Printable Biography of Karen Adler and Judith Fertig

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Karen Adler and Judith Fertig have been spreading the word of slow-smoked barbecue & hot and fast grilling throughout the country in magazine and newspaper articles, cooking classes, television and radio guest appearances, and special events. From a simple gas or charcoal grill to a stainless steel outdoor kitchen and everything in between, Adler and Fertig can show you how it’s done without chipping a manicured fingernail.

As barbecue competitors, they have participated in the infamous “Battle of the Sexes Barbecue Contest”-and won, more times than not. Their team costume includes rhinestone tiaras and strands of pearls or anything that glitters, as they do their regal schtick preparing food fit for royalty.

As cookbook authors, they've cumulatively authored twenty cookbooks together that have sold over 500,000 copies, including Easy Grilling and Simple Smoking with the BBQ Queens and Fish & Shellfish Grilled & Smoked. The first book in the new “BBQ Queen” series is The BBQ Queens’ Big Book of Barbecue (April 2005). It covers everything from grilling to smoking, rotisserie to skewering, planking, stir-grilling, and more. The second book published in April 2006 is Weeknight Grilling with the BBQ Queens. This grill book is for fast and fabulous meals prepared in about 30 minutes.

As culinary instructors, they've taught over 75,000 students. And they still get a thrill out of encouraging someone to try something new in the kitchen or outside on the grill.

As grilling and smoking experts with a broad appeal, they’ve cumulatively written for and appeared in magazines including Food & Wine, On the Grill, Better Homes & Gardens, Saveur, Cooking Light, Country Home, Vegetarian Times, Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion and Midwest Living. Judith is a former columnist for the James Beard- and AFJ Award-winning Kansas City Star food section.

TV appearances include local and national news programs, Better Homes & Garden TV, TV Food Network appearances, DIY Network Grilling Special, and Satellite TV tours on behalf of the Catfish Institute, the Hearth Patio & Barbecue Association, and Silver Dollar City’s Bluegrass and BBQ Festival.

Karen Adler

Like many 'foodies' Karen has a love affair with cookbooks. In fact, she started a company that features BBQ cookbooks. “I have to reign myself in when it comes to buying cookbooks. We actually added a room onto our kitchen so we could build bookcases for all of them!” laughs Adler. She is President/Owner of Pig Out Publications, Inc. offering over 250 books on the subject of BBQ and grilling, Karen is author of 13 cookbooks with 9 titles on the subject of barbecue. She is also an award-winning publisher of Texas Barbecue and Pure Prairie-Farm Fresh & Wildy Delicious Food from the Prairie. The Best Little Cookbook Series from Ten Speed Press, (Pub. Date June 20, 2000): Best Little Barbecue Cookbook, Best Little BBQ Sauces Cookbook, Best Little Grilling Cookbook, Best Little Marinades Cookbook From Pig Out Publications: Hooked on Fish on the Grill (August 1992) Easy Grilling & Simple Smoking with the BBQ Queens by Adler & Fertig (March 2001) (Published in 1997 as Que Queens-Easy Grilling & Simple Smoking)
Fish & Shellfish - Grilled & Smoked co-authored with Judith Fertig (2002, Harvard Common Press)
The BBQ Queens' Big Book of Barbecue co-authored with Judith Fertig (April 2005, Harvard Common Press)
NEW – Weeknight Grilling with the BBQ Queens co-authored with Judith Fertig (April 2006, Harvard Common Press)

As a traveling culinary instructor, Karen specializes in outdoor cooking (fish, game, meat, and vegetables) and spreads the word of barbecue at her classes, and during interviews whether they be for print, radio, TV or the internet! She has taught cooking classes for the past 20 years. Schools where Karen has taught include Kitchen Conservatory-St. Louis, Halls-Kansas City, FoodFest in Phoenix AZ, Rochester MN, and the Quad cities, A Southern Season in Raleigh Durham, The Dish in Dallas, Central Market Cooking Schools in Texas, Marshall Fields Cooking School in Chicago, The Kansas City Restaurant Association, Cooks of Crocus Hill in St. Paul/Minn., Chef's Gallery in Stillwater MN, the Cook's Nook in McPherson KS, the Culinary Center of Kansas City, KitchenArt in Indiana, Viking Culinary Center in Nashville, Roth Concept Center in Kansas City, and Smoke N Fire in Kansas City .

