Should I be worried about Dave Grohl? The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame great turned up last month at a homeless shelter in Northridge with his smoker and a whole lot of meat — and proceeded to barbecue for 450 unhoused Californians in the midst of a massive storm. The big-hearted Food Fighter, who told Bon Appetit in 2019 that he's "hooked" on barbecuing, reportedly then inquired about when he might return for an encore. But if recent renewed concerns over the health risks of burnt food are to be believed, should he bring a big sous vide next time instead?
The allure of smoky, crispy, blacked, charred food is something plenty of us can relate to. Forget salty vs. sweet — my vote, always, will be burnt. You will have to pry my blowtorch out of my cold, dead, singed hands. Yet as Jessica Bradley wrote in February for BBC Future, "That habit of scraping the burnt bits off your toast might not be such a bad idea." Bradley was noting the longstanding — and contradictory — research into the potential carcinogenic effects of eating food that has been cooked at high heat.
