Our own BBQBull is featured in The Lansing State Journal. They did a nice story on him. He's a little shy(ok, humble).. so I'm positng it for him. 
:tongue:
Read about BBQBull here -> BBQbull in the news
or the Article is below.
Published May 28, 2006
[ From the Lansing State Journal ]
Add flavor to Memorial Day weekend by dusting off grill
We have a burning desire for ... fire
By Christine Rook
Lansing State Journal
Some people play with their food. Others play with fire.
Those who cook outdoors get to do both.
Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of the grilling season and a chance for Michiganders gone pasty or ashy over the winter to get outside and turn up the heat on their barbecue obsession.
Many women see grilling as an escape from the kitchen and the cleanup. Many men just love the idea of food with special effects - smoke, fire, propane, coals.
"You're taming the beast," said Mike Mather, a retired Delta Township fire captain from Eagle and the owner of a $13,000 barbecue pit with the capacity to feed a crowd of 500.
He and his friend Mark Richardson of Lansing agreed the only way open-flame cooking could be more fun is if it involved detonating something.
More than 70 percent of American grill owners cook out on Memorial Day, according to a recent survey conducted for Weber-Stephen Products Co., makers of the Weber grill.
Seventy-three percent of women and 79 percent of men prefer grilling out to cooking in.
Kathy Lott doesn't want to spend her summer stuck in the kitchen while friends and family are on the deck.
"They're outside having fun and you're inside cooking," said the fireplace and grill manager at Heat'n Sweep Inc. in Okemos.
"It's really about the outdoor experience," she said. Plus, high-end grills even come with woks and deep fryers that bring the kitchen outside.
Serious grilling
Mather's barbecue pit is the extreme - the center of attention at every gathering.
It's 18 feet long, about 7 feet tall and constructed from 3/8-inch steel with counter-weighted doors, dual chimneys and four temperature gauges. The entire thing is built atop its own four-wheel, road-ready trailer bed.
With the help of his friend one recent morning, he fired up the pit. Over the next 45 minutes, Mather, 51, and Richardson 39, talked about the smoke - whether it was blue enough and thin enough and what kind of flavor it would impart on meat in the pit.
Smoke is everything, if you're really into this barbecue thing. Black or gray smoke, they said, gives meat a bitter taste.
"See, that's bad smoke," Richardson said, pointing to puffs of gray that floated out of the chimney stacks.
Mather's wife had ventured outside to watch the men play with their toy. She breathed deeply.
"Even that smells so good," she said.
In general, female grillers don't obsess about the details, Lott said. Food gets cooked and gets eaten. Fire is simply a tool to get the job done.
Not so for Mather and Richardson.
"My favorite part is playing with the fire, the smell of the smoke and the food cooking," Richardson said. "It soothes me, relaxes me. It makes the world feel at peace."
Richardson is a bit of a Michigan traditionalist when it comes to barbecue sauces. He prefers a tomato base - a Michigan classic and different from the standard in, say, parts of Tennessee or along portions of the East Coast.
'A mini-vacation'
Moms may not care so much about the sauce and instead be thrilled not to hear the following whiny phrase: "Oh, meatloaf again."
Grillers get kudos, said Elizabeth Karmel, who started the Girls at the Grill Web site, www.girlsatthegrill.com.
Women who grill, she said, love that they can be heroes without having to scrub a pot.
"It's like a mini-vacation outside, and there's hardly any cleanup," Karmel said.
What does a professional cook do during his off hours? Grill, of course.
Carl Quinn is the main cook at Ida's Rib & Chicken in Lansing. You'd think he'd want a break from the heat. No way. He's an avid griller in his spare time.
"Just getting together," he said, "and watching everyone gather, and there's a different taste to the food when it's cooked outside."
Camaraderie is an important draw for male and female grillers. Lott doesn't want to be stuck inside while her guests are having fun, and Mather has learned there is more closeness in tending a firebox for 10 hours with his buddy Richardson than in golfing.
"I used to golf, and that was fun," Mather said, "but I spent too many times in the rough looking for my ball."
Translation: It was a lonely hobby. Feeding people is never lonely.
