THE GRILL DADS’ MARK ANDERSON

The Grill Dads are Ryan Fey (left) and Mark Anderson (right), whose Food Network series show you how to ball out as hard as they do and make juicy, well-seasoned, and perfectly cooked dishes on your backyard grill or smoker. Photo courtesy of The Grill Dads.

Master of Smoke and Fire on TV and in the Backyard

By April Neale

The Grill Dads, authors of “The Best Grilling Cookbook Ever WrittenBy Two Idiots,” offers hot takes on how to cook on an open flame, but don’t call them the “b” word. Mark Anderson explained: “We’re The Grill Dads, not the barbecue dads. A grill is a tool. Barbecue is a cuisine—that’s how we differentiate those. Our cookbook shows that you can cook anything on the grill.”

Anderson is a serious learner who exhausts cooking a specific protein until he and his partner, Fey, feel that they have mastered the recipe. He urged people to practice cooking a dish repeatedly until they feel confident that they can do it with their eyes shut. “We never went to the Culinary Institute of America or were nominated for a James Beard Award. We are the school of hard-knock people and learned in our backyard. We took it very seriously. When someone watches a French Laundry chef using expensive ingredients, it’s not easy to replicate. We told our publisher we want people to see what we’re doing inside the book, like when we cook live on the Today Show,” Anderson said. “As soon as we said that to him, he said, ‘I’ve got the book title—The Best Grilling Cookbook Ever Written by Two Idiots.’”

Humor has always been a massive part of The Grill Dads’ “secret sauce”— the two men think on their feet and deliver perfect one-liners that caught some famous eyes. The two “dads’’ were stuck, frustrated in their positions at the ad agency they worked at. So they started brainstorming a way to create some attention for their love of cooking. Then the people arrived, crashing their backyard meals. Even restauranteurs asked them to do restaurant takeovers.

Under the radar, Anderson and Fey’s little experiment in betting on themselves paid off. “Our original programming team was trying to develop TV content platforms at the advertising agency. And then I got our show we produced on national TV—but we were never a part of that group! We always got a kick out of that,” he said. “We were writing and starring in this short video, which was incredible. But from our first version of what would become ‘The Grill Dads’ on Kickstarter to when our show premiered on the Food Network took nine months.”

What started as a backyard hobby cooking for their families, dinner parties and casual barbecues soon turned into guest executive chefs for sold-out pop-ups at some of Los Angeles’s best restaurants, regular grilling expert appearances on the Today Show, and their own show on the Food Network.

Photo courtesy of The Grill Dads

The Grill Dads pushed it further. Anderson knew former “Double Dare” host Marc Summers was a big deal at Food Network, and he blind emailed him a short clip of their effort. The result was an immediate phone call.

“Marc is a comedian from the Midwest. Fey and I thought, maybe he’ll think our video is funny. So I emailed it and said, ‘This is the better-looking half of The Grill Dads. We have a show concept we wanted to share with you. Here’s a link and the password to YouTube.’ Less than five minutes later, my phone rings—Marc Summers. He said, ‘Who the f**k are you guys? That was the funniest thing that anyone’s ever sent me. Are you guys chefs? What the hell is this thing?’ We had our first power breakfast in Beverly Hills with him. He asked, ‘Do you care if I bring in my friend Guy Fieri as a partner?’ A month later, we went up to Fieri’s House, they were going to co-executive produce a pilot, but then his show, ‘Guy’s Big Project,’ was greenlit by the Food Network. Guy asked us to launch our show through that. And we won in 2017,” he said.

Photo courtesy of The Grill Dads

The ongoing relationship with Fieri allowed Anderson to tip him to the hot spots in Boise for the recent “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” “There’s a lot of great food in the Treasure Valley and a lot of mediocre food too. I was traveling a lot, and when I got home, we weren’t eating out a ton in Boise between parenting a young child and the pandemic. So you can see the growth in the restaurant scene,” he said. “The Modern Hotel, when Nate Whitley was the chef, was one of the best bites in town. And now Sunshine Spice Cafe over on Fairview at their bakery. Insane. I still need to go to Amano out in Caldwell. So legit spots are popping up. I helped Guy’s team with the Boise recon. Another one that I pushed for was Madre’s.”

… you should be able to cook something perfectly with salt before doing anything else.

