Love Is a Many Splintered Thing: A Passion for Wood-Fire Smoking

Fire has mesmerized me since childhood. As a kid, I tended the pits at family cookouts, loaded and lit the wood stove that kept us cozy during cold Illinois winters, and dragged fallen timbers to the bonfire grove that would host summer camp nights rich with kumbaya and ghost stories.

Throughout my cooking life, I continually return to the fire as the source of inspiration. With this elemental process, we transform meat into sustenance, imbued with...