They are The Grill Dads, and they are singing (figuratively, thank goodness) the praises of grilling. But they’re also focused on fatherhood, trying to be “a contributing member of the family and working to improve and redefine who the modern dad is,” Anderson said.
“There is no job more important than our job as fathers to our children,” he added.
“Dads are the butt of all jokes,“ Fey said. ”For example, in almost every instance, dads are portrayed in the media as the lowest common denominator. Yes, we have self-deprecating humor. Yes, we have fun with each other. But we are also modern dads: We’re present and attentive with our kids, we’re on the PTA, et cetera. These are the types of things that we think a lot of dads are doing but don’t necessarily get noticed for, and we’re working to give some power to those dads. We want to change that perception by showing how dads contribute to the family in many different ways.”
Friends Who Grill Together
The two met when Anderson, who attended Ohio University, was tour managing a band from Ohio State, where Fey went to school. “After college, Fey was one of the few people we knew who was adult enough to have a nice apartment in New York City,” Anderson said.Anderson would crash at Fey’s apartment on occasion, and his thank-you was to go to the local butcher and bring back steaks to throw on Fey’s little hibachi—“one of the most illegal grill setups you’ve ever seen,” Anderson said.
They arrived at grilling separately. Anderson remembers as a kid waking up at 3 a.m. to find his Italian grandfather grilling pork chops in the backyard. “‘I’m making breakfast,’” Anderson recounted his grandfather saying. “‘Awesome. Can I help?’” Anderson would reply. After freshman year in the dorms, Anderson said he had to find a house so he could grill.
Fey grew up in rural Ohio. “There are two food groups in central Ohio: casseroles and meatloaf,” he said. “My mother—love her to death—was not exactly Julia Child.” In college, he started a “hustle.” He’d make food for people and charge $5. “I’m not good at math because I only have two feet. I probably was taken to the cleaners, but it sure felt good.”
From Hobby to Stardom
Fey moved to Los Angeles, where he founded an advertising agency, and Anderson became a partner. The agency’s success meant more time spent running the business, and so their grilling became a creative outlet.“Mark and I learned to make every single dish on a grill. Thanksgiving on grills, outside. Dinner, outside, because it’s beautiful outside in LA. Next thing you know, 30 or 40 people would show up,” Fey said. “The best way to feed 60 people with a 125-square-foot kitchen is not to use the kitchen, and do everything outside.” The two built a huge deck with a drop-down dining room, rail seating, and a pergola. “This is how we got together and started really cooking.”
Then, Anderson said, “we decided we wanted to do something with our hobby.” They looked at buying a restaurant, but Anderson’s father, a commercial banker, said that if Anderson ever did that, he’d be disowned. “He told us ‘the lucky ones fail quick,’” Anderson said.
The Grill Dads went on “Guy’s Big Project,” Guy Fieri’s reality show competition to find the next foodie road show, and won, going on to film two seasons, with episodes airing in 10 countries and streaming on Hulu and Amazon.
The Cookbook
For fans following at home, the “dad-namic” duo put together a manual for the would-be grillmaster.“We’re not the ‘barbecue’ guys; that’s a cuisine,” Fey said. “We’re The Grill Dads; it’s a tool.”
Grilling for them is much more than flipping burgers and hot dogs on a Smokey Joe. “Think of it as an oven and heat source,” Anderson said. “I can put cast iron pans on it.”
The cookbook really brings home that point. As one might expect, there are whole chapters dedicated to beef (from Argentinian picanha to porterhouse), pork (from chops to Hawaiian pig bowls), and poultry (pineapple-can turkey to chicken noodle soup), as well as great cooking and prep tips, and instructions for selecting meat at the store.
But you’ll also find vegetables—Grilled Cabbage and Grilled Potato Salad—and many items not always associated with firing up the grill—sandwiches, breakfast, dessert. “Obviously, we love to throw a Tomahawk ribeye on there, shove it in the coals caveman style, but we also make delicate, beautiful, healthy food as well,” Fey said.
A number of international dishes are pleasant surprises. “An amazing way to get to know humans is through food,” Anderson said in regard to their food-focused travels. Thus, we get recipes for Korean BBQ Beef Ribs, Grilled Pot Stickers with Szechuan Chile Sauce, and Baba Ganoush.
The final chapter, “Every Single Grilled Dessert Recipe You Will Ever Need to Know,” is the shortest in the book, containing just one recipe: a Grilled Donut Ice Cream Sandwich. The recipe extols its virtues: “The bits of the donut that touched the grill and turned into crunchy, sugary crystals were sent down to the earth from the heavens above.”
