Steven Raichlen (born March 11, 1953) is an American culinary writer, TV host, and novelist.

Early life

Raichlen was born in

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...

, Japan. He grew up in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

, Maryland, in the United States. He is Jewish.

Education

In 1975, Raichlen earned a Bachelor of Arts in French literature from

Reed College Reed College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland, Portland, Oregon, E ...

. He received a Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellowship to study medieval cooking in Europe, and was offered a

Fulbright Scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

to study comparative literature. He trained at

Le Cordon Bleu Le Cordon Bleu (; French: " The Blue Ribbon"; LCB) is a French hospitality and culinary education institution, teaching haute cuisine. Its educational focuses are hospitality management, culinary arts, and gastronomy. The institution consists ...

and La Varenne cooking schools in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Writing

Since 1998, Raichlen's books have focused on the culture and practice of global grilling. His 31 books include ''

The Barbecue Bible ''The Barbecue Bible'' by Steven Raichlen (1998, Workman), is the flagship title in a series of cookbooks written on grilling, barbecue, and other forms of outdoor cooking Outdoor cooking is the preparation of food in the outdoors. A sign ...

'' (1998, revised in 2008), '' How to Grill'' (2001), '' BBQ USA'', '' Healthy Latin Cooking'', '' Project Smoke'' and ''

Project Fire A project is a type of assignment, typically involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a specific objective. An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of events: a "set of interrelated tasks to be ...

''. His books have been translated into 17 languages. Raichlen also wrote '' Planet Barbecue!'', the story of his travels to more than 50 countries in search of the best barbecue, published by Workman Publishing in 2010. Raichlen has written for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', ''

National Geographic Traveler ''National Geographic Traveler'' is a magazine published by National Geographic Partners, NG Media in Armenia, Belgium, the Netherlands, China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Latin America, Israel, Poland, Romania, Slov ...

'', ''

Food & Wine ''Food & Wine'' is an American monthly magazine published by Dotdash Meredith. It was founded in 1978 by Ariane and Michael Batterberry. It features recipes, cooking tips, travel information, restaurant reviews, chefs, wine pairings and sea ...

'', ''

Bon Appétit ''Bon Appétit'' is a monthly American food and entertaining magazine, that typically contains recipes, entertaining ideas, restaurant recommendations, and wine reviews. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered at the One World Trade Center ...

'' and ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...

'' magazines.Barbecue Bible
/ref> Raichlen has been known to further careers of barbecue pitmasters thanks to his writing, including Wayne Mark Schafer, of Baltimore's Pit Beef fame Big Fat Daddy's, who was featured in Raichlen's NY Times article and ''425 Fiery Recipes'' book. In 2012, he released his first novel, ''Island Apart'', about a Chappaquiddick hermit's developing relationship with a cancer patient.

Television career

Raichlen created the TV show ''Barbecue University'' (aka ''BBQ U''), which aired for four seasons from 2003 to 2006 on

American Public Television American Public Television (APT) is an American nonprofit organization and syndicator of programming for public television stations in the United States. It distributes public television programs nationwide for PBS member stations and indepen ...

. From 2008 to 2010 he hosted ''Primal Grill'', again on American Public Television. ''Primal Grill'' focused on the "how-tos" of live fire cooking, employing different grills for each technique. In 2015, he created ''Project Smoke'' on public television, focusing on traditional and cutting-edge techniques in smoked food. and more recently Steven Raichlen's Project Fire. Raichlen also hosts the French-language TV shows ''Le Maitre du Grill'' and ''Les Incontourables du BBQ'' on Zeste in Quebec. His ''Steven Raichlen Grills Italy'' show was launched on Gambero Rosso Channel in Italy in 2018. He battled and defeated

Iron Chef is a Japanese television cooking show produced by Fuji Television. The series, which premiered on October 10, 1993, is a stylized cook-off featuring guest chefs challenging one of the show's resident "Iron Chefs" in a timed cooking battle buil ...

Rokusaburo Michiba Rokusaburo Michiba (道場六三郎, Michiba Rokusaburō; born January 3, 1931) is a Japanese chef, best known as the first Japanese chef on the popular television series ''Iron Chef''. He was part of the show from its debut in 1993 until his re ...

in a "Battle of the Barbecue Gods" on Japanese television. He has appeared on numerous television programs and networks including ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

'', ''

The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'') is an American morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television ...

'', ''

CBS This Morning ''CBS This Morning'' (''CTM'') is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987 to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012 to September 6, 2021. On November 1, 1999, the original incarnation was repla ...

'', ''

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

'', ''

Oprah Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', broadcast from Chic ...

'', ''

Regis & Kelly ''Live with Kelly and Mark'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American syndicated morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show formula has aired under various hosts sinc ...

'', ''

The View ''The View'' is an American talk show created by broadcast journalist Barbara Walters. , in its 28th season, the show has aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC as part of the network's ABC Daytime, daytime programming block since August ...

'' and ''

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

''.

Other work

Raichlen is the founder of Barbecue University, which offers three-day intensive courses on live fire cooking at the Broadmoor Resort in

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is the most populous city in El Paso County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 478,961 at the 2020 census, a 15.02% increase since 2010. Colorado Springs is the second-most populous c ...

