Cooking School: Grilling Great Steaks,
with Recipes and Techniques

Recipes for this story
Guinness-Soaked Filets with Blue Cheese and Sweet Potato Frites
Grilled Steakhouse Filets with Lemon-Grilled Asparagus
Grilled Filets with Whiskey Butter and Potato-Onion-Mushroom Stacks

Written and produced by Stephen Exel
Photographs by Peter Krumhardt

When chef-author Elizabeth Karmel talks about grilling, she’s not giving someone the third degree, unless it’s medium-rare. The “Queen of the Grill” enthusiastically encourages women to take their indoor cooking skills outside. “I want women to embrace grilling,” she says. “Once you master the basics of direct and indirect heat, you realize how easy it is.” Karmel acts on her words, her well-manicured hands doing a tango with the tongs to illustrate techniques of grilling filets in three distinct, flavorful ways.