For many gastronomes, the biggest story of 2011—quite literally—was the publication of the mammoth Modernist Cuisine, the 40-pound, 2,438-page bible penned by Nathan Myhrvold and co-authors Maxime Bilet and Chris Young. The six-volume tome went on to win the Cookbook of the Year award from the James Beard Foundation, and Bilet has continued to gain notice in his ongoing role as head chef for research and development at the Seattle-based Cooking Lab, an arm of Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures. Before stepping into the spotlight in Seattle and landing on Forbes' 2011 30 Under 30 list, Bilet trained in New York and in England, including at the vanguard of British experimentation, Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck.
We caught up with Bilet as he was putting the finishing touches on Modernist Cuisine at Home, a collection of more than 400 new recipes specifically geared to the home cook, due for publication in October. The insights he shares below about all things flame-kissed are a veritable scientist's guide to grilling, from sous-vide to low-tech. And don't miss Bilet's simple solution to keep fish from sticking while delivering the perfect sear.
Gourmet Live: What is the biggest misconception when it comes to grilling technique?
Maxime Bilet: There's a definite misconception that in order to achieve the juiciest, most tender food with a distinct grilled flavor, you have to cook the food all the way through on the grill. The issue is that grilling provides an incredible radiating heat source via coals, which makes it very easy to overcook a food. So from the Modernist Cuisine sense, we like to take a little bit of the large possibility for error away by using grilling as more of a finishing method. Our best practice is to actually pre-cook the food sous-vide, and then sear it on the grill very quickly on all sides so you get a good char without ever really cooking the food itself. The grill essentially becomes just a searing surface.
GL: What scientific reaction or process provides a food with that distinctive grill flavor?
MB: What you associate with grill flavor is just the fat drippings and juices from the meat falling onto very hot coals, which pyrolyzes them and transforms them into smoke. The smoke gets redistributed back onto the meat, and that's what creates the grill flavor. So if you grill a zucchini or an onion, you're going to get a nice char, but you aren't really going to get grilled flavor because you don't have those essential fat drippings.
GL: What's the number one mistake people make when grilling?
MB: You don't want to sear meat when it's at room temperature because the heat transfer is going to be too fast, compared with searing cold meat. If you really want to achieve that great crust without cooking it sous-vide first, you should freeze or par-freeze the surface of the meat before grilling. When you put a piece of frozen meat on a hot grill, you get a beautiful crust, and the meat itself is going to stay very cold and will never cook, which is perfect for our intentions because we want a really good sear without overcooking the interior.
After you've seared the meat, take it off the grill and let it come to room temperature. Then it's up to you if you want to finish it off by slowly cooking it in the oven, or using your grill by banking all of your coals on one side of the grill to transform it into an oven and utilize indirect heat.
GL: What's the best way to ensure grilled foods stay moist and tender?
MB: Cooking a food sous-vide before grilling it will lead to the best results, but that's only if you're willing to do a two-step cooking method. If you want to cook your food all the way on the grill, then the best way to ensure it stays moist is to transform your grill into an oven.
So with meat, for example, you sear it from its frozen state, then you take it off the grill and bring it to room temperature. Next, move your coals to one side of the grill. You then have to create a buffer so that the meat isn't directly on the grill while it finishes cooking, because the heat transfer is too strong. Put a thick slice of onion or a slab of beef fat or bacon on the grill, and then put the meat on top of it and continue cooking it on the side of the grill without the coals. But before you put on the cover, place a little pan of ice water on the grill, which will help cool the air as it circulates. You've essentially improvised a low-temperature oven on your grill.
GL: What is the single most essential gadget for grilling?
MB: A $7 or $8 handheld digital thermometer is critical for success when grilling. One of the essential methods of Modernist Cuisine at Home is understanding what temperature means when cooking food, and more specifically, what every single degree means in relation to the juiciness, the color, and the flavor of what you're cooking. Having an affordable thermometer on hand allows you to verify the doneness of your food so that you're cooking it exactly to the point you want.
GL: Are there any foods you don't recommend cooking on a grill?
MB: You really can grill anything, but one of the foods with the most disappointing results is vegetables, because people cook them straight from their raw state. When you grill raw vegetables, which have a lot of water in them, you end up charring the exterior and getting a rubbery interior, which doesn't taste great. So our [Modernist Cuisine] method is to pre-steam the vegetables in order to render enough of the water out of them while keeping the surface quite moist, and then you grill them and get a beautiful result.
GL: Why is fish often everyone's enemy on the grill?
MB: Fish usually ends up sticking to the grill as a result of the amount of moisture in it. Once it hits the grill, there's so much steam created that the fish actually binds itself to all of the little pores on the grill. People put a lot of oil on the fish to prevent it from sticking, which might help somewhat. But the best way to grill fish is to partially cure the surface by rubbing a little salt and sugar on it and letting it sit for an hour or two. That will draw out the excess moisture on the surface. And then when you do go to grill it, the surface will be quite dry so you want to still oil it, but it will sear perfectly and come off the grates cleanly, plus be perfectly seasoned.
GL: Are marinades and brines worth the effort?
MB: To be very frank, most brining and marinating that anyone ever does is a just surface treatment. They're never going to have the penetration that people presume they're getting. After a whole night in a marinade or a brine, you may only get 3 or 4 millimeters of flavor into the meat. There are a ton of factors that affect how effective they are, including the strength of the marinade or brine, the length at which it's applied, and the thickness of the food. Kalbi—Korean barbecue—is a great example of effective brining because the meat is sliced very thinly and marinated in a very intense soy-sugar brine for several days. So essentially, the meat is fully cured because the brine has penetrated all the way through, resulting in tender, flavorful meat.
GL:: What is the number one lesson you learned through your work with Modernist Cuisine and Modernist Cuisine at Home?
MB: I was fascinated to discover what defines the flavor of grilled food. People have many theories about how grilling is different from every other cooking technique, but it all comes down to the heat. The heat from the coals is what cooks the food, and is what defines grilling as a technique. You are drawing all of the juices and fats from the meat, and their falling onto the hot coals is the essence of grilled flavor. You don't have grilled flavor without that. It's so simple, but it was fascinating to discover that the reaction between the fat and the heat, and the redistribution of the smoke and pyrolyzed fat particles and juices, was what truly defined the flavor of grilling.
GL: What is your single best tip for becoming a master of the grill?
MB: It is critical to understand how temperature affects food, and using a thermometer to measure the internal temperature of your food is essential in all types of cooking, especially grilling. A thermometer will allow you to achieve the ideal result: a beautiful char and a very juicy interior.