GRILL GOALS

Let ’em sizzle down below And lower the grate for a last-minute char | Chefs and other masters of the flame share tips on how to elevate your outdoor cooking-including fresh techniques, surprising equipment, and even acts of bravery

- Matthew Kronsberg

In his 20-plus-year career as a chef, Chris Shepherd has grilled thousands of dishes, including chops, T-bones, and cauliflower steaks. But it wasn’t until the pandemic that the affable, James Beard-winning cook, whose Underbelly Hospitality operates a number of dining and drinking establishments in Houston, became transfixed with the art of cooking over fire.

He had an epiphany while watching a MasterClass online cooking course from Aaron Franklin, founder of Franklin Barbecue in Austin. “There was a section of the show on how logs burn and how the taste changes at different times during the burn,” Shepherd says. This idea inspired him to examine the art of cooking over open flame seriously, and he began practicing and experimenting. And shopping: After buying a new house in 2020, he went out and bought three grills, including a Big Green Egg, adding to the three he already owned.

His favorite purchase turned out to be the Asado Fire Pit, a somewhat misleading name for a multitiered grill. It comprises a series of grates that you can position at varying heights above the heat source, as well as an upper grate that you can use to hang poultry, pork, tomahawk rib-eyes— anything, he says, you want to impart slow smoke to, “then bring down for some high-heat action.” Made by Mill Scale Metalworks in Lockhart, Texas, it starts at about $2,000.