How to throw a great BBQ, according to QVC's David Venable

When it comes to good barbecue, David Venable—a.k.a., QVC’s resident foodie—knows his way around a grill.

Since joining the famed home shopping network in 1993, the North Carolina native has made it his mission to make cooking more joyful for everyday viewers. David currently hosts two shows, including In the Kitchen with David, which focuses on David’s kitchen and cooking recommendations, and Down Home with David, which focuses more on entertaining, decorating, and gardening tips. He has also authored several bestselling cookbooks, including Back Around the Table (which we're obsessed with) and Comfort Food Shortcuts.

Dubbed “the Man who helps America cook” by The New York Times, David is known for drawing from his own experiences growing up in the South to create recipes for good, easy-to-follow comfort dishes that’ll make your heart—and your belly—feel full.

With summer barbecue season fast approaching, we leapt at the chance to chat with David about everything from the beauty of coleslaw to what impact his Southern roots have made on his own barbecue style and appreciation for the power of food to draw people together and create lasting memories. So get ready to do a happy dance, because here’s everything you need to know about hosting the perfect summer barbecue, according to David Venable.

Reviewed: We’ve read all of your books, and something that we love about them is how much your own experiences—and specifically, your happy childhood memories—seem to shape your cooking, especially when you’re describing recipes and holiday meal ideas. What did barbecues mean for you growing up?

David Venable, host of QVC’s In the Kitchen with David: Well, for me, barbecue always means summer celebration. One of the things I looked forward to most as a child was eating outside when the weather got warmer. We would set up a table and get the grill going.

I mean, barbecue down South can mean anything, just like it does across the country. It can mean hamburgers and hot dogs, it can mean a great steak, or it can be smoked pork shoulder and then pulled and mixed with some good, North Carolina vinegar-mixed barbecue sauce and served on rolls with big dollops of coleslaw.

This is such a joyful time for me. As I look back, barbecues were always part of family celebration. Cooking outdoors was joyful, and just having that great time with my family outdoors, and the great smell of the charcoal grill. We always used a charcoal grill growing up, so it was something that was so important to us as a family and now so rich and vivid in my memory.

Reviewed: What do you think the function of food is in the South?

David: I think food is the common thread that brings us all together. I don’t think that’s unique to the South, I think it’s unique to all of us, wherever we come from. But down South, we just celebrate food.

I remember growing up, we’d have dinner on the grounds at church. There’d be a summer gathering at church and we’d call it ‘homecoming.’ And everyone would bring a covered dish, and we would go out and have dinner on the ground, spread blankets, and have picnics.

But you’d get in these long lines at these buffets and you’d have all this great Southern food, and food was the conduit. It was the common thread that pulled us all together. And it’s what brought us together, but it was the relationships and the stories and the laughter that all surround that food that made it so special.

Reviewed: You mention in Back Around the Table (2014) that one of your goals is to encourage families to return to the dinner table. Do you feel like barbecues—especially socially distanced ones this summer—could be a way to help people return to socializing with loved ones again?

David: Well, I think the landscape is changing. I said on the air [recently] that a year ago, we didn’t know what we didn’t know. And it was a scary time, and it was an unsettling and anxious time for the entire world. And now a year later, we’re filled with more hope. Vaccines are rolling out, we’re hearing encouraging news that we’ve not yet turned the corner but we can see it, and so, I feel good about eating outdoors because being outside is already a safer place for us to be during this very unique time in our history.

I think as more and more vaccines roll out, we’re hearing that it’s safe to gather with small groups. So, I think we’re going to see barbecue as a great thread that brings us back together again—that brings us outdoors, that brings small groups together. We’ll begin with a little trepidation but with lots of hope and excitement that we can get back together and really start celebrating what’s important, and that’s family and relationships. And food is always at the heart of that. Barbecue in the summer is always at the heart of that.

Reviewed: You also mention in Comfort Foods that Take You Home (2012) that when you were growing up, your mother insisted that your dinner plates always have a main course and two side dishes (a starch and a vegetable). Do you feel like barbecues have the same kind of “rules,” or is it more flexible?

David: Growing up, you know, I have a retired nurse for a mom, and so she was always very adamant about balance at the dinner table. She was not only insistent that we eat as a family around the dinner table without distractions, but she was also about balance. We had to have a protein, there had to be a starch, there had to be a leafy green vegetable. I tried to convince her that pickles started their life as a cucumber but she wasn’t buying it.

