OWN THE FIRE® · Live Fire Technique
From Executive Chef Mike Riddle
How a twenty-year executive chef works over live fire.
Most cooking content teaches you what to cook. This page teaches you how to actually cook it.
That difference is everything. Two decades of professional service taught me that heat, timing, and restraint matter more than another recipe ever will.
Here you will find complete cooks, fire management, and technique breakdowns out of professional New York kitchens. The Iron Cross Suckling Pig. The Beef Rib Pastrami with a ten-day cure. The Whole Roasted Duck with the honey bath every French chef knows and nobody talks about. Free to watch. No strings.
Those techniques have reached more than 2.2 million people and earned Top 1% status on r/Cooking.
Scroll through. Watch the cooks. If you find yourself wanting the written sheets behind them, there is a door at the bottom of this page.
These are not recipes assembled from other recipes. Every live fire technique here was earned behind the line in kitchens where failure was not an option and mediocrity got you sent home.
If you have ever wondered why the same cut comes off a restaurant fire better than yours, that gap is what this page is about.
Real technique. Real fire. No shortcuts.
Every cook below teaches one professional technique.
A Round of Applause for the Asador. The Title You Earn at the Fire.
¡Un aplauso para el asador!
In Argentina, the asado is not a cookout. It is an hours-long ritual, and the asador is its undisputed hero. The one who wakes early for the best cuts. The one who stands in the smoke and patiently commands the coals so everyone else can enjoy the day.
When the final cut hits the table, the meal ends the way it always ends. With a round of applause for the asador.
That title is not bought. It is earned at the fire, over years. This is the story of earning it.
Full Cook · 13+ Minutes · Live Fire Multi-Protein Asado
This is traditional Argentine asado. Multiple proteins, one fire, hours of managing heat and timing to bring everything together at the perfect moment.
Wagyu Picanha. Tomahawk ribeye. Seven-bone plate rib. Each cut demands different technique. This cook shows how they all come together over live fire on a Santa Maria grill the way the asador tradition was built to do it.
Fire & Steel Chronicles Vol. 4 · Own The Fire®
The fire management behind this cook, the heat zones, the timing, and the reason each cut comes off when it does, is written down in The Chef's Notebook.
Cochinillo with Wagyu Tri-Tip. Skin That Shatters When You Bite It.
Full Cook · 14:26 of Live Fire · Asado a la Cruz
This is not backyard BBQ. This is traditional Argentine asado. A whole suckling pig butterflied and mounted on an iron cross, cooked low and slow over live fire for hours until the skin goes to glass.
Paired with Wagyu tri-tip finished over the coals. Two proteins. One fire.
Fire & Steel Chronicles · Own The Fire®
The suckling pig is not in The Chef's Notebook. The fire control behind it is, on every main in there, with the temperature, the doneness cue, and the reason.
A cure that runs nearly three weeks. Cherry wood smoke. Bourbon brown sugar glaze.
Full Process · Nearly Three Weeks of Real Curing · Reverse Flow Smoker
This is a real cured and smoked ham built over nearly three weeks. Wet cure brine, pink curing salt, full ham injection, hung in a reverse flow smoker over cherry wood, finished with a bourbon brown sugar glaze.
No shortcuts. No pre-cooked center. The kind of ham that earns a spot at the table because the technique earned it.
The ham is not in The Chef's Notebook. The cure work is. Beef rib pastrami, duck pastrami, pancetta, salami, bacon, and salmon pastrami, every sheet with the salt weighed and a safety block on it.
Quebracho coals, Patagonia rub, and a hot honey lime butter wrap.
Two Racks · Four Hours Over Live Fire · Quebracho Lump
Ibérico pork ribs are not a substitute for St. Louis or baby backs. They are their own animal. The fat marbles deep into the muscle instead of sitting in a cap on top of it, so it renders cleaner and it renders faster, and that one fact drives every decision on this sheet.
Seasoned with Patagonia from Ember & Salt Co., rosemary, smoked fleur de sel and aji amarillo. Finished with a Lady Bug hot honey lime butter wrap that turns the foil into a sauce you pour back over the meat before anything gets sliced.
Free PDF · No signup · Built to print
This sheet is built to the same standard as every page in The Chef's Notebook. Same layout, same print-first format, same reasoning behind every step. This one is free. There are a hundred more.
The Ten-Day Cure That Changed Everything.
Ten-Day Cure · Pepper-Coriander Bark · Smoke Ring
Pastrami is a technique, not a cut. Delis run it on navel because it is cheap and it holds up to a long brine. Plate ribs take the same treatment and give you what the deli case never has, which is bone.
Three numbers, and each one has a reason. You brine long because the meat is thick and the cure has to travel in from both faces. You smoke to 160°F and stop, because past that the surface tightens and the meat stops accepting smoke. You steam-braise to 203°F, because collagen does not break down below about 200°F and getting there in open smoke would dry the bark to leather before the inside went soft.
That is what the sheet gives you. Not the sequence. The reason behind every number in it.
Beef Rib Pastrami is one of six cures in The Chef's Notebook. Duck pastrami, pancetta, salami, bacon and salmon pastrami are written the same way, with the salt weighed and a safety block on every sheet.
Watch The Full Cook
Full Process · Ten Days of Curing · Stout Steam Finish
No pictures. Just technique. The post that proved people want the real method, not the polished feed.
How to roast a whole duck with crispy skin every time. The restaurant method.
Three-to-Four Day Dry Cure · Honey Bath · Peking-Style Finish
The three to four day dry cure is not optional. Neither is the honey bath, and that one takes sixty seconds. Everything people try instead of these two is a shortcut, and a shortcut is how you end up with rubber.
