Michael symon wants you to reimagine outdoor cooking | members only

Anything that you can cook indoors, you can cook outside on a grill, says celebrated American chef, restaurateur, television personality and author Michael Symon, and he’s debuted a new

cookbook to show you just how: _Symon’s Dinners Cooking Out: 100 Recipes That Redefine Outdoor Cooking._ “If you take the cover off a grill, it’s just like cooking on a stovetop. If you

leave the cover on, your grill acts like an oven,” Symon tells AARP over the phone on his way to Long Island from Manhattan before kicking off his book tour. OK, we’ll bite — what about

pasta? Or desserts? “I will admit that it might be easier to do some things indoors, like boiling water for pasta or baking a finicky cake, but where is the fun and adventure in that?!” he

writes in the book’s introduction. Symon, 55, who splits his time between Long Island and L.A., grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and his paternal grandfather, Preston “Pap” Symon, often

cooked for him after school. “I remember the smell of kielbasa sausage wafting through the air on Friday afternoons from Pap grilling sausages that he purchased earlier that day,” Symon

says. Pap lived to be 102 years old, proof “that kielbasa and whiskey can lead to a long life,” he notes, laughing. “Symon's Dinners Cooking Out: 100 Recipes That Redefine Outdoor

Cooking” features fan-favorite recipes from his popular Food Network show, “Symon’s Dinners Cooking Out,” and brand new recipes. Ed Anderson/Courtesy Penguin Random House GRILL WITH MICHAEL

Symon shared three recipes from _Cooking Out_ for AARP members to try: SLOPPY JOE TACOS I love Sloppy Joes and I love tacos, so why not marry them together in (un)holy matrimony? SPICY BLACK

COD WITH GRILLED LIME The longer the fish marinates, the better it will taste, so consider making the marinade a few nights ahead. ​FRENCH-STYLE ROASTED CHICKEN When you first put the

chicken in the pan, don’t be tempted to mess with it. Let it sear until it takes on great color and releases from the pan.​ Pap certainly inspired Symon’s love of grilling, but his book

_Cooking Out_ was born out of necessity. In mid-March 2020, Symon was scheduled to film a new television show for the Food Network in New York City. While en route, the COVID-19 pandemic

lockdown went into effect, and life immediately changed for everyone. Later, when he was stuck at home in Long Island, he sought a way to lift people's spirits. Symon, his wife, Liz,

and his social manager Olivia used an iPhone to do a live, unscripted cooking show out of Symon’s backyard that was simulcasted on Facebook and other social media platforms.  “It was hard to

get stuff from grocery stores at the time, so we focused on things that people already had in their home or would be easy to get,” Symon recalls. The first meal they made was a version of

Pap’s split pea soup. Those videos eventually led to a Food Network television show, _Symon’s Dinners Cooking Out,_ for which the cookbook is named. Since then, Symon’s enthusiasm for

grilling has blossomed beyond being a summertime indulgence. Now, one might find Symon any time of the year in his Cleveland backyard, cooking over charcoal in his Weber kettle grill or

Gateway drum grill. Of the former, he says, “I love a Weber kettle grill. It’s insanely dependable, the heat flows good in it, it’s super accessible and affordable. It’s a great starter

grill.”