Vegetable grillers develop personal favorites, and Wood loves fennel on the grill. She cooks the fennel quickly over a high heat. She chooses, however, to blanch her corn on the cob, in boiling water for four minutes at most, and then rolls it around on the hot part of the grill. Wood's most important advice is to cook each vegetable separately so it gets your full attention. When it is done, wrap it in heavy aluminum foil so the heat stays in, and in some cases, it finishes cooking.
Tomatoes are the last and the fastest to grill.
Wood slices romas vertically, brushes them with olive oil, and grills on the open side for just a minute or two. Sherry Soleski, a partner in A La Heart Catering, is getting more and more requests for vegetarian barbecue events. Among the non-beef goodies, Soleski is including a tofu satay with peanut sauce. The tofu satay, similar to a Thai chicken satay, could not be simpler. And most of the work is the sauce and the marinade, both of which can be easily multiplied and then frozen for several months.