Join the Fun at Barbecue University™

Dear Up in Smoke Subscriber,

If there’s one thing true about a consumer society, it’s that we Americans have a lot of stuff. Especially after the holidays.

So you won’t be completely surprised that the Journal of Consumer Psychology argues that people derive only temporary satisfaction from material purchases. It’s experiences—not things—that make us the happiest. By this reasoning, we might derive more pleasure by enrolling in a bartending class than by dropping money on a pricy battery-powered margarita blender.

Otherwise stated, and to paraphrase an old saying about fish, if you give a man barbecue, he eats happily for one day. If you teach him how to barbecue, he eats happily for the rest of his life.

If having new experiences is one of your resolutions for 2014, do we have a program for you! Enroll in Barbecue University™, and by this time next year, you’ll be a culinary force of nature. Or as Forbes writer and BBQ U alum Larry Olmsted put it, “… you will likely be the most popular backyard cook in your neck of the woods for years to come.”

Imagine summer camp for adults who love to grill, held at a luxurious Forbes 5-Star, AAA 5-Diamond resort—the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. The Food Network named us “the best BBQ experience in the U.S.”, and our students come from as far away as Austria, Ireland, Dubai, Australia, and Guam.

Appropriately, the theme “Adventures on Planet Barbecue” anchors this year’s BBQ U menu. Hungry for steak? We’ve got a 4-pound, 4-inch thick (!) Tuscan T-bone grilled the old-fashioned way, over an oak wood fire. Craving ribs? We’ll blast your taste buds with authentic Jamaican jerk baby back ribs straight from Boston Beach. You’ll grill mammoth pork porterhouses on a genuine German spiessbraten (“swinging grill”). Our berber leg of lamb will transport you to Morocco.

Of course, you’ll also master such American classics as Hill Country brisket (served with red-eye barbecue sauce), “brontosaurus” ribs (monster-size beef ribs), cherry-glazed baby backs, Santa Maria tri-tip, and smoke-roasted cinnamon peach crisp for dessert.

As for techniques, you’ll learn:

• The five methods of live fire cooking (can you name them now?)
• How to grill the perfect steak (hint: lose your grill grate)
• How to tell when any meat is cooked
• How to cook fish without it sticking to the grill grate and vegetables without fear
• How to choreograph an entire meal on the grill, from appetizer to dessert

Make no mistake: BBQ U is an information-dense, fast-paced, hands-on experience that will change the way you shop, cook, and eat. (Fast? Each day we’ll prepare 8 to 10 different dishes.) But it has a relaxed vibe, and you’ll have plenty of free time to take advantage of the Broadmoor’s three tournament-quality golf courses, miles of hiking trails, swimming pools, bowling alley, and more than a dozen restaurants, not to mention the many attractions (Pike’s Peak, Garden of the Gods, the Air Force Academy, etc.) of nearby Colorado Springs.

So what’s a typical day like at Barbecue University™? Each morning, you’ll ride the shuttle from your luxurious high-thread-count accommodations to BBQ U’s stunning high-elevation classroom at the Cheyenne Mountain Lodge—as close as you’ll come to barbecue heaven on earth. Our soaring glass and timber amphitheater classroom (where lectures and food prep take place) opens to a vast outdoor burn area where you will do the smoking and grilling on the school’s more than three dozen grills and smokers. Curious about that $17,000 stainless gas supergrill or the biggest Big Green Egg? Thinking of buying a wood-burning grill or oven? Debating the merits of infrared versus charcoal? Test-drive them all here at Barbecue University™, and with many grills, your BBQ U student status will earn you a manufacturer’s discount.

Class always ends with a plate-burying lunch of the day’s recipes. Should your spouse not choose to join you in class (believe it or not, some don’t), there’s a world-class spa and shopping, and you can invite guests to BBQ U lunches for a nominal fee.

Barbecue University™ makes an awesome bonding opportunity for husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, as well as friends and coworkers, not to mention an unforgettable gift for birthdays, anniversaries, or Valentine’s Day. We’ve seen many friendships forged in the convivial, team-building atmosphere of this class, now in its 15th year, and some alumni are now working on their Ph.Bs (Doctor of Barbecue) and beyond.

If thrilling new experiences are what you seek for 2014, look no further than Barbecue University™. This is one New Year’s resolution that’s easy to keep. The next sessions take place May 28 to May 31 and May 31 to June 3, 2014.

For further details, visit BarbecueBible.com or contact the Broadmoor directly at 855-634-7711.

Extra Credit:

Test your BBQ IQ: the Barbecue University Final Exam. Students and staff alike have a lot of fun at BBQ U, but we take our curriculum very seriously. We even give a final exam. (Don’t worry, no one has failed—yet.) How many of the questions can you answer?

And just to whet your appetite, we’re going to share one of our most popular signature recipes, Chile Verde.

Once you get all this useful barbecue knowledge—and hopefully before that too—join our Barbecue! Bible Wiki to share everything you know about Planet Barbecue.

Yours in righteous grilling,

Steven Raichlen