The cure runs with salt and a daily rotation. The bath tightens the surface into a lacquer that air-dries tight enough to shatter. The trim comes off before any of it and gets rendered down to tallow, because nothing on a duck gets thrown away.
That is what the sheet gives you. Not the sequence. The reason behind every step in it.
Whole Roasted Duck sits in Main Dishes & Proteins in The Chef's Notebook, alongside the Santa Maria leg of lamb, the coffee-rubbed tri-tip and the grilled lobster tail. Every main carries a wine pairing and the reason behind it.
Watch The Full Cook
Full Process · Honey Bath Method · Restaurant Peking Technique
The dish everyone gets wrong. Done right.
Why the flambe changes everything. The restaurant vodka sauce technique.
Vodka Flambe · Pancetta & Cream · Crimini Mushrooms
Most vodka sauce recipes treat vodka like a garnish. Splash it in, cook it off, move on. That completely misses why vodka is in this dish.
Vodka pulls flavor compounds out of tomatoes that water and fat cannot touch. When you ignite it, those compounds transform. That is what separates restaurant-level vodka sauce from pink stuff.
Free PDF Download · The Chef's Sampler · Own The Fire®
Watch The Masterclass
Full Technique Breakdown · Vodka Flambe Method · Restaurant Pasta
Three live fire turkey methods. Two brine techniques. One comprehensive guide. From prep to carve.
Rotisserie Method · Wet Brine · Compound Sage Butter
Whether you are spinning a bird over live fire, smoking low and slow, or grilling hot and fast, the fundamentals stay the same.
Proper turkey brine. Compound butter under and over the skin. Pull at 155 to 160 degrees. Wrap and hold. No exceptions.
Spun over live fire with compound sage butter under and over the skin. Even render, crisp finish, juicy interior.
Spatchcocked and air-dried 24 to 48 hours. Low and slow over smoke. Compound butter under the skin. Deep flavor, even cook.
Two-zone indirect heat. Hot and fast for crisp skin and tender meat without the smoker commitment.
The Chef's Notebook · Mike Riddle's Recipe Vault
Open the Notebook. One payment. Yours permanently.
You have seen what went viral. Beef Rib Pastrami at 213K views on r/FoodPorn. Whole Roasted Duck at 511K views on r/Cooking. The Iron Cross Suckling Pig. The Full Asado. These are not flukes. They are the result of twenty plus years of professional kitchen technique, earned behind the line. The Notebook holds the complete collection: live fire, cured and smoked, Argentine asado, soups, sauces, rubs, sides, and desserts. Eighty plus recipes. One payment. Yours permanently.
Eighty plus professional chef recipes across eight categories, with new recipes added monthly at no extra cost.
Argentine asado, Brazilian churrasco, and live fire techniques from the global tradition.
Ten-day beef rib pastrami, duck pastrami, pancetta, salami, smoked bacon. Real professional curing.
No subscription. No drip. No recurring charges. Yours the moment you purchase, permanently.
80+ Recipes · 8 Categories · Yours Permanently
30-day guarantee. No subscription. Own The Fire®
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Where fire meets finesse. These are the opening statements of your culinary repertoire — elegant compositions that demand precision, technique, and an understanding that every element matters.
From Drago's-style oysters with live-fire char to competition-level smoked deviled eggs, these recipes showcase the intersection of restaurant technique and outdoor mastery. Each dish is engineered to impress, teaching you the temperature control, timing precision, and plating standards that separate memorable meals from forgettable ones.
These aren't just appetizers. They're the signature opening that signals to your guests: this meal is happening at a different level.
LIQUID FOUNDATIONS
Soup is the signature of a skilled kitchen. From the succulent lobster bisque crowned with crisp shiitake mushrooms to the roasted butternut squash finished with candied pecans, blue cheese, and sage, these are compositions that demand precision, layered technique, and an understanding of flavor architecture.
Each recipe teaches you the foundations of professional cooking — building flavor through patient layering, achieving silky refinement through proper technique, and finishing with intentional contrast. These aren't casual weeknight broths. They're statements of mastery.
Master soup, and you've mastered the fundamental building blocks that elevate every meal.
THE CENTERPIECE
This is where mastery reveals itself. From the fire-kissed elegance of grilled lobster tail swimming in cowboy butter to the bold sophistication of coffee-crusted tri-tip with charred edges and smoke-kissed interior, these recipes demand precision, temperature control, and an understanding that every protein tells a story.
Each dish in this collection teaches you the relationship between heat, timing, and technique. How to build flavor through intentional char. How to achieve restaurant-level doneness without hesitation. How to transform a simple cut of meat or seafood into something that commands the table.
These are the recipes that define your reputation. Master them, and you're not just cooking — you're commanding fire.
THE FINISHING LAYER
The difference between good food and unforgettable food lives in the sauce. From fire-roasted tomato jam with cowboy jalapeños to compound butters that elevate every protein, these recipes teach you that condiments aren't decoration — they're the punctuation that completes the sentence.
Each sauce and condiment demonstrates professional technique: proper emulsification, flavor layering, acidity balance, and the strategic use of fire to develop depth. Understanding sauces means understanding how to finish every plate with intention.
Master the sauce, and you've mastered the final layer that transforms a meal into an experience.
THE FOUNDATION OF FLAVOR
A rub is not seasoning. It's architecture. From The Foundation — the all-purpose powerhouse engineered for perfect crust — to Fire Kiss Chimichurri with its Argentine soul and New York fire intensity, each signature blend teaches you the precise balance of spice, smoke, and technique.
These aren't generic spice combinations. Each blend is engineered to interact with fire, develop bark under heat, and build flavor layers that evolve as your protein cooks. Understanding rubs means understanding the foundation of every masterful plate.
Master the rub, and you've mastered the first fundamental principle of world-class fire cooking.
