If you love a good barbecue and pride yourself on being a solid griller, you may very well have our upcoming guest to thank.

For decades, he's built a business, some say a revolution around how Americans and those across the globe respect the grill.

Check out my interview with PBS griller.

Steven Raichlen.

Stephen, it' so great to be with you today.

Steven Raichlen: Well, it' lovely to be here with you, too.

Kristi:Thank you so much.

Now, you have such a breadth of experiences in the world of grilling.

So talk to us about your super fascinating upbringing and some of the things that you've done that have brought you to where you are today.

Steven Raichlen: Oh, boy.

Well, I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland.

In my family.

My mother was the grill master.

She used to light the charcoal with gasoline.

She was, I wante to get to business right away.

And her specialty was, wha we call Pittsburgh rare steak.

So, it was burnt cold, black on the outside, and the heart was still beating inside.

I have a very unusual training for a career in writing, in barbecu and making barbecue television.

I was a French literature major.

Now barbecue.

I came to barbecue probably 30 years ago, with a simple but profound idea.

And that is that, people grill the world over, but everywhere they do it differently.

So wouldn't it be cool to travel around the world?

Document how people grill in different countries and cultures.

The result of that, four year adventure was a book called The Barbecue Bible.

The Right Book, The Right Time became an international bestseller.

And that's how I got into barbecue.

Kristi:So why barbecue and not another niche then?

Steven Raichlen: You know, it was, I came to it late.

I had written many.

I'd probably written 1 books about other subjects, but when I found barbecue, I felt like I was home.

And I think the reason is that it brings together so many of my interests.

I mean, first of all, setting stuff on fire.

Second of all, having the Y-chromosome own, you know, guys like that to stand at the grill.

I love flavor, and, there's nothing like grilling to bring out flavor.

I don't like fat and unhealthy food.

And grilling is very healthy method of cooking.

Kristi:So this never ending creative and fascinating side of you.

What's the process that you use when you're coming up?

Whether it's a TV show you'r writing for The New York Times, all the things that you're doing, writing books.

How do you start and generate new content as you do all the time?

Steve Raichlen: What a great question.

You know, I have a very active min and a very active imagination.

And while I am not great with names or faces, and, my wife gives me a list of things to do, and I go back five minutes later and say, what do you say, honey?

But when it comes to food I can remember most of my meals and I'm constantly thinking about flavor combinations.

I spend four months a year traveling and I get a lot of ideas from my travels.

I keep a notebook, my bed.

You know, sometimes I'll dream of something and wake up the next morning.

And there it is.

Kristi:I love all of the ventures, too, that you've built into this career of yours.

Even things like restaurants on cruise lines.

How about that?

That's pretty exciting.

How did you get involved with that?

Steven Raichlen: Like so many things that have happened in my life, it began with a phone call.

From the food and beverage manager of the Windstar Cruise Line.

And they were embarkin on a very interesting project.

They were cutting three of their ships in half and adding an extra 100ft, and in that 100ft inside, besides the additional staterooms, they were adding an outdoor restaurant, and it was going to be a grill restaurant.

And they wanted to know if I would be willing to create the Star Grill by Steven Raichlen restaurants on these ships.

Well, you know, I mean, twist my arm pretty interesting.

And in fact, posed some really, interesting challenges because according to international maritime law, you cannot have open flame on a cruise ship.

Now, open flame is what I'm all about.

But we did devise some workarounds.

And, when you taste our pastrami or our brisket, at the Star Grill, it is indeed kissed with real wood smoke.

It's got that real authentic barbecue flavor.

But you know what I love about my job and being, freelance and self-employed is not for everybody, right?

Because, you know, sometimes you never know where your next, paycheck is going to come from.

Kristi:Yo don't work.

You don't get paid.

Steven Raichlen: Exactly.

But every day there's a phone call of some new opportunity.

In the last year that's.

I've been to Abu Dhabi to, to, keynote a barbecue festival.

I went to, Switzerland to, to consult for a company that wanted to, develop barbecue flavors.

You never know what the next phone call is going to bring.

Kristi:Just because you're so good at what you do.

Some people say, who better?

Steven Raichlen: Oh, shucks.

Kristi:The first piece of advice that you give to the novice griller.

Steven Raichlen: Well the first piece of advice is go buy the barbecue Bible and log on to Barbecue bible.com, because, that is, an infinite source of infinite wisdo about barbecuing and grilling.

Sign up for my Up and Smoke newsletter.

It's free.

Comes out twice a week, but after that I would say I would give you a couple pieces of advice.

First of all, I have a little mantra which goes, keep it hot, keep it clean, keep it lubricated.

That is, for most grilling, start with a hot grill, clean it with a stiff wire.

Brush your wooden scraper and oil it with a folded pape towel dipped in oil drawn apart across the bars.

The grate which not only prevents sticking but also gives you killer grill marks.

So that's one piece of advice.

Another core piece of advice is don't overcrowd the grill.

Now this is another Y-chromosome trait.

You know, we, we tend to like some as good more as better.

So you put your cooking chicken wings, you cover every square inch of the grill grate with chicken wings.

And what happens is when you get a flare up or something starts to burn, you pani because you have no place to go.

So I always use the two thirds, one third rule, two thirds of the grill with food, one third of the grill food free so you have a safety zone where you can move the food.

One third piece of advice and these are supposed to be short answers but I'm not a short answer kind of guy.

If you're going to cook one thing to start with, I would start with a pork shoulder.

Why is it pork shoulder?

Because you can cook it low and slow, like barbecue.

You can roast it hot and fast.

You can spit roast it.

It's incredibly forgiving.

It's almost impossible to overcook a pork shoulder.

Kristi: Great pieces of advice.

Yes, I am actually taking notes, but considering myself a novice griller.

Okay, yes.

Steven Raichlen: Well, I would have said that pork shoulders the kosher part of the pig, but in fact, bacon is the kosher part of the pig.

Kristi:Davin Raichlen, world renowned PBS star, television host, barbecue extraordinaire.

All the wonderful things you've done for grilling.

Thank you, thank you.

It's grea to have you on Business Life 360 and is a part of Busines Life After Hours.

Thanks again.

Steven Raichlen: Thank you so much for on.