When we retired to Spain in 2018, we brought Steven’s book with us. At first, we ate very simply and mostly did carry-out. When we finally began to cook at home, we did our old favorites and the Bible remained on a shelf.
We had just begun to do some European travel when Covid hit and it was our travel plans that went up on the shelf. Down came the BBQ Bible and we made our first recipe, which we later realized was one of the most challenging in the book! Emeril Lagasse’s New Orleans Style Barbecued Shrimp.
It was great. We made another. That was great, too. Then another and another. They were ALL great! We made one or two a week at first, then three or four. We stepped it up to one every night. Then we expanded to two or three recipes a night. When we had done somewhere around 150 or so recipes, I said “Why not do them all?” Let’s do all 500!”
From the very start we began rating the recipes and making cooking notes right in the book. We never thought we would do them all. Who would ever think that? But they were all so delicious, interesting and exotic that we thought, even if we don’t make it, it will be the best food we have ever eaten. So, we began to count our completed Raichlen masterpieces.
When we crossed the halfway mark, Alynne made a spreadsheet to track our progress and we shifted to counting down how many we had yet to do. But as much as we have enjoyed seeing if we could do them all, it was never about that. It was always about enjoying the great recipes. We would never have continued if they weren’t so consistently fantastic.
The 500 Club
When we were about 100 recipes shy of 500, I told Alynne “I’m going to write the author a letter and tell him our story” and we did when we had 10 to go. We weren’t sure how it would be received. If you saw the movie Julia and Juliette, you will know what we mean. But Steven was as thrilled as we were and told us how enormously gratifying it was to him that someone had enjoyed his work as much as we had. We told him jokingly, “let’s start a club and pass out T-shirts to everyone who makes it to 500”. He loved it. The 500 Club was born!
We now have close to 1000 Club members and a Hall of Fame with 15 members who have done at least 100 recipes. Frank & Kelley in Florida are closing fast on 500, Sam and Charlene in Minnesota have nearly 300. We have a number of Bronze Members (100 recipes) including Bryan Praetorian in Canada, Bernie Pass in Arizona, and Susan Ortiz in Oregon who are huge followers of Steven and actively pursuing the next level. We even have some members and very accomplished grill masters in France, Italy and the Czech Republic.
Four years down the BBQ Trail now, and Alynne and I have never looked back. We continue to grill and enjoy new SR recipes every night. With only a few exceptions, we haven’t eaten the same food twice in years. So much so that we are about to log SR recipe # 1100! We just made Steven’s Primavera Vegetable Paella from Planet Barbecue! and it would put to shame any that we have had since coming to Spain. We are such aficionados that Steven tapped us, and several of the other highly motivated 500 Club members, to help him taste test recipes for his upcoming new Project Griddle book. Well, twist my arm Steven!
Many have asked, who helps you to eat all that food? Believe me, we do pretty well just on our own, but we have treated many a guest and neighbor to some fabulous food along the way and even inspired a few to join us on the Barbecue Trail. Some grill and others do not, but they are all amazed by the incredible variety of exotic and delicious cuisine! We have gone most of the way on a very modest gas grill and it served us well. We have now transitioned to charcoal and it has added a whole new dimension to our grilling.
The Hardest Question to Answer
When we are asked about our favorites out of over 1000 recipes, it is a very difficult question to answer, as anyone in the 500 Club will tell you. I wish it were as easy as looking at our spreadsheets and picking out one of the 5* recipes, but it’s not so simple. There are hundreds!
We were surprised by how much we have enjoyed the Middle Eastern and Indonesian dishes with fantastic flavors that neither of us had really experienced before. One of the first things Steven asked though, as any good cookbook author would, was “which ones were the duds”? We had to tell him the truth. There were so few, we could count them all on one hand, but the Persian Yogurt drink was a hard cultural leap for us!
It has all turned into an incredibly fun and rewarding adventure that we had never planned on. We will never forget the absolutely phenomenal and mouthwatering food we have eaten because we finally dusted off Steven’s amazing grill book. And the unexpected bonus along the way was that we became pretty fair chefs ourselves, thanks to his cooking lessons.
Just by chance, we opened up a very special cookbook one day during a difficult time, and have enjoyed its wonderful contents to the fullest. We have cooked from it and the many other new additions to our SR library (currently at 12), nearly every day for almost four years. Most of our SR books are totally worn out, glued, taped, tattered and stained. A great reminder of the fascinating culinary journey we have been on with Mr. Raichlen as our guide.
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