“I’m a gadget freak, too.” Adds Adler. “Grill woks, all kinds of skewers, flavored woods and wood pellets from alder and orange to sassafras and mulberry and everything in between, charcoal chimney, wood planks, microplane zesters, fresh ginger graters, herb grill racks, and even the stovetop smoker. Of course outside there’s a Big Green Egg kamado cooker, bullet shaped water smoker, Cookshack Smoker Oven, 40,000 BTU MHP gas grill, and the ever reliable Weber kettle charcoal grill.”

Adler's writing career includes articles in Cooking Pleasures, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Great Grilling, and Scooby Doo (a food magazine for parents and children). She has also written the barbecue book review columns for On the Grill, The BBQer and the National Barbecue News.

She has been a spokesperson for Pig Out Publications, the National Barbecue Association, and The Catfish Institute. She also develops recipes for food companies and is co-author of the Smart Pan Cookbook with Judith Fertig for a new temperature sensor skillet. She and Judith have both appeared on the Better Homes & Garden TV and the DIY network's special grill shows for summer of 2005, and Grill Gals – a TV Food Network Special in 2006.

Karen is a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier (Past President-of the Kansas City Chapter), International Association of Culinary Professionals, Hearth Patio & Barbecue Association, Awards of Excellence Chairman and past Vice-President for the National Barbecue Association, Slow Foods board member for the Kansas City Convivium, board member of the National Barbecue Hall Of Fame and Museum, and founder of the BBQ ('Que) Queens.

Judith Fertig

According to food writer and cookbook author Judith M. Fertig, "Food tells a story that appeals to all the senses." In her newspaper and magazine articles, cookbooks, cooking classes, and special event appearances, she brings to life our shared and delectable love of food.

In copy writing and recipe development work for food corporations and commodity boards, her involvement has helped clients reap a 200 percent return on investment.

Freelancing for magazines and newspapers, Fertig’s work has appeared in Cooking Light, Vegetarian Times, Better Homes & Gardens, Saveur, Better Homes & Gardens, Mary Emmerling's Home Companion, Cooking Pleasures, Country Living, Kansas City Home Design, The New York Times, The London Sunday Times, the former Taste Magazine in London, and the James Beard Award-winning The Kansas City Star.

Fertig's professional culinary training includes La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine when it was still in Paris and the Cordon Bleu in London. She gives cooking classes across the country and has appeared nationally on radio and television.

Her newest cookbooks are Weeknight Grilling with the BBQ Queens (Harvard Common Press, Spring 2006) and The BBQ Queens’ Big Book of Barbecue (Harvard Common Press, Spring 2005), both co-authored with Karen Adler. Fish & Shellfish Grilled & Smoked, also co-authored with Adler, was named one of the best grill books of the year by the Associated Press in 2002. About All-American Desserts: 400 Star-Spangled, Razzle-Dazzle Recipes for America's Best-Loved Desserts (The Harvard Common Press, 2003), Publisher's Weekly decreed, "For the cook whose shelves are rife with books on contemporary cuisine, this book—think of it as an enhanced Betty Crocker recipe cookbook—is well worth adding to the shelf." Fertig's Prairie Home Breads (2001) was chosen as one of the 10 best cookbooks of the year by the Chicago Tribune. Prairie Home Cooking (1999) was nominated for both the IACP and James Beard Awards, the culinary equivalent of the Oscar and Golden Globe Awards in the film industry.