Mallmann on Fire: 100 Inspired Recipes to Grill Anytime, Anywhere Hardcover – Illustrated, September 23, 2014

I've owned Francis Mallmann's earlier book, Seven Fires, for years, and cooked most of the way through it - except, obviously, some of the more ambitious recipes, like roasting an entire cow over a roaring bonfire. His rustic and unfussy, but uncompromising and deeply considered, approach to live-fire cooking shows that grilling can be sophisticated and gourmet, and I've fallen in love, as he has, with the bittersweet, rich flavors of food charred over live fire.Mallmann on Fire follows Francis Mallmann as he travels and cooks in various places close to his heart, from tiny coastal villages in Brazil to New York and Paris. He elaborates on the incredibly strong foundation established in Seven Fires, incorporating the regional ingredients and influences of the locations he visits throughout the book while making the approach a bit more practical. Mallmann explicitly rejects elaborate grills and excessively fussy prep and technique here - the whole message is to resist the urge to overthink and overdo, and simply to get outside in beautiful surroundings and cook good food over fire. He relates the story of taking a hike with a few ingredients in his pockets and cooking an omelette on a rock over a fire, by way of example and instruction. Here he even softens his strict adherence to only burning wood, a theme in Seven Fires, and mentions that charcoal is often superior for everyday grilling. There's a lot less emphasis on apparatus, and many of the recipes require less prep than those in Seven Fires. Some may feel that this is a compromise, but I think it's more a nod to the reality that a towering hardwood bonfire is not an everyday undertaking - whether you're a revered Argentine asador or a tired new dad making dinner after work - and that the perfect is often the enemy of the good. You can still cook like Francis Mallmann on a kettle grill in your back yard - or in a firepit at a park.The dishes and flavors are less strictly Argentine, and serve to expand the vocabulary of his cooking language without changing his pared-down, ingredients-forward, Spanish and Italian-inspired approach. I can't wait to cook more out of this book. Last night, I made the orange, rosemary, and black pepper salmuera and the charred vinegar-glazed endive to go with the grilled pork I already planned, and they were both fantastic. I'll update as I cook more, but any book coauthored by Peter Kaminsky tends to have well-tested, well-written recipes and this appears to be no exception.Seven Fires' occasionally outsized, ambitious recipes and techniques are inspiring and dramatic, but Mallmann's travels with his portable grilling setup seem to have translated to a more practical approach. Most recipes here call for a grill with a grate or a griddle over the fire, or an oven, possibly wood-fired but maybe even your lidded kettle grill or home oven. A few might reward the owner of an open fire pit, but that's hardly necessary. It's a little bit disappointing not to see recipes for lamb on iron crosses and salmon cooked in the infiernillo (a double-decker bonfire that forms the oven from hell) - simply because those approaches are so heroic and awesome. At the same time, most of these dishes are actually doable without undertaking major engineering projects, so I can't really complain much.A few minor criticisms: Photos may not accompany recipes in a logical fashion, and occasionally one comes upon a photo of a recipe on a facing page that runs before the recipe itself - and sometimes the photo comes after. The layout and design is very pretty, but occasionally confusing. The photography throughout is beautiful and well-composed, and it's a gorgeous book - especially the cover.Also, his highly practical and interesting self-designed grill setup is pictured throughout, but gets a 2'' x 3'' photo of a schematic, and a vague suggestion that an ironworker might knock one together for you, at the very end of the book. Chef, I'd commission one tomorrow, if you'd given me enough to work with! Dedicating a page to the grill and its dimensions would help those of us who want to accept your invitation to build one ourselves.

My second cookbook by Francois Mallman. I've also been to his restaurant in Mendoza, Argentina where everything is cooked using these methods. Wonderful inspirational photos and recipes. A must have for your library of grilling books. You'll develop a real appreciation for cooking with fire made from hardwood and hardwood natural charcoal. It is especially focused on slow cooking using large oak charcoal chunks which burn much more slowly than small hardwood charcoal. There's nothing like grilling the Argentine method.

I had never heard of Mallmann before the Chef's Table episode, and I immediately purchased this book after learning of his food!This is an inspirational book, full of world travel, good stories and great food. I loved going thru the pages and imagining myself cooking in the great outdoors. That said, I almost have never cooked a recipe directly out of the book. The reason is not because there's anything wrong, but because how much it emphasizes finding fresh, local ingredients and then just cooking them simply over fire.Sure, there are some complicated dishes, and a few that require bigger fires than I've ever cooked over at home. But "Cowboy Rib Eye a la Plancha with Crispy Brioche Salad and Grilled Dates" doesn't really need much more explanation than what's in the title. A lot of the dishes are like that and it's fine. I still give it five stars because nothing motivates me to go outside and cook as thinking about Francis Mallmann.

Love reading the stories of this fabulous chef. Delivery was prompt and in good order. Thank you.

A beautiful cookbook full of simple recipes and techniques. Mallmann's writing is as unfettered as the cooking; Simple, relevant, accessible. A romance novel of a cookbook! I've not read Seven Fires and understand via reviews that On Fire is far less demanding with regard to the types and sheer sizes of fires and/or ingredients required of the home cook. I don't know that I saw anything in here that could not be achieved on the average grill, griddle (chapa, plancha), or grill pan.This, as most cookbooks by high end chefs do, rarely takes into account the availability, or lack thereof, of certain cuts of meat, certain fishes, certain cheeses in most of the Midwest. The American Midwest is culinary purgatory and damnation! For example, calling for fresh tuna for tartare...There is no fish in Missouri fresh enough to eat raw! Never ever...ever. Or pancetta. Can't get anything but a vac-pac of razor thin slices; Nothing you could cube to render. How about haloumi, Comte', or kasseri cheese? Nope, nope, and nope. Those examples aside, this book really is full of things you can actually cook at home yourself. I would say that you'd have to have or acquire some experience with using fire to cook as fie really is the main ingredient for all Mallmann does! A wonderful accompaniment to this book would be to watch The Chef's Table feature on this intriguing man.

Beautifully photographed book with fascinating look at Patagonia and other areas where Mallman has cooked using his iconic grilling style. I bought the book after eating at one of his restaurants in Mendoza, Argentina where we had one of the best meals of our lives. I gave the book 4 stars because there are a number of recipes I would never attempt. However, the vegetable recipes are wonderful, and the sauces good and interesting. Also, you can use a variety of cooking styles, even a grill pan on the stove. I use a gas grill and that works fine; just not the grandeur of the huge bonfires with leaping flames.