So, I think barbecues sometimes, we don’t think that we can have that same balance, but if you really look at side dishes that work with barbecues, you begin to understand that coleslaw is such a great side and a great introduction of vegetables [to your meal].

You’ve also got summer garden salads, which were always a big part of our barbecues growing up down South. My mom’s mom had a big vegetable garden in her backyard, so she would fill us with grocery bags when we’d go to visit, with all this fresh produce. And then in the fall, she would can green beans and we would eat all those green beans all winter long.

So, that balance doesn’t disappear in the summertime, it just changes a bit. Whether barbecue is hamburgers and hot dogs or steaks or great pork barbecue or ribs, there’s always a chance for great baked beans on the side for your starch, and then some leafy greens like salads and coleslaws. I think you just have to get creative and celebrate color and celebrate balance at the picnic table. And of course, that picnic table has to have the red and white checkered tablecloth or just doesn’t feel like you’re outside.

Reviewed: Cloth or paper napkins at a barbecue?

David: Oh, paper. Paper and lots of wet napkins because barbecue is deliciously messy. This is the kind of situation where you want to just kind of keep your hands as neat as possible just so you can reach for more food—for seconds, for thirds.

We were not big on cloth napkins growing up because mom was a single mom, worked full time, and she didn’t have a lot of time for laundry or that kind of thing, we did the essential laundry but she didn’t want to add to it if she could help it.

Reviewed: Do you have a favorite dessert that you just absolutely love the most for a barbecue?

David: Well, growing up down South, one of my favorite desserts was my mom’s banana pudding. Now that she has grandchildren, and her grandkids call her ‘Nana,’ so it’s Nana’s “naner pudding.” And Mom always made this in the summertime. We would either have that as a dessert with barbecue or we would make homemade ice cream.

I remember making homemade peach ice cream. Now back in my youth, we had the old hand crank ice cream churn. And because I was the youngest of three kids, I always got roped into doing all the cranking while the older kids went about their business and left me to do all the hard work—rock salt and ice, or bowls of ice from the freezer from the kitchen, and we’d come outside. There was nothing like that peach ice cream because we’d go and buy peaches at a farmstand and come home, and mix it with cream and sugar and we’d have this tremendous bowl of outdoor peach ice cream and it [tasted] like summer because it is summer.

Reviewed: What is your dream Southern meal and who would you eat it with?

David: As I think of my dream Southern meal, I think back to my roots. I think back to the things that I looked forward to the most as a child—Southern Fried Chicken tops my list. I mean, it’s just—there’s nothing like it.

I was so heavily influenced by both of my grandmothers in my cooking, and they both approached Southern cooking a little differently, but I learned so much from each one of them. So, I think my dream Southern meal would be Southern Fried Chicken; fried okra—because of course, that’s a mainstay in the South—and collard greens, and my mother’s mother’s buttermilk biscuits that would float off the countertop by themselves, they were so amazing. And mashed potatoes with chicken gravy.

I mean, this is the kind of meal that is just rib-sticking, you break those biscuits apart and sop up the leftovers. And I would want to share that meal today with both grandmas, because they were ever so special to me. They had such a big influence on me and they had such a big influence on my cooking and my love of great Southern food and they taught me so much about it.

So, I remember my dad’s mom making chicken and dumplings that could make you cry, they were so good. And I remember my mom’s mom’s vegetables—ripe and delicious from the garden, and her biscuits. It was just so amazing, what they taught me and shared with me and I’d love to share that meal with them today.

Kate Tully Ellsworth for Reviewed: I love that, and that hits—that’s what Southern food is to me. It’s that community, but it’s also so strongly tied to family. And that family can be your grandmothers, it can be your church community, it can be your neighbors. My mother and I would, every single year, give cookies to our neighbors at Christmas, and so for me, it’s my mother. She’s the one who taught me, she’s the one who ingrained it in me. So, I love hearing that.

David: You know, I can remember one time, being on the air and presenting a pie and cobbler cookbook. Both [of my] grandmas made peach cobbler, which was just so amazing. But, they both approached it a little differently. And, I remember tasting this peach cobbler from this cookbook and immediately teared up on the air because it took me back to my Mimi, my dad’s mom, and it took me back to her kitchen.

Suddenly, I was six years old again, and I smelled it baking in the oven. I remembered eating it at her kitchen table. I remember the brocade placements she had on the table. I remember the red acrylic glasses from the 1970s that she had on her table, which we would have at dinner. Suddenly, I’m transported back to this place that is just so special. And food is always at the heart of that—it’s such a strong trigger for memory, and for love and relationships.

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