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He sold his interests in his wine ventures and, in 2005, he launched AmazingRibs.com. Leveraging his knowledge of the internet and positioning useful content, in 2014 he began building his member base with a subscription service based on his BBQ knowledge. His approach was unique. Although he shared recipes, his focus was science-based and on the why and how of BBQ and grilling. Quickly he became the “go-to” person to ask all your BBQ questions with answers founded in science versus opinion. It didn’t hurt that his wife, Lou, is a microbiologist with a PhD from Cornell and readily offers feedback. AmazingRibs.com rap- idly become one of best and fastest growing BBQ websites with now over 16,000 active members and over 3,000 pages of free content. It is more than just a website. It is a place where BBQ folks can interact, learn about the science of cooking, ask questions, find recipes and read unbiased re- views about the latest equipment on the market. Being in- teractive is what sets it apart from other BBQ sites. Members are encouraged to ask and answer questions cre- ating a BBQ community. Meathead is a wealth of information and he presents it in a manner anyone can understand. His approachability makes him unique. His ability to innovate is what makes him timeless. In addition to his website, he is an author, featured in newly released videos and even has an upcom- ing “Meat-Up” event in Memphis. More on that later. His first cookbook, “Meathead: The Science of Great Barbe- cue and Grilling” was published in 2016 and with nearly 900 reviews on Amazon it is rated 4.8 stars out of 5. He must be doing something right. The book, co-au- thored with Greg Blonder, PhD, is part textbook, part tutorial and part cookbook. Meathead takes on many of the com- mon myths in BBQ and ex- plains the truths using science, but in everyday lan- guage. The good news is that he has a second cook- book in the works where he is applying science to the art of cooking. He will be focusing on new flavors, expanding your pantry, encouraging you to try some outside of the box things all the while having fun. I can’t wait to read it and add it to my growing collection of cooking reference material. I had a long list of cooking questions and he patiently an- swered each one with ease and a fantastic sense of humor. Unfortunately, I can’t cover all of them, but here are the highlights. •Best cooking tip? Get and use a good thermometer. Cook- ing is done to temperature and not time. He and his team have reviews of over 150 different thermometers on the AmazingRibs.com website. •Beer can chicken – it’s a myth. Chicken is fully cooked at 160 degrees and beer boils (steams) at 212 degrees. Other than making a good stand, it really doesn’t add anything to the cooking process. •How does he cook steak? First, he gets the entire steak surface brown which is contrary to the perfect diamond grill mark pattern that 99% of the SCA cooks strive for. BarbecueNews.com - 34 OCTOBER 2019