Planet Barbecue! (Steven Raichlen Barbecue Bible Cookbooks)

It does not read like a cook book/recipe book, It has a LOT of side stories, extra info, all interesting but it makes it hard to navigate through this book if you just want to grill something.Also this book is nearly 600 pages and 300 recipes, I would expect AT LEAST one photo of each finished dish (ideally in process pics as well) a lot of recipes don't have a single photo so you'll have no clue how the end product is suppose to look, I would not be a problem for ribs or burgers but this book has a lot of Asian or African food and I can't simply imagine how it suppose to look. Plus the recipes without photos are not appealing - they don't have the "wow- that looks Delicious! I'll should cook that for the party" factor. Surprisingly it has maps to let you know that this recipe is from the north east of Uzbekistan and not south west.Pros+ details, side stories, cooks biographies (multiple) cultural information+ recipes are great, if they list a rare spice the author provides a mail to order source and alternative spices+ hard cover with overlay, large format, good quality+ style is great,the author is often funny, when you read the book - you can almost hear his voice+ author list alternative ingredients, alternative methodsCons- hard to navigate, both, whole book layout and individual page layout is cramped, making it hard to find the recipe you need, after you find it its often hard to find the detail on the recipe you need- no photos- book has cook photos, city photos, maps, it should have at least one recipe related photo per recipe, it doesn'tI am happy with this product and wood recommend it, however it is not perfect!

Steve helped me out a lot when I first bbq'ed 15yrs ago. First recipe was the tandoori chicken. OK marinated 24hrs. Awesome after 48 hrs. I believe I completed the collection

The first thing I do when I buy a new book is to simply flip through all the pages and if something catches my interest, I'll give it a quick read before I read the entire book. Well, when I started doing this with `Planet Barbecue' I got 4 ideas for grilling and then realized I was not even half way through the first chapter. When I actually sat and read this somewhat large tome, I realized what a fascinating and important form of cooking that grilling / smoking / barbecue was. Steve made me want to try beef heart. He made me want to put an egg on top of my steak. He made me wonder what the heck banana ketchup was. He even made me appreciate the food of my great grandparents' homeland (Serbia) which I often considered to be a bit bland. If you think Serbian recipes are weird, wait until you get to Burkina Faso recipes. I admit that I occasionally watch this guy on TV and I don't find him to be particularly thrilling. However, he is a great writer who makes cooking fun without feeling the need to dumb things down for those lacking cooking skills. I even got this thing used for like $8. If he has more books out there, I'm buying them!

...that stands out in a sea of similar books? This book has the authenticity, excitement, and carefully selected writing and pictures that get people fired up about grilling/cooking in a way that sets it apart, almost magically from other similar titles. Having visited some of the countries contained herein, I am drawn in as he "pulls off the covers" of methods for making international favorites. I think it's also his concern for showmanship, like a magician, in jazzing up the reader's cooking that takes some of his books to other levels. If you liked the original Barbecue Bible, or his masterful How to Grill (with all the color pictures), you will not be disappointed. When the Barbecue Bible was re-released with the promise of being illustrated with pictures I was excited because I had learned a lot from the original version; the amount of recipes pictured was disappointing. This has a better balance of pictures, though it would be even better with more pictures (ideally one for each recipe, even if the picture is small) Some people may complain about certain ingredients or too many recipes, but for many people this will be entertaining and informative even if they don't make most of the recipes.

great book in that it gives you the many styles if barbeque and then you can experiment t from there

If you are for BBQ from Russia or Cambodia or wherever then this is the cookbook for you I found several delicious ones within this the cookbook

This is a straight-up barbeque book, with lots of original recipes and some wonderful tips. I particularly enjoyed the treatment of Caribbean-style jerked pork. Entertaining and though some of the more exotic recipes require stuff that may be hard to come-by for some, it's still a mouth-watering temptation for a BBQ aficianado. Try it, you'll like it.

This is without a doubt the best BBQ cook book I have ever read. I am Australian and although many Australians have gone to gas BBQs over the last 20 to 30 years, I am a charcoal / wood fired man through and through.While the book caters extensively for gas charcoal and wood fired BBQs, those wanting the true BBQ experience of using wood or charcoal will find this book an excellent read.The book not only provides a fantastic selection of recipes full of flavour it provides basic information of the culture behind the recipes without being too wordy.It would be great to see this book promoted more in Australia and a return to live fire grilling; personally I don't rate gas bbqs as live fire cooking.For me it deserves five stars and I am looking for something similar on wood fired ovens, also known as pizza or Mediterranean ovens.

This book is reasonably old, so some of the recipes are dated. However it does offer ideas which you may not have thought about before as it includes recipes from around the world.Overall this is a good book for someone who is looking to expand their bbq recipes and try something different to burgers and sausages.

If you buy this book you will know everything there is to know about about cooking over flames. I think Steven Raichlen covers every country in the world and every style of flame cooking. Even if you are an experienced outdoor cook, you will learn something new. Even if you will never cook outdoors it's a good read. If I have one criticism (and it's not really a fair one!) it's too American. Perhaps when Mr Raichlen realises he has such a fan-base in Europe he will tailor his writing accordingly and use both American and European names for measures and recipe items.

If you like barbecue then you need to read this book and anything else written by Steve Raichlen on food. His books are very readable and they have masses of information. As you may well guess from the title, this one concentrates on the various forms of barbecue from around the world. A terrific buy!

Brilliant book like all his barbecue books

This guy has taught me nearly everything I know about BBQ. I have almost all his books, some of his tools and a lot of the food enjoyment (cooking and eating) through using these books.