Aroma of success: when it comes to WWE announcer and culinary enthusiast Jim Ross, we like the smell of what he's cooking - World Wrestling Entertainment Inc

Wrestling Digest, Dec, 2003 by Matt Berkowitz

GRILLING ENTHUSIAST JIM ROSS has opened the door to his life and. family recipes in his newest book "J.R.'s Cookbook: True Ringside Tales, BBQ and Down Home ReciPes," published by Simon & Schuster.

Following the success of his first WWE cookbook, Ross decided it was time to not only publish another cookbook but also his life stow.

The first book was basically a collection of the wrestlers' favorite recipes, and I wrote little anecdotes to go along with it," says Ross. "It did very well. It was on The New York Times Best Seller list for a couple of weeks.

"We then changed publishers and moved to Simon & Schuster, and because of the success of that first book, they wanted to do another cookbook.

They also wanted me to write an autobiography. So I took the cookbook project they wanted to do and kind of made it autobiographical.

"Then I used my late mother and late grandmother's recipes from my growing up in Oklahoma as the basis for the recipes. We made it grilling, country cooking, some barbeque stuff, and some biographical stories."

Ross found the writing process to be an outlet from his hectic WWE work schedule, where he is an announcer as well as the senior vice president in charge of talent relations and wrestling administration. "It was a fun book to write," says the voice of "Raw." "It was almost cathartic. A lot of the stories we were able to write from my years on the road, wrestlers I've met and things of that nature."

Growing up with a barbeque in Oklahoma, Ross learned the tools of the cooking trade. "We would grill eight or nine months a year. One of the reasons for that was that we lived in a four-room concrete block house without airconditioning," he says. "Cooking outside allowed you to not heat up the kitchen. It was important in the hot months. I always remember it was like another one of my chores. I would go turn the meat, turn the steak, turn the chicken."

Utilizing his childhood responsibilities, Ross found a new use for his chores. "I've always done that to a certain degree. I find it less expensive than a psychiatrist--when you just need time to breathe," Ross says. "It motivates me to get out of my La-Z-Boy, put down my "IV clicker, and go outside to collect my thoughts."

Just like his days growing up in Oklahoma, Ross continues to use grilling as a tool to bring together families and, friends. "Normally grillimg involves having company. Not all the time, sometimes I just cook for my wife. More often than not, we barbeque. We grill with company, neighbors, friends. It is a happy occasion."

Ross praises his mother over and over again in the book. Serving as his caretaker and guide, she instilled many morals into Good 01' J.R. "My mother worked out of the house all my life. She cooked dinner every night. It was well before cable, satellite, and video games. It was the one time the TV was off, and we all sat at the dinner table," Ross says. "She didn't cook an elaborate meal every night, but she cooked something good. It gave us a chance to talk and find out how each other's day was. It gave us a chance to communicate.

"I learned a lot of important life lessons at that dinner table, discussing with my mom and dad what their problems were--whether it was financial problems, or if their job wasn't fulfilling or if it was a hard day or it wasn't. I learned a lot of things as a child. I heard a lot of adult issues like finance. I think I grew up a lot faster than the regular kid. I was having interpersonal reactions with my parents. They were good parents, and they taught me a lot of great lessons that I still use today."

An essential life lesson Ross learned at the dinner table was commitment. "I wrote a story [in the book] about commitment meaning 'watering the dog.' I learned commitment at a young age, 18, and I try to keep that same principle today," Ross says. "If I make a commitment to you, I will fulfill that commitment. It means telling the truth, being honest.

"I work with the talent that way. Treat everybody fairly. I tell them the truth. Sometimes it's not what they want to hear, but it is always the truth."

Ross has created sauces, most notably his barbeque sauce, which wrestlers use on their chicken and other meats at the catering for WWE events. "We provide our sauce at catering a lot. The guys like it. It adds a little bit of taste to grilled chicken because it is healthy. It is a big staple of their diet," Ross says. "The wrestlers probably eat more grilled chicken than any other group I know of. They like the barbeque sauce on it."

One would assume that when you complete your life story, you have a sense of fulfillment. Ross had myriad feelings upon completion. "It creates a variety of emotions. In thinking about guys that I've met like Owen Hart, Junkyard Dog, my idol Gordon Solie, guys like that, it makes me kind of sad in a way," Ross says. "I look at it as part of my life. It is like everything in everybody else's life. There have been challenging times, good times, bad times.

The lesson there is to persevere and don't give up your dreams. I felt better about being able to express myself about my life, the Bell's Palsy and things of that nature."