Now The Grill Dads are building their YouTube Channel and furthering their Spiceology line. “The Food Network show is not the finish line for building a brand. We wanted to create this brand and build it into something that could be a real company, not just two guys on TV occasionally. You have to get products out into the world. We have a massive passion for cooking,” Anderson said. “Another thing is you should be able to cook something perfectly with salt before doing anything else. The problem with many of these retail rubs is that salt is likely the seventh ingredient behind garlic, powder, paprika, sugar, and all these fillers. But if you use the Salt and Pepper Three Chili, we designed it so that the first bite of a steak, your reaction should be, ‘Holy crap. That’s the best bite of steak I’ve ever had.’ Not, ‘Oh, this is spicy.’ We’ve been dry brining poultry for a long time. People always comment on our chicken, ‘Holy cow, what did you do?’ All we had done was salt the chicken in the morning, uncover it, and place it in the fridge—a light dry brine. Our Maple Chili seasoning makes an epic Thanksgiving turkey.”

The Grill Dads aren’t serving up your standard backyard BBQ. Their charm and intrinsic food knowledge come through in everything they do, including their two product lines with Spiceology.

Photo courtesy of The Grill Dads

Even salmon gets significant love from Anderson. “Gravlax is one of my favorite things that I make. I want to create this better at home than ordering at a restaurant,” he said. “My favorite protein in the world is raw or cured salmon. My least favorite protein in the world is cooked salmon. It’s bizarre. Whenever I do an event, I get a whole side of king salmon and serve it whole. Whatever’s left over, I make a whipped smoked salmon creme fraiche cracker dip. It works so well for Gravlax.”

GOOD MOJO FLANK STEAK

Flank steak is udderly delicious (Google “where on the cow is a flank steak” and you might get our joke). It’s lean but has a big beefy flavor and stands up well to the grill. Two rules here. First, cook it hot and fast directly on the grill for maximum grilled flavor. Second, cut across the grain for maximum tenderness. Mojo Picón is a bright, fresh Spanish sauce with every element you need to jazz up your flank: heat, fat, punchy vinegar. Traditionally you would do this with a mortar and pestle, but we’re speeding things up a bit.

Serves: 6, makes about 1 cup (240 ml)

Mojo Picón | Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE BEST GRILLING COOKBOOK EVER WRITTEN BY TWO IDIOTS BY MARK ANDERSON AND RYAN FEY. PAGE STREET PUBLISHING CO. 2022.

PHOTO BY KEN GOODMAN

FOR THE MOJO PICÓN

8 cloves garlic

2 medium red chiles, picón or red serrano

1 tsp ancho chile powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp kosher salt

¾ cup (180 ml) olive oil

2 tsp (10 ml) sherry vinegar

For the Steak

2 lb (907 g) flank steak

Kosher salt, for seasoning

Black pepper, for seasoning

1 tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp ground coriander

Flaky salt, for finishing

• To make the Mojo Picón, combine the garlic, chiles, ancho chile powder, cumin and salt in a food processor, and pulse until finely chopped, about 12 pulses. Scrape down the sides of the food processor, replace the lid and turn the food processor on. Drizzle in the oil until the sauce forms a smooth paste. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning, if necessary, before mixing in the sherry vinegar. Set aside while you gril lthe steak.

• While we like to bring big, thick cuts of meat to room temp before grilling, keeping thin steaks like flank and skirt cold until just before grilling is extra insurance against overcooking over the flames.

• Heat the grill to medium-high heat. While the grill heats, generously season the steak with kosher salt and black pepper on all sides. Combine the cumin and coriander in a small bowl, and sprinkle on the seasoned steak.

• Grill the flank steak: You’re going to grill this steak over medium-high direct heat, so keep it moving. Put the steak on the grill and cook for just 2 minutes on the first side before flipping, then keep flipping every 2 minutes until the steak is nicely charred, about 10 minutes total. We like an internal temperature of about 125°F (50°C) in the thickest part of the steak for rare. You can always use tongs to roll thinner sides of the flank up and away from the heat (like folding a tortilla) while you continue to cook the thicker end.

• Remove the flank steak to a cutting board and rest for 10 minutes before slicing thinly across the grain. Season the sliced steak with the flaky salt and serve with a drizzle of the Mojo Picón.