Awards and honors

Raichlen has won five James Beard awards for his cookbooks. ''High-Flavor, Low-Fat Cooking'' won the 1993 award for Best Light and Healthy Cookbook, and his follow-up, ''High-Flavor, Low-Fat Vegetarian Cooking'', won the 1996 award for Best Vegetarian Cookbook.Star Chefs
/ref> In 1999, ''Healthy Latin Cooking'' won the award for Healthy Focus. He also earned the 2001

James Beard Foundation The James Beard Foundation is an American non-profit culinary arts organization based in New York City. It was named after James Beard, a food writer, teacher, and cookbook author. Its programs include guest-chef dinners to scholarships for asp ...

/KitchenAid Book Award for his ''Healthy Jewish Cooking'' His 780-page book, ''BBQ USA'', won the 2004 award for Tools and Techniques. In 2015, Raichlen was inducted into the Barbecue Hall of Fame. In 2003, ''

Bon Appetit Bon or Bön (), also known as Yungdrung Bon (, ), is the indigenous Tibetan religion which shares many similarities and influences with Tibetan Buddhism.Samuel 2012, pp. 220–221. It initially developed in the tenth and eleventh centuries but ...

'' named Raichlen “Cooking Teacher of the Year," the same year that ''The Barbecue Bible'', based on his four years of research while traveling 150,000 miles through 25 countries on five continents, won an IACP

Julia Child Julia Carolyn Child (Birth name#Maiden and married names, née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for having brought French cuisine to the American pu ...

Award.

Personal life

Raichlen's wife is Barbara Raichlen. They live in

Coconut Grove, Florida Coconut Grove, also known colloquially as "The Grove", is an affluent and the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood of Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The neighborhood is roughly bounded by North Prospect Drive to the south, LeJeune ...

and

Martha's Vineyard Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, lying just south of Cape Cod. It is known for being a popular, affluent summer colony, and includes the smaller peninsula Chappaquiddick Isla ...

, Massachusetts.

Publications

Nonfiction

* ''A Taste of the Mountains Cooking School Cookbook'' Poseidon Press, 1986 * ''A Celebration of the Seasons: A Cooks Almanac'' Poseidon Press, 1988 * ''Steven Raichlen's High-Flavor, Low-Fat Cooking.'' . 1992. * ''Miami Spice : The New Florida Cuisine. '' . 1993. * ''The Caribbean Pantry Cookbook: Condiments and Seasonings from the Land of Spice and Sun.'' . 1995. * ''Steven Raichlen's High-Flavor, Low-Fat Vegetarian Cooking.'' . 1995. * ''Steven Raichlen's High-Flavor, Low-Fat Chicken.'' . 1996. * ''Steven Raichlen's High-Flavor, Low-Fat Pasta Cookbook.'' . 1996. * ''Steven Raichlen's High-Flavor, Low Fat Italian Food Cookbook.'' . 1997. * ''Steven Raichlen's High-Flavor, Low Fat Appetizers.'' . 1997. * ''Steven Raichlen's High-Flavor, Low Fat Desserts.'' . 1997. * ''The Barbecue! Bible. '' . 1998. * ''Steven Raichlen's High-Flavor, Low-Fat Mexican Cooking.'' . 1999. * ''Barbecue! Bible : Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades, Bastes, Butters, and Glazes. '' . 2000. * ''Steven Raichlen's Healthy Latin Cooking : 200 Sizzling Recipes from Mexico, Cuba, Caribbean, Brazil, and Beyond.'' . 2000. * ''Healthy Jewish Cooking. '' . 2000. * ''How to Grill: The Complete Illustrated Book of Barbecue Techniques, A Barbecue Bible! Cookbook. '' . 2001. * ''Beer-Can Chicken: And 74 Other Offbeat Recipes for the Grill. '' . 2002. * ''BBQ USA: 425 Fiery Recipes from All Across America. '' . 2003. * ''Steven Raichlen's Big Flavor Cookbook: 440 Irresistible and Healthy Recipes from Around the World. '' . 2003. * ''Indoor Grilling.'' . 2004. * ''The Best of Barbecue University by Steven Raichlen.'' DVD/Video. 2005. * ''Raichlen on Ribs, Ribs, Outrageous Ribs.'' . 2006. * ''Planet Barbecue!'' . 2010. * ''Bold & Healthy Flavors: 450 Recipes from Around the World'' . 2011. * ''Man Made Meals: The Essential Cookbook for Guys'' . 2014. * ''Project Smoke'' . 2016. * ''Project Fire'' . 2018. *''The Brisket Chronicles'' . 2019.

Fiction

* ''Island Apart'' , 2012.

References

External links

Official website

Barbecue University with Steven Raichlen official website

Primal Grill with Steven Raichlen official website

Steven Raichlen's Project Smoke official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raichlen, Steven American television chefs American male chefs Barbecue chefs Reed College alumni Watson Fellows Living people 20th-century American Jews American food writers American cookbook writers Alumni of Le Cordon Bleu 21st-century American novelists American male novelists 1953 births 21st-century American male writers James Beard Foundation Award winners 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American Jews