Steven Raichlen

American culinary writer, chef, tv host, and novelist

Steven Raichlen (born March 11, 1953
) is an American culinary writer, TV host, and novelist.

Raichlen was born in Nagoya, Japan. He grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, US. He is Jewish.

In 1975, Raichlen earned a Bachelor of Arts in French literature from Reed College. Raichlen has written for The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, Food & Wine, Bon Appétit and Esquire magazines. Raichlen has been known to further careers of barbecue pitmasters thanks to his writing, including Wayne Mark Schafer, of Baltimore's Pit Beef fame Big Fat Daddy's, who was featured in Raichlen's NY Times article and 425 Fiery Recipes book. In 2012, he released his first novel, Island Apart, about a Chappaquiddick hermit's developing relationship with a cancer patient. and more recently Steven Raichlen's Project Fire. Raichlen also hosts the French language TV shows Le Maitre du Grill and Les Incontourables du BBQ on Zeste in Quebec. His Steven Raichlen Grills Italy show was launched on Gambero Rosso Channel in Italy in 2018. He battled and defeated Iron Chef Rokusaburo Michiba in a "Battle of the Barbecue Gods" on Japanese television. He has appeared on numerous television programs and networks including Good Morning America, The Today Show, CBS This Morning, Discovery Channel, Oprah, Regis & Kelly, The View and CNN.

Raichlen has won five James Beard awards for his cookbooks. High Flavor, Low Fat Cooking won the 1993 award for Best Light and Healthy Cookbook, and his follow up, High Flavor, Low Fat Vegetarian Cooking, won the 1996 award for Best Vegetarian Cookbook. In 1999, Healthy Latin Cooking won the award for Healthy Focus. He also earned the 2001 James Beard Foundation/KitchenAid Book Award for his Healthy Jewish Cooking His 780 page book, BBQ USA, won the 2004 award for Tools and Techniques. In 2015, Raichlen was inducted into the Barbecue Hall of Fame. In 2003, Bon Appetit named Raichlen “Cooking Teacher of the Year," the same year that The Barbecue Bible, based on his four years of research while traveling 150,000 miles through 25 countries on five continents, won an IACP Julia Child Award. and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Island Apart , 2012.