Temples of BBQ – Lance Rosen

Description

Temples of BBQ is a travel guide as much as it’s a recipe book. It chronicles Lance’s recent culinary road trip with his family through the Southern and Midwest states of the USA. He travelled over 6,000km in 26 days, eating and researching the BBQ temples and experiencing the regional differences. From food trucks to rib shacks and restaurants, he searched for the perfect ribs, beef brisket, pork and sausage links; the best of BBQ and soul food.

Rosen is the Big Boy of the “low and slow”, smoked meat experience. The founder of Big Boy BBQ, Melbourne’s first American BBQ restaurant, he’s a passionate advocate of the style.

The Big Boy shares his recipes as if they came from his grandmother, simple and easy to make at home.

We learn the difference between Australian-style BBQ (grilling) and American BBQ (low, slow smoking). In Temples of BBQ, Lance also shares his recipes as if they came from his grandmother, simple and easy to make at home. There’s Alabama chicken, Kansas City brisket, pork ribs and much more, but the recipes go beyond the meat main, with Southern soul food sides and pie as well. Think braised greens with potlikker, or maple baked sweet potato plus coconut cream pie, all with simple to follow instructions and metric measurements for Aussie cooks.

In his forward, Gary Mehigan writes, “Lance sets a new standard, the Rosen standard of smoked BBQ. He knows every pit and smoke house from Alabama to New York and he’s a man you can trust to know about great, wholesome and truly delicious food.”

From the moment you open the padded red, vinyl-like cover you could be stepping into an American diner or a Southern kitchen. Many of Lance’s photos from the trip evoke sleepy Southern towns and you could be forgiven for thinking some were taken in the 1950’s. They’re perfectly complemented by Dean Cambray’s earthy and evocative recipe shots.

And it all makes for entertaining reading, with chapters like, Let’s Get Saucy and pithy quotes like, “lookin ain’t cookin,” dotted throughout.