New to Grilling? Heres Where to Start.

Master basics like skirt steak and spice-rubbed pork chops, and then move on to huli huli chicken and pizza.

Good morning. There are probably two dozen ways to cook food on a grill, most of them good, but in the end the question is going to be whether the fuel is gas or charcoal. A propane grill is a marvelous thing, but I dont like using one for anything I want a hard sear on for me, a gas grill never gets hot enough. A charcoal grill, conversely, is terrific for that, but it requires lighting a fire and cooking over it at just the right time. This takes attention.

Either way, I like the grill to have zones. I want a side of the grill thats ripping hot, a middle thats about medium and a side thats entirely free of coals or flames. This allows me to cook over direct heat or indirect heat, and it provides a place to rest ingredients that are maybe cooking too fast, or that I just want out of the fire scene for a while. My friend Steven Raichlen calls this last area a safety zone.

Steven has a fine primer on these subjects in The Times right now, an introduction to the five dishes everyone should know how to grill. These are: skirt steak (above), pork chops, inside-out cheeseburgers, chicken breasts and salmon. (Ill add tofu, asparagus, clams and peaches.)