Chris Schlesinger is the founder of the East Coast Grill in Cambridge, Massachusetts and co-author of The Thrill of the Grill (1990), one of the most influential American grilling books ever written. He spent a night at Memphis in May learning the "low and slow" technique directly from Jim Quessenberry — a fact that says a great deal about Jim's reputation among serious cooks.
Schlesinger brought what he learned from Jim and the Memphis circuit back to a Cambridge audience and helped translate competition BBQ philosophy into the language of the American food world.