Hey, it's Francis. This week, we're going back in time to last year. Look, I know no one wants to go back to last year, but in this case, it's okay, because even during the height of the pandemic, we could still go outside, get the grill fired up, and have a taste, hopefully a great taste, of normalcy. That's what we hope this episode did, and if you missed it the first time,

we'll still be in for some killer grilling ideas.

Have a listen.

I'm Frances Lamb, and this is The Splendid Table from APM.

Okay, so let me be honest with you for a second. I am, I'm a pretty good cook. I'll go ahead and say that, but I am just a passable griller.

I mean, I think I have an excuse. I grew up in a family that, you know, believed in air conditioning is one of the signs that he really

made it in life, so we never went outside.

And now I live in a small apartment in New York, and I'm just not sure my insurance policy

covers kicking over the habachi and, like, spewing the coals into someone's yard.

But my friends, who I'm staying with in my quarantine house, do have a grill out here.

And I get it.

It is fun.

But, yeah, I did some chicken thighs a few weeks ago.

I stepped back into the kitchen to get a couple things.

I turned around to see smoke billowing out of the grill.

And I opened the cover, and the chicken is just engulfed in flames.

And you know what happened after that?

I spent the next two weeks obsessing over when I could get back to the store,

get some more chicken and get another shot at it.

I just kept imagining what I would do and how I would oil the grates and how I would crisp them here and move them there.

There is something so satisfying about really working a grill.

It's obsession-inducing, and obviously that is not news to many people.

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