North Carolina native Elizabeth Karmel was raised on barbecue--at roadside stands, neighborhood cookouts and county fairs--but it wasn't until she moved away from home that the barbecue love affair began. When it wasn't at her fingertips, she had to learn how to smoke it herself and a pit-mistress was born.

Karmel, a.k.a. Queen of the Grill, is a nationally respected authority on grilling, barbecue and Southern food. She is the Executive Chef of Hill Country Barbecue Market in NYC and Washington, DC, and NYC's Hill Country Chicken. She developed the award-winning concept, menu and flavor profiles from the meats to the sides and desserts for all three restaurants. As a sought after media personality, Karmel writes for, and is frequently featured in an array of national magazines from Saveur to Better Homes & Gardens, and appears regularly on all three network morning shows. She writes a bi-monthly column for the Associated Press called The American Table. She is the author of three acclaimed cookbooks, Taming the Flame: Secrets for Hot-and-Quick Grilling and Low-and-Slow BBQ, Pizza on the Grill; and Soaked, Slathered and Seasoned: the Guide to Flavoring Food for the Grill. Karmel is also the designer of Elizabeth Karmel's Grill Friends; an innovative line of outdoor cooking and kitchen tools, and the founder of the gender-breaking GirlsattheGrill.com.
Follow her @GrillGirl and like her fan page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Elizabeth-Karmel/201250523244938.