Grilling Quotes

“Good use of time is the universal ingredient in cooking a palatable dish—doesn’t matter if you are baking, boiling, frying, brewing, or grilling.”
― Pawan Mishra, Coinman: An Untold Conspiracy

“My Deep-Fried Pork Cutlet with Fondue Lunch Set is ready to eat!"
A Lunch Set?! With fondue even?!
Wow, that's, um... a really Soma thing to make!
"So I'm assuming the cheese is a dipping sauce? And it's in this little pot?"
"Yep, you got it. Go on and give it a good dunking."
"Here we go...
huh?
It's black?! Wait a minute, isn't this supposed to be cheese?!"
Mmm! Sooo gooood! It's so light and tender! The crunchy outer shell practically melts in your mouth the second you bite into it!
And the sauce is mellow and rich, melding together with the cutlet in indescribable deliciousness!
"Wait... what is this sauce?!"
"At a glance, it looks like tonkatsu sauce- the plain old black paste that always goes with pork cutlets. But it's really a black cheese sauce!
I made an eggplant puree from chunks of eggplant I grilled over a brazier until their skins were charred good and black. Then I took that puree, rich with the unique aroma of charcoal grilling, and blend it with cheese!"
"Ah! Now I see! The soft flavors of cheese and chargrilling work together, lingering in the mouth as a light but rich aftertaste!
That's how you managed to give such a refined and elegant deliciousness!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 32 [Shokugeki no Souma 32]

“First, we put some shallow cuts in the meat in a grill pattern...
then, we pound it until it's thin! Next, we cover both sides of it with minced onions and let it sit."
Covering the meat with onions? I think I read about that somewhere...
"Okay, now we scrape off the onions and season the meat with salt and pepper. After searing the steak, we melt a dollop of butter in the same frying pan...
... and caramelize the minced onions in the juices left from the meat, melding the two flavors together! After they're done, we cover the whole top of the steak with the caramelized onions...
... and use the back of a knife to put the grill pattern back into the meat. Put it all on top of some cooked rice...
and it's done!"
"Oh, yeah! Now I remember! This...
IS A CHALIAPIN STEAK!"
CHALIAPIN STEAK
It was created in 1936, specifically for visiting opera singer Feodor Chaliapin. Bothered by a toothache, the singer requested a dish with "tender steak." This was the result. Accordingly, it is a uniquely Japanese steak, unknown to the rest of the world.
"Okay you two, taste it!"
"A-all right..."
It...
It's so tender!
"Whoa, now this is tender! I can cut it using my chopsticks! And when I take a bite...
...it practically melts in my mouth!"
"Onions have an enzyme in them which breaks down protein, just like honey and pineapple do. That's why the steak is so tender."
You'd never believe this was a cheap cut of meat. Its savory flavor fills the mouth with each bite...
there's no knocking the combination it makes with the rice, either.
Who would've thought of using a steak grilling technique...
... on a beef bowl? ”
― Yuto Tsukuda, Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 2

“Food is culture. Food is history. Food is fun.”
― Kevin Pagenkop, Badass Cookery & General Shenanigans

“Home Cooking: The Comforts of Old Family Favorites."
Easy. Baked macaroni and cheese with crunchy bread crumbs on top; simple mashed potatoes with no garlic and lots of cream and butter; meatloaf with sage and a sweet tomato sauce topping. Not that I experienced these things in my house growing up, but these are the foods everyone thinks of as old family favorites, only improved. If nothing else, my job is to create a dreamlike state for readers in which they feel that everything will be all right if only they find just the right recipe to bring their kids back to the table, seduce their husbands into loving them again, making their friends and neighbors envious.
I'm tapping my keyboard, thinking, what else?, when it hits me like a soft thud in the chest. I want to write about my family's favorites, the strange foods that comforted us in tense moments around the dinner table. Mom's Midwestern "hot dish": layers of browned hamburger, canned vegetable soup, canned sliced potatoes, topped with canned cream of mushroom soup. I haven't tasted it in years. Her lime Jell-O salad with cottage cheese, walnuts, and canned pineapple, her potato salad with French dressing instead of mayo.
I have a craving, too, for Dad's grilling marinade. "Shecret Shauce" he called it in those rare moments of levity when he'd perform the one culinary task he was willing to do. I'd lean shyly against the counter and watch as he poured ingredients into a rectangular cake pan. Vegetable oil, soy sauce, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and then he'd finish it off with the secret ingredient: a can of fruit cocktail. Somehow the sweetness of the syrup was perfect against the salty soy and the biting garlic. Everything he cooked on the grill, save hamburgers and hot dogs, first bathed in this marinade overnight in the refrigerator. Rump roasts, pork chops, chicken legs all seemed more exotic this way, and dinner guests raved at Dad's genius on the grill. They were never the wiser to the secret of his sauce because the fruit bits had been safely washed into the garbage disposal.”
― Jennie Shortridge, Eating Heaven

