Giving Guests a Sense of Adventure at a Cookout

Chef Lo often barbecues meats Korean or Vietnamese style, requiring her guests to wrap the grilled beef or pork in lettuce leaves before eating.

To add a little more adventure to the event, Ms. Lo often involves her guests in the process of gathering food, taking them clamming or fishing during the day and stopping to pick up fresh corn and radishes from a farm stand on the way back to the house. (She always keeps a box of head-on shrimp in the freezer for unproductive fishing days.)

She serves clams on the half shell and sets out radishes served raw, tossed with some butter and sea salt.

She typically likes to let fish rest in the refrigerator overnight before cooking. "You want it to relax" for more tender flesh, she says, noting that she makes an exception for bluefish. When she's ready to cook the fish, she typically sprinkles salt and pepper on it before grilling and serves it with a Mexican-style Veracruzano sauce she makes with fresh tomatoes, garlic, onion, olives, capers and jalape?os, some of it grown in her summer garden.

For cookouts, Ms. Lo chooses drinks that feel light, such as a blend of sparkling wine and crème de cassis.

The Off Duty Guide to Savoring Summer Ms. Lo often gives her cookouts a personal twist by serving dishes that have a romantic narrative. "I love stories. I just think it makes it that much richer a better experience," she says. "It makes you feel closer to the food." Occasionally, the story is about where Ms. Lo got the ingredient: "like 'I caught this fish this morning and caught it off this place, I almost lost it but...,'" she says.

When she grills kebabs reminiscent of ones she sampled on a trip to Athens 10 years ago, she may tell the story: "We were on a budget, and there was this one cafe where that's all they served and they had crowds every day," she says. The ground-lamb kebab there "was spiked with cumin, coriander, cinnamon, lemon, onion and garlic, and it was so delicious." Other times, she serves steamed mussels or shellfish with a dip of lime, salt and pepper, telling about an "amazing" meal she had on a beach in Vietnam.

Another way to involve guests is to serve food that involves participation. She often barbecues meats Korean- or Vietnamese-style, requiring her guests to wrap the grilled beef or pork in lettuce leaves before eating. She doesn't go so far as to let her guests take over the grill—unless she knows them well.

For beverages, Ms. Lo always chooses drinks that feel light. "When it's hot out, you want lower alcohol content," she says. She often serves Prosecco or spritzers made with the Italian aperitif Aperol, which has summery flavors like bitter orange and rhubarb. Sake is a favorite as well. "Most people don't drink it at home, so it can be out of the ordinary," she says.

Although Ms. Lo calls herself a "global eater," she is a confessed "purist when it comes to the burger," she says. Rather than jazzing it up with exotic seasonings, she keeps it simple. She does choose to grind her own meat, so that her beef (which she prefers to contain 15% fat) isn't ground too fine and the patty has more texture to it. Then she pairs it with cheese and locally grown tomatoes.

Ms. Lo says a common mistake for home cooks is getting ambitious and experimenting on guests. "Especially if you're cooking for people you don't know very well, do something you've done before," she says.

Another pitfall: "A lot of home cooks don't know how to season well," she says. "Be sure to offer salt on the table."