Printable Biography of Steven Raichlen

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Raichlen is a multi-award winning author; journalist; cooking teacher; and TV host. His best-selling Barbecue Bible cookbook series (more than 2 million copies in print) and "Barbecue University" TV show on PBS have virtually reinvented American barbecue.

Raichlen’s adventure with barbecue began with The Barbecue Bible (Workman, 1998), an IACP/ Julia Child Award-winning encyclopedic study of global grilling chronicling his 4-year, 200,000-mile odyssey on the world’s barbecue trail.

In 2000, Workman published How to Grill, the world’s first step-by-step guide to live fire cooking, with more than 1000 color photographs, hailed by the New York Times as “astute, approachable, and eminently appealing.” How to Grill won an IACP Award, as well as a Jacob’s Creek Silver Ladle award in Australia. Raichlen’s BBQ USA (2003), is a 780-page, 650-photograph, 425-recipe love song to regional American barbecue.

The newest addition to the BBQ series is Indoor Grilling, which brings the guru’s mastery of live-fire cooking indoors, making every day a good day to grill.

Raichlen’s 25 books also include Barbecue Bible Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades; Beer Can Chicken; the perennially popular Miami Spice (Workman Publishing), the James Beard Award-winning Healthy Latin Cooking (Rodale), and the new Big Flavor Cookbook (Black Dog & Levanthal). In all Raichlen has won 4 James Beard Awards and 3 IACP awards, and his books have been translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, German, Polish, Hungarian, Japanese, and Chinese.

Raichlen’s TV show, "Barbecue University with Steven Raichlen", debuted on Public Television in spring, 2003. Taped on location at the luxurious Greenbrier resort in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, the 26 part series focuses on the techniques of live fire cooking.

In 2000, Raichlen launched Barbecue University at the Greenbrier—profiled on the Food Network (which ranked it the “Best BBQ Experience in the U.S.”), and in Bon Appetit Magazine, Travel & Leisure Magazine and Esquire. In 2003, Bon Appetit named Raichlen “Cooking Teacher of the Year.”

In August, 2003, Raichlen defeated Iron Chef Roksbura Michiba in a barbecue battle on Japanese television. Oprah called him the “Gladiator of Grilling” and “Howard Stern hailed him as the “Michael Jordan of Barbecue.”

In 1975, Raichlen received a Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellowship to study medieval cooking in Europe, as well as a Fulbright Scholarship to study comparative literature. He holds a degree in French literature from Reed College and trained at the Cordon Bleu and La Varenne cooking schools in Paris. Raichlen lives with his wife, Barbara, in Coconut Grove, Florida, and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.