Page 6 - Barbecue News June 2020 Issue

bbq memories
A Taste of
Memories in
a Florentine
Steak
Ardie Davis
aka Remus Powers BBQ Hall of Famer ardiedavis@kc.rr.com
We’ll make it through the current Covid-19 pandemic. It isn’t easy now and it won’t be easy for who knows how long, but we’ll get through it. The twofold impact in our barbecue community—meat supply and canceled or postponed barbecue cooking contests—is temporary and unfortunate, but not tragic, like so much else in the wake of the pandemic.
those themes is universal. There will be new music, but I don’t expect to be hearing Randy Newman’s “Stay Away” during pandemic cookouts or songs with the words “heme,” “impossible” or “pulled barbecue jack- fruit” at post-pandemic barbecue parties or competi- tions.
Pre-pandemic backyard barbecue parties and competition barbecue events moved to the cadence of po- etry set to music. Country, rock, hip hop or K-pop lyrics of pain, gain, love, lust & politics staked out audio turf that reflected the mood of pitmasters and their entourage.
While it was highly unlikely that you’d hear a backyard or competi- tion pitmaster reciting Shake- speare, Ovid, Diane Wakoski, Billy Collins, Derek Wolcott, Robert Frost, Leonard Cohen or Rupi Kaur while rubbing a pork butt or basting a brisket, their boomboxes blasted poetry set to music with the voices of Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, George Jones, Janis Joplin, David Alan Coe, Carrie Underwood, Maren Morris, or maybe Marcia Ball singing “Peace, Love & Barbecue.”
What we know for sure is that love, gain, loss, pain, sorrow and joy are constants. We get mixed measures of each as we move along the con- tinuum of life. Music that reflects
Giancarlo Gianelli, Barbecue Baron of Tuscany – grilling chicken in his Le Torre di Stigliano Ristorante – Stigliano, Italy, July 1995
Meanwhile, how about a delicious comforting distraction from the pandemic blues? If you can get your hands on a big, thick T-bone steak, here’s a recipe for a fantastic “steak in the Florentine manner” by the late poet and outstanding chef who earned my accolades as the “Barbe- cue Baron of Tuscany,” Giancarlo Gianelli.
Giancarlo Gianelli’s recipe foGriaFnlocarrelnotGiniaenSetlleia’skR–ecBipISe- TBEISCTCEACCaAllalFlaLFOLROERNETNITNINAA (stteeaakkininthtehFeloFrelontriennetminaenner) manner)
Ingredients:
Filet of beef, cut to a thickness of three fingers
Salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil
Directions:
Take the steaks out of the fridge at least three hours before they are cooked (the meat will be cooked rare and would otherwise stay cold in the middle; it is suggested that at the same time you open a bottle
Photos by A. Davis
BarbecueNews.com - 6
JUNE 2020