"Summer means grilling and, just as often as not, a new book on outdoor cooking by Jamie Purviance for the Weber-Stephen Products, makers of the iconic Weber kettle grill. "New" is emphasized here, in essays on Chicago's evolving barbecue restaurant scene, the South's "Nouveau 'Cue" chefs and Korean barbecue of Los Angeles. The recipes are as global as America today: Chicken thighs with a sweet apricot-hoisin sauce are followed by thighs with a black cherry barbecue sauce and then a thigh and sausage gumbo. Purviance cleverly uses the grill at multiple points in a recipe. A warm artichoke dip, for example, calls for grilling the artichoke hearts and then baking the dip in a cast-iron skillet on the grill." —The Chicago Tribune    "Rather than rehashing barbecue recipes that have already been done to death, Purviance sought out fresh takes on cooking meat with fire. There’s hardcore Southern barbecue in there like beef ribs from Wayne Mueller and brisket fundamentals from Aaron Franklin, but there’s plenty of grilling too (it is from Weber, after all). It’s nice to get more than a couple recipes for grilled and smoked seafood, and this book delivers there, but the best thing is that these recipes all have an originality to them. There are no throwaway recipes in here." —Daniel Vaughn, Texas Monthly BBQ   "Using essays, stories, photos, and 100 recipes, New American Barbecue's goal is to take barbecue beyond its Southern tradition of long, slow cooking of ribs and roasts and puish it into new territory. Purviance values barbecue's heritage, but he sees it as a foundation to be expanded on by chefs, suburban pitmasters, and even urbanites through spices, flavors, and other innovations. The book lays this out in ample detail, with easy-to-follow recipes and sumptuous photography. The history of barbecue is celerated succinctly and beautifully, but New American Barbecue isn't about the past. It's about opening up new possibilities for any amateur chef. And it does that very well."—Smooth magazine