“Smoking is cool, as long as it's meat.”
― Brian McClellan

“Now, no one likes to grill more than I do. But everyone in the business knows there's a huge difference between grill and sauté. Grill guys- and by no means would I want to imply that grilling isn't an art- but grill guys tend to be the cavemen of the kitchen. The guys who don't possess much in the way of artistic flair but can give you a perfectly pink tenderloin of venison after sprinkling it with salt and pepper, searing it, and poking it a couple of times. These are not the men for delicate seasonings and sauce making. They stick to the meat, mostly. And they can take a lot of heat.
Sautéing is the highest station in the kitchen, below the sous chef and chef. And I, for one, goddammit, have piled enough skyscraper salads to be given consideration. I'm not working my way up the kitchen ladder for my goddamn health. I know all too well the sting of vinegar in an open cut. Oh yes, that salad you're eating as a light appetizer? My bare hands have massaged dressing into every leaf. Lettuce loves me.
But I've got ambition and, I don't mind saying, a decent palate. I believe I'm capable of executing the finer sauce nuances. I want to start my own place. I want to be The Chef. And the only way to do this (aside from buying a place outright) is by becoming the greatest cook I can be. Which means kicking ass on the line, not just salads and desserts. These are my hopes. These are my dreams.”
― Hannah Mccouch, Girl Cook: A Novel

“Chestnuts have always been an ingredient that goes well with gamy meats. And in French cuisine, chestnuts are often seen in combination with venison.
But the mildly sweet flavor and tender texture of these sweet chestnuts makes them melt in the mouth! That flavor combined with the smoky aroma of the charcoal grilling, makes the juicy meatiness of the venison stand out in stark contrast!
This flavor isn't something that could be created with regular chestnuts.
It's a deliciousness made possible precisely because he chose to use sweet chestnuts!
"He minced some of them and added them to the sauce as well! Doing that spread their mild sweetness throughout the whole dish!"

Soma's Chestnut Sauce
Starting with a base of Fond de Veau (a brown stock usually made with veal), he added a cinnamon stick, orange zest and minced sweet chestnuts and then set the sauce to simmer.

"Wait a minute. How odd! Charcoal grilling usually adds a unique and very distinctly bitter taste to ingredients. A taste that is decidedly outside the canon of French flavors!
Yet this dish has taken that bitter taste and somehow made it fit seamlessly! Is there some secret to it?!"
"That would be the coffee."
"What?!"
"Coffee?"
"Yep! You guessed it! That's the Divine Tongue for you.
One of the things I learned at Master Shinomiya's restaurant is that cacao goes really well with game meats. I've never used cacao much, though, to be honest...
So instead I grabbed some instant coffee! The bitterness of coffee is similar enough to pure cacao that it paired up nicely with both the charcoal grilling and the gamy venison...
... resulting in a deeply rich and astringent flavor that's perfect for a truly French sauce. I added both coffee and chestnuts as secret ingredients to my sauce!
This is a Yukihira Original and a brand-new French dish. I call it...
... Charcoal-Grilled Venison Thigh with Chestnut Sauce."
In formal Japanese cooking bowl dishes, such as soups and rice bowls, are constructed from four elements: the main ingredient, the supporting ingredients, the stock and the accents.
Similarly, the French dishes are constructed from three different parts balanced in harmony: the main ingredient, the sauce and the garnishes.
But this dish... this is eccentric and novel and entirely unconventional while still remaining undeniably French!
It's almost as if it's a nugget of flavor found only by cracking and peeling away the shell of common sense...”
― Yūto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 20 [Shokugeki no Souma 20]