke" also details production of classic fare reimagined, including peppered filet mignon with roasted garlic herb butter, smoked lamb ribs, drip pan potatoes, iron skillet macaroni & cheese, grilled okra and sweet crisp bacon rub.
Lilly, 46, describes "Fire & Smoke" as "the next step."
"With 'Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book' I had a story to tell, and that was the history of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q and the man Big Bob Gibson," Lilly says via phone. "And all the time-tested traditions that I learned from and all the people. A lot of old family recipes. What we do at the restaurant, it's a lot of big meats and low-and-slow cooking – the basics of barbecue. 'Fire & Smoke' is a very diverse cookbook, but it's inclusive, a lot of short grilling recipes that I love to do in my backyard.
"I did not want ('Fire & Smoke') to be another book going over and over the same basics. I wanted this to be a book that the novice griller or advance barbecuer can pick up, go straight to their backyard, fire up their grill and produce some absolutely amazing food."
With a suggested retail price of $24.99, "Fire & Smoke," packed with ravishing photos illustrating the recipes, is available wherever books are sold. Based in Decatur, Big Bob Gibson's Bar-B-Q maintains locations there at 1715 6th Ave. S.E. and 2520 Danville Road S.W., and the company also operates a restaurant in Monroe, N.C.
Earlier this month, Big Bob Gibson's Bar-B-Q notched its fourth grand champion win at the ballyhooed Memphis in May barbecue competition, a record for the 37-year-old event, which this year featured over 200 teams from around the world.
When called for this interview, Lilly, who's been regaled in the pages of Wall Street Journal and appeared on TV shows ranging from "The Today Show" to "ESPN College Game Day," was – where else - Big Bob Gibson's Bar-B-Q.
Chris, which of the more-creative recipes in "Fire & Smoke" do you think work best?
I'm really into cast-iron pan directly on the grill, for hot searing ... I just love it on the grill. One of my favorites and it's very simple is the charcoal-grilled trout with the brown butter and sundried tomatoes. Amazing dish. You're talking about a dish you can get done, from start to finish, in five minutes and it just has amazing flavor. It's where the cast-iron skillet goes directly into the coals.
And with the same cast-iron skillet you can use it for dishes like the blackberry cobbler that you cook on your outdoor grill. Or the iron-skillet mac-and-cheese that you do on the grill. I like to say, "Anything you can cook indoors, you can cook outdoors with more flavor."
At the beginning of the cookbook you go over a ton of different outdoor cooking devices: cinderblock pit, gas grill, hibachi, tandoor, rotisserie, gravity-fed-charcoal smoker. If you had to give up all of your grills, etc. except one, which do you keep?
Whoa. That is a crazy question. I tell you, it would be one of my grills that I can run exclusively on charcoal. I'm a huge charcoal fan. And it would be one I could cook with direct heat and indirect heat , because I like versatility. I like to be able to sear fish directly over a fire, sear steaks directly over the fire, but I always like to cook low-and-slow and cook with indirect heat away from the fire. I've got a little three-rack rotisserie unit that I've got in the backyard – they don't even manufacture it anymore – and I can cook both indirect and direct heat on that. And it's probably my favorite and my go-to, especially in competitions.
Also, I'm a big fan of the ceramic cookers out there as well. In those cookers I burn like a Kingsford Competition charcoal in there, which is almost like a compressed lump charcoal and I can cook high temperatures in there and low-and-slow as well.
What do you love about cooking with charcoal?
First of all it's the flavor profile. It absolutely kills the flavor you would get off gas. Secondly, it is your long cook time with charcoal briquettes, slow-steady heat just by controlling the air-flow.
What's your process like for developing new recipes?
My recipe development comes through inspiration without a doubt. And that could be inspiration from what I've seen, what I've read but more importantly what I've tasted and when I travel I'll go eat places. It might not even be a specific dish, it could be an herb or a component of a dish I try that really, really gets my mind rolling and makes me want to incorporate it into traditional southern barbecue. There are a lot of cool things going on in "Fire & Smoke" and there are a lot of international flavors that I've incorporated from all over the world, like the chipotle grilled tri-tip and beef short ribs adobo.
What's something you've never grilled or barbecued but would like to give it a go?
An entire side of beef. [Laughs.] And I've talked to friends and chef down in Argentina and they are really big on the outdoors and the open flame, and I've cooked whole pigs before no problem, but a whole steer or whole side of beef, cooking that outdoors over an open flame is really intriguing to me and would make one heck of a party.
I was looking at a photo of you in the book and I was surprise that you're kind of a lean guy. As someone who cooks barbecue for a living, why aren't you heavier?
[Laughs.] I stay busy and I do a lot of cooking and typically when you cook it's all about tasting. I very rarely sit down to eat a huge meal after I've cooked all day. The enjoyment comes from the tasting process.
Look for further installments from my Chris Lilly interview, posting later today on AL.com, including:
Part 2: Making Memphis in May history, how much competition barbecue differs from restaurant barbecue, more
Part 3: Lilly's earliest barbecue memories and biggest challenges in learning his craft, more
Part 4: Lilly names his favorite cuisine besides barbecue, what he'd have for his last meal, more
More: bigbobgibson.com