Comments: This small book sets out to prove that grilling is not rocket science – it just requires the mastery of a few essential techniques, well, 25 of them.

More than a few have to do with the use of special equipment – grilling with a plank, a grill basket, a wok, skewers, a foil packet, foil-covered bricks, etc.; while others have to do with techniques for specific foods – duck, whole fish, fish fillets, shellfish, whole birds, chicken wings, corn, peppers, fruit, etc.

Along the way, you wind up with recipes for starters, main dishes, side dishes, and one dessert (the grilled fruit). It's a little hard to see where some of these are essential "techniques" and not just recipes: grilling with a marinade, grilling burgers, grilling ribs, for example, but there is probably at least one lesson to be learned from each, so we'll give full credit for 25 grilling techniques. Almost all are relevant to gas and charcoal grills, though grilling directly on coals (Technique #6) obviously can't be done with gas.

There are a few terms that missed the book's "basic tool kit" – mumbo sauce (a barbecue sauce developed in Chicago in 1957, but used here generically) and cast-iron Tuscan grill (a grill rack on raised legs), among them.

The author judges barbecue contests under the name Remus Powers, the "founder of Greasehouse University," which bestows the Ph.B. (doctor of barbecue philosophy) degrees. It's a very straightforward book from someone you'd expect would be more of a character, even if only using the written word….