Quinn talked fondly about watching people get their fill of barbecue.
"Everybody's enjoying it," he said, "with a smile on their face."
:tongue: Read about BBQBull here -> BBQbull in the news
or the Article is below.
Published May 28, 2006
[ From the Lansing State Journal ]
Add flavor to Memorial Day weekend by dusting off grill
We have a burning desire for ... fire
By Christine Rook
Lansing State Journal
Some people play with their food. Others play with fire.
Those who cook outdoors get to do both.
Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of the grilling season and a chance for Michiganders gone pasty or ashy over the winter to get outside and turn up the heat on their barbecue obsession.
"You're taming the beast," said Mike Mather, a retired Delta Township fire captain from Eagle and the owner of a $13,000 barbecue pit with the capacity to feed a crowd of 500.
He and his friend Mark Richardson of Lansing agreed the only way open-flame cooking could be more fun is if it involved detonating something.
More than 70 percent of American grill owners cook out on Memorial Day, according to a recent survey conducted for Weber-Stephen Products Co., makers of the Weber grill.
Seventy-three percent of women and 79 percent of men prefer grilling out to cooking in.
Kathy Lott doesn't want to spend her summer stuck in the kitchen while friends and family are on the deck.
"They're outside having fun and you're inside cooking," said the fireplace and grill manager at Heat'n Sweep Inc. in Okemos.
"It's really about the outdoor experience," she said. Plus, high-end grills even come with woks and deep fryers that bring the kitchen outside.
Serious grilling
Mather's barbecue pit is the extreme - the center of attention at every gathering.
It's 18 feet long, about 7 feet tall and constructed from 3/8-inch steel with counter-weighted doors, dual chimneys and four temperature gauges. The entire thing is built atop its own four-wheel, road-ready trailer bed.
With the help of his friend one recent morning, he fired up the pit. Over the next 45 minutes, Mather, 51, and Richardson 39, talked about the smoke - whether it was blue enough and thin enough and what kind of flavor it would impart on meat in the pit.
Smoke is everything, if you're really into this barbecue thing. Black or gray smoke, they said, gives meat a bitter taste.
"See, that's bad smoke," Richardson said, pointing to puffs of gray that floated out of the chimney stacks.
Mather's wife had ventured outside to watch the men play with their toy. She breathed deeply.
"Even that smells so good," she said.
In general, female grillers don't obsess about the details, Lott said. Food gets cooked and gets eaten. Fire is simply a tool to get the job done.
Not so for Mather and Richardson.
"My favorite part is playing with the fire, the smell of the smoke and the food cooking," Richardson said. "It soothes me, relaxes me. It makes the world feel at peace."
Richardson is a bit of a Michigan traditionalist when it comes to barbecue sauces. He prefers a tomato base - a Michigan classic and different from the standard in, say, parts of Tennessee or along portions of the East Coast.
'A mini-vacation'
Moms may not care so much about the sauce and instead be thrilled not to hear the following whiny phrase: "Oh, meatloaf again."
Grillers get kudos, said Elizabeth Karmel, who started the Girls at the Grill Web site, www.girlsatthegrill.com.
Women who grill, she said, love that they can be heroes without having to scrub a pot.
"It's like a mini-vacation outside, and there's hardly any cleanup," Karmel said.
What does a professional cook do during his off hours? Grill, of course.
Carl Quinn is the main cook at Ida's Rib & Chicken in Lansing. You'd think he'd want a break from the heat. No way. He's an avid griller in his spare time.
"Just getting together," he said, "and watching everyone gather, and there's a different taste to the food when it's cooked outside."
Camaraderie is an important draw for male and female grillers. Lott doesn't want to be stuck inside while her guests are having fun, and Mather has learned there is more closeness in tending a firebox for 10 hours with his buddy Richardson than in golfing.
"I used to golf, and that was fun," Mather said, "but I spent too many times in the rough looking for my ball."
Translation: It was a lonely hobby. Feeding people is never lonely.
Quinn talked fondly about watching people get their fill of barbecue.
"Everybody's enjoying it," he said, "with a smile on their face."
