Grilling, Roasting + Smoking

While developing the recipes for this book, I fell in love with fire and smoke. I came to understand how to wield and preserve it, how to control it, and how best to use it to cook different kinds of food. And above all, I learned that all fires must be respected—and that respect cannot come from a place of fear. A fire is an entity, one that will sense your hesitation and whip around and burn you, as if to say “toughen up!” It’s through my kinship with fires and in getting to know the native people and plants of Puerto Rico that I connect with my indigenous past, which has often felt enigmatic and out of reach. So I approach every fire with humility and gratitude in an effort to understand who the island is.