Born to Grill Stories Meet Laura Miner

Q & A with Laura Miner

How did you get your start in the industry?

LM: Oh, we were lucky to find each other! [Laughs.] But I grew up in their backyard. My hometown is Palatine, Illinois — where you’ll find their corporate offices. Now that I’m thinking about it, it’s funny that I’ve been working for the brand for the last decade when I essentially grew up around Weber grills my whole life. Not only did my mom and dad cook on Weber products at home, but their first factory was just 10 minutes up the road from us!

Kind of stumbled into it, actually! So, the context here is my husband and I had just moved to Virginia — new mom, new state, and now I’m suddenly home day in, day out. At the time, Instagram is where you went to find a community, so I started posting pictures of my dishes and began making friends with other people looking at healthier diets. What started as an outlet for fun became a challenge; soon I was food writing, teaching myself new food photography and, well, when you do something long enough...

Why do you do what you do?

LM: In short, the goal is to teach anybody to cook accessibly. Healthy food isn’t boring food — boring food is boring food. So, in the spirit of “anybody means anybody,” I perch my four-year-old on my lap (“From the mouths of babes,” so they say!) to scroll through the pictures with me while I ask him questions about how to make it. It’s too often that someone doesn’t know how to cook, and leans on things that are convenient. I get it. Cooking can be daunting when you’re still green. But my job now is to show those people how easy yet fulfilling it is.

Could you tell us about your earliest food memory?

LM: A lot of my childhood was spent being my Italian grandmother’s little assistant in the kitchen. Makes sense that one of my first memories was helping her make a great, big pot of Italian tomato sauce. I must’ve been 4, maybe 5 years old? The sauce came out great, in spite of the secret ingredient. That was the last time I helped out in the kitchen with a band-aid on my finger!

What nurtures your spark for cooking?

LM: Family. The warmest memories in my heart are sitting around the table as a kid and eating with my family. Now that I have my own children and family, it’s so rewarding to give them good food and watch them enjoy it. It lends itself to spending good quality time together. We thrive because of what we do as a family — not just the food — but the experiences we share.

Now, my goal is always to empower people, and be approachable to people — and from the inside looking out, I’ve seen for myself that Weber really embraces that ethos. We want to teach people how to be comfortable behind the grill. We just happen to be doing it with a product that hasn’t gone through all these crazy evolutions. Do something well, do it consistently, and be inventive. Isn’t that what cooking’s all about? And when you do see success, really understand what made it work so well… Don’t betray that. In my eyes, that’s how you take something great and you make it really iconic.

For entertaining company, let’s talk about your go-to BBQ dish.

LM: Halibut is my hands-down favorite protein, and I’ll substitute it for chicken in flexible dishes. We’re lucky enough to have a beautiful farm nearly where we’ll take the children and pluck fresh strawberries for a delicious salsa that pairs well with it — not to mention all the fresh veggies at the market!

With that in mind, what’s your favorite BBQ dish?

LM: Grilled zucchini is one of my favorite summertime dishes, especially with fresh lime juice. We used to have a big garden before downsizing, filled with all this zucchini and summer squashthat exploded in my garden. Zucchini doesn’t get enough credit. I could eat it for breakfast, grill it on a burger, whatever!

How do you come up with your recipe ideas?

LM: I try to use whatever’s in season, between my garden and the local farmer’s market. But I’ll balance that with what other people are searching for on Pinterest and Instagram — Why be an answerin search of a problem, right? — and I’ll listen to what my audience is talking about, then be responsive to that. Here’s what it boils down to: how can I make something overdone interesting and new, but with a healthier spin?

What's an example that came up recently?

LM: Oh, that’s easy. Meal prep! It’s arduous, it’s time consuming, and few of us want to eat the same thing 5 days in a row, right? Whipping up a big batch of something and eating it for the week is fine, but that doesn’t really work for everyone. So, I got to thinking: chicken is a staple in these dishes. How can you spice upthe same big batch? Voila — chicken marinades! That’s an idea spurred out listening to my audience and solving their problems.

Can you tell us what’s on the horizon for “Cook at Home Mom?”

LM: A cookbook! That’s my big dream project. Most of this year will bespent prepping that for 2022. In the meantime, my big side project is to make a new recipe eBook and keep trucking along with the blog, you know? You wouldn’t believe how many delicious recipe ideas I’ve got lined up. Stay tuned!