How to Build a Wood-Fire Grill

I’ve wanted to build a simple wood-fire grill for my entire adult life. I learned how to grill on one at my father’s house in Mexico while I was living there around the age of fifteen. It comprised a long beige-tiled counter with built-in Argentine-style grill grates that you could raise and lower over the fire with a hand crank. My father and I shared Carta Blanca beers while grilling chuletas de filete (filet mignon) almost every weekend that year.

These grills are common throughout Latin America and the Mediterranean, but I couldn’t find helpful YouTube tutorials until I typed in the word “Uruguayan.” Judging by the results, I would bet that Uruguayans have the most wood-fired grills, or parrillas, per capita.