Barbecue Maestro Cooks Up a Memoir

The title of his most recent book rings true: Steven Raichlen is indeed a Man on Fire, both in his work and on the page.

After writing 34 cookbooks and one novel, Mr. Raichlen decided it was time to tackle a memoir. The longtime seasonal Vineyarder and champion of all things barbecue spent the last two years working on the book about his life’s story. 

Man on Fire: Of Life, Love, Literature, and Really Good Barbecue will officially hit stores on Oct. 20, and Mr. Raichlen will sign copies of his book at Edgartown Books on Saturday, Oct. 10 from 2 to 4 p.m.

The memoir takes readers along the winding road of Mr. Raichlen’s life, from growing up in Baltimore to majoring in French literature in college, from restaurant critic to novelist, to becoming a global grilling authority. 

Mr. Raichlen’s culinary journey began at Reed College, where wrote his senior thesis on medieval writer Christine de Pizan. The following year, he received a prestigious Watson Fellowship that took him across Europe to research medieval cooking.

The fellowship led him, however indirectly, onto the path of grilling he finds himself today. 

“There are interesting parallels between modern barbecue and medieval cooking in the sense that both rely on a lot of spices,” Mr. Raichlen said during a recent interview at his home on Chappaquiddick. “The other connection, of course, is that in the Middle Ages, everything was cooked over a wood fire.”

Though he doesn’t often return to medieval cooking these days, he says his scholarly interest in food remains strong, especially after writing about his time abroad. 

“I’m still very interested in the history of cooking and the history of food in general,” he said. “One of the things that was really satisfying about writing this book was having the opportunity to revisit various periods of my life.”

Mr. Raichlen opens his memoir with his childhood, including the death by suicide of his mother.

“The most difficult part was the third chapter, the worst day of my life, about my mother,” he said. “But that was very cathartic to write because I hadn’t put it to paper before, so that was a very meaningful chapter.”

With decades of experience to draw from, Mr. Raichlen said it was hard to decide which stories belonged on the page.

“I think the biggest challenge was what to leave out, because the temptation is to include everything, and you can’t,” he said.  

Though he knows his audience mostly looks to him for cookbooks, Mr. Raichlen wanted to do something different with this book. He did include 25 recipes in the memoir, but with a twist. 

“In a way, each recipe sums up my attitudes, approach and thinking about food at that period of my life,” he said. “But I was very adamant that there was no mention of it on the cover because I wanted people to buy it as a memoir, not as a cookbook.”

Across the three genres he has written, Mr. Raichlen says his writing process has remained consistent. 

“With me, many of my books originate with titles. Once I have the title, they sort of roll out,” he said. “As ideas come to me, I write them in a notebook. That process probably took six months for this [memoir].”

Mr. Raichlen and his wife, Barbara Raichlen, have been coming to Martha’s Vineyard for 40 years, even before they bought land on Chappaquiddick in the ‘90s. 

“We came here on our anniversary in 1990, and on a lark, we went out with a realtor,” he said. “We found this land and we made an offer, never expecting it to go through. And all of a sudden, we had three acres on Chappaquiddick, and we built a house.”

He said the couple fell in love with its rural feel, so much so that it inspired his first novel, The Hermit of Chappaquiddick, published in 2012.

“We were building our house, and I had this idea of a reclusive guy that would live off the grid in the woods on Chappy, and a New York book editor, because that’s kind of the world that I’ve been with professionally. She would be here recovering from an illness, they would meet and they would connect through food,” he said.

The Island has continued to find its way into Mr. Raichlen’s work as a source of inspiration. The Vineyard’s food, naturally, has made its way onto his grill. These days, one of his favorite Island meals is also one of the simplest. 

“Harpoon swordfish from Martha’s Vineyard, grilled over a wood fire,” he said. “By way of a sauce, capers fried in butter, just poured it over it. The simplest thing you could imagine, but it’s so delicious.”

This article appears in October 9, 2026.