Selected as the July 2013 featured American Grillmaster

Well I couldn't be prouder than a bacon wrapped pork loin sizzling on the grill!
American Grillmaster Experience has selected me as the July 2013 American Grillmaster and featured me on their Facebook page American Grillmaster Experience. This honor has me rubbing elbows with the great outdoor cooks such as Michael McDearman, Clint Cantwell, Robyn Medlin Lindars, Larry Gaian and Richard Wachtel. All fabulous cooks and Grillmasters who are highly recognized in the grilling world.

GrillMaster Spotlight

In 2013, we’re excited to present the GrillMaster Spotlight series – a series dedicated to giving you the inside scoop on grilling from favorite Grill Masters from around the country. Check back monthly to meet new Grill Masters, learn new tips and keep up with the grilling gab. 
Grill Master: Gary House (Cooking Outdoors) 
Grill Beginnings:
When I was a teenager, my stepfather was a spitgriller. He would place the spit over the coals he’d built and that’d be our dinner. I got involved at that point and when I finally moved out to my own place, I had a Weber that I’d cook my meals on out on the patio.  Then my neighbor would come over and the next night he’d cook. You can just imagine, we were one-upping each other constantly. I stepped away from grilling for a little while and later got back in to it.
How did Cooking Outdoors get started?
There was a day when I was sick and laying in bed, flipping through the TV and there was an outdoor cooking show, maybe Campfire Café or something like that, and this guy is in his backyard cooking with a Dutch oven. And I had never seen that before. So when I got better, I ordered a Dutch oven. My wife and son looked at it when it arrived and they said, “What are you going to do with that?” “You just watch,” I told them. I made a fire pit in my backyard on a gloomy day, got my coals ready, got my Dutch oven cast ready, and I made a mixed berry crisp out there. I’m standing out there, cloudy, almost drizzling, and I’m doing the man thing and I’m watching my Dutch oven cook, which is about as exciting to watch as racing snails. A few minutes later, I started smelling this incredible cinnamon aroma. The next thing I know, my entire family is out there staring at this black pot cooking. And that was kind of a pivotal moment for me because I realized there’s more than just putting charcoal in a grill and cooking hamburgers.
So I started exploring more. I started a Dutch oven cooking group, the Central California Dutch Oven Adventures. Around that time, I started a blog about all these ideas I had about grilling and all the different things you can do. After about a year and half of playing around with this, someone sent me a message asking if I had any videos of me cooking. I thought, oh gosh, I have a face for radio, but I’ll see what I can do. I picked up a flip-cam and I filmed myself cooking a pork butt. I put it up on YouTube and it took off! So I did another and another. After a few videos, I got a professional editor and we put it up on iTunes, and in the first month, I had something like eight or nine thousand views. Just mind-boggling! So that’s how Cooking Outdoors and the Cooking Everything Outdoors show came about. Just sharing my love for doing things outside with a grill, Dutch oven and the fire pit and its just grown in to a monster!
What is Dutch-Oven cooking?
I’ll preface this by saying that with every grill, you should have a pair of tongs and some cast iron to cook with. So when I talk about Dutch oven cooking, it’s two things: on the grill and Dutch oven independent of grilling. Dutch oven cooking independent of grilling is probably what comes to mind as being the black pots the Boy Scouts cook in all the time. But it’s the most incredible cooking vessel you will ever own. It’s perfect for the homecook, it’s perfect for campers, scouts, survivalists and doomsdayists. All you need to feed yourself is a pot, some food and wood. And you’re always going to be able to find wood to cook with. And it is the miracle one-pot cooking method. Think of a Dutch oven as an oven in your house; as if you’re baking something. The most common thing people will do with a Dutch oven is bake with it. You can do dessert, chicken dishes, roasts, anything you can imagine, even breakfast. By controlling the amount of heat you have on the top and the bottom, and more heat goes on top than it would on the bottom. Put your coals on there, walk away for the set amount of time the recipe calls for, take the lid off, and you eat. I will honestly, professionally and experientially say that it’s easier to cook on a Dutch oven than a grill. The variables are much easier to work with. I guarantee you, cooking with it a couple of times, and you can master it.
Nontraditional grilling ideas:
Desserts. I do a lot of desserts on the grill, which are great for summertime. I grilled brownies the other day. But instead of the traditional brownies, you know, a couple of inches thick, I did two thin brownies, which became my sandwich for my whipping cream and strawberries. And then I sprinkled chocolate on top of it.
Grilled Bloody Marys. I don’t drag a blender out there and I don’t have a food processor, I cook as if I’m out in the back or out camping. I thought I’d give Bloody Marys a try, but then started thinking, “now how am I going to do this without a blender?” So I took my tomatoes and peppers and I grilled them, which added a nice smoke flavor. Then I minced it all up really finely, just working it with my knife, and pressed it through a fine strainer. So with that thinking outside of the box concept, I made grilled bloody Marys that were just phenomenal.
Tips for Beginners:
In my classes, I teach about controlling the heat whether for Dutch oven or grilling, I teach them about charcoal and the types of charcoal to use, how to mix those up. A lot of people only cook with impressed briquettes, and that’s great but there’s also lump charcoal, and that’s fantastic. So, try combining the two. You’re going to get much more even heat, a richer flavor out of the grilling experiencing just by combining the two products.
Suggestions to Advanced Grillers:
Add more desserts and breads to your grilling experience. Go out and cook breakfast. Grilled bacon, to me, is astounding. Cook with wood, such as planks or wraps. Go out and get some stone or saltblock and use that as your cooking surface. Try breakfast… I made omelets just recently. Try thinking about things other than just the grates to cook on. And of course, add that cast iron.
Favorite meal to grill?
My favorite dish in the world is a good old-fashioned hamburger. But I like adding bison. I like the richness of that. I also like to add Gorgonzola cheese and of course some grilled onions. It’s so basic, but it’s so comforting. And I hate to cop out with just a burger, but to me, that’s just absolutely delightful.