A New Book in Italian Barbecue Branch
If someone had told me a few years ago that I would write a book, especially on the barbecue, most likely I would have considered him to be out of his mind, underestimating one of the greatest qualities of life: its ability to constantly surprise you. Don’t consider that the idea has never occurred to me, of course; there’s lot of things to say about this wonderful world, unfortunately still little known, are many and my desire to tell them probably even more. The Barbecue was, however, in the course of my life a discreet and patient companion, who has carved out its place in years of meticulous and silent work, never screaming its importance. And even then now the opportunity has been able to reach me just the right time, the one in which I had acquired full awareness of what should be the subject to be treated and those who I had to speak to if I had had the opportunity.
Anyone who knows me outside the lines of this blog know that I have spent the last two years in close daily contact with customers of one of the most important Italian Barbecue Stores, which is in my opinion a good cross section of what in reality the barbecue market is in our country. It ‘was an experience which in many ways turned out to be enlightening. Me, like many other “nerd” in this sector, have been for years embarked in the discovery of my limitations, the exploration of ever new frontiers, forgetting that most of those who were interested in this world was still trying to figure out where the oars are to start their journey. The reality is that the barbecue market (at least the potential) is not made by the 10 who discuss about what is the best spiral for cold smoking process, or if the temperature of Reverse Searing should be 40 or 45°C but by the 1000 that do not know how to manage the kettle air vents.
When I received the proposal to write a book, then I suddenly realized that I already knew exactly what had to be the object and also I knew how I had to tell it. It immediately came up to my mind of a book I read many years earlier: Low&Slow di G. Wiviott. 
The book is openly pointed to the complete neophytes in Low&Slow, promising to enable them to achieve good results in 5 easy practical lessons through a series of guided instructions and a simple and direct language, without complications or unnecessary technicalities. Probably none of them would become the new Mike Mills, or in any case they would not become through this book, but it was fine as well, this was not its target. I realized that moment that what was missing and needed is a link between the world of hobbyists, those who follow the barbecue for passion, with the one of all those who instead want to learn how to manage a grill simply for getting the final result: wonderful dishes to be proud of and not achievable with any other form of cooking. And all of this with the due respect to the fact that they probably won’t care at all about the chemical reaction that is the basis of what you have just cooked.
The book I wanted was just so. A text in a colloquial jargon, easy, immediate, setting its sight to accompany the hand of a total newcomer to the grill along a path by choosing the right device for him, to the first turn on, to the first elementary cooking to the indirect cooking with some slight hint of Basic smoking. Nothing exasperated, no Low & Slow, no cooking that exceed two hours, even in the final recipe collection where we will make explicit reference to dishes and ingredients as much as possible traditional, though in creative form. Each paragraph of each chapter will be devoted to one of the classic questions that I hear periodically over these two years. Perhaps trivial questions but which represent the concerns of the majority of potential entrants to our world. Both the name, Subito Barbeque (suddenly Barbecue) and the setting, are consistent with this objective. It will be a book with a simple layout, handy, in “Manual” format, with an appropriate and not excessive number of pictures. It must be a book “for all” and this type of solution will enable us to get out to the public with a cover price of less than € 16, much less than the branch standards.
The proposal comes from Cairo Editore in collaboration with Comunica, the publisher of Golosario and in this sense it is a solution made for those that are the purpose of this book: Cairo is a publisher specializing in practical publications, broad popular breath while Comunica guarantees perfect reunion with the matter of national quality gastronomy. The final recipe collection of Subito Barbecue will be the perfect embodiment of this marriage. Represent on the one hand the ideal conclusion of a journey: after trying simple guided recipes on the grid on the third chapter and have consolidated their certainties in the fourth, the readers will have the opportunity of being able to challenge themselves in over sixty “true” recipes for each of which specified which of the techniques learned they’ll have to apply. On the other, the recipe book will certainly be marked on balance and on the immediacy but it is mainly focused on the enhancement of Italian excellence basing on the famous Golosario Paul Massobrio. Those who approach for the first time to the barbecue cooking could also find very useful the formulation of four thematic menus, compounding the recipes fo techniques and combinations, making them achievable by anyone in a short time and optimizing the space occupied in the grid. To meet my other two small passions, I could not have missed to pair in each recipe wines that mark the certainties of the national winery and the best craft beers have emerged in recent years in our “Bel Paese”.
Subito Barbecue wants to be my humble contribution to try to make the barbecue increasingly affordable for everyone and an outstretched hand to anyone who wants to enter our wonderful world, but has never dared to do it.
What about, would you also it to be Subito Barbecue?
