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Charcoal on the menu? You bet your ash.

A burger comes served with “charcoal aioli” at Bukowski’s Tavern.handout

It’s not always what’s on the grill, but what’s inside it.

For many Boston chefs, charcoal and ash are edible ingredients that add an exciting smoky flavor to dishes. The concept isn’t particularly new — for hundreds of years, the gray particles left over from wood or charred vegetables have been tools in bread and cheesemaking. But now you see the black and gray colors right on your plate.

Chef Brian Poe started using charcoal as a way to enhance the grill flavor about two and a half years ago at his Beacon Hill restaurant, the Tip Tap Room. After testing out recipes in his own backyard to comply with fire codes, Poe tries many of his experimental combinations in his restaurants.

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“With actual charcoal, nothing brings to mind rustic outdoor cooking like letting meat slowly cook, roasting a sweet potato in charcoal, or searing a raw piece of charcoal-rubbed tuna,” Poe says. “My latest experience is charcoal-roasted jalapeños at Poe’s Kitchen at the Rattlesnake. And vegetable ashes can give a really nice age and flavor to cheese.”

Poe likes to call charcoal’s pop of flavor the “Dorito effect.”

“It’s such a unique ‘This is delicious. I can’t pinpoint why, but I can’t stop eating it’ thought,” he says.

At La Brasa in Somerville, appropriately named since their food is cooked over a wood fire, whipped cultured butter with vegetable ash and sea salt is available tableside. And Will Gilson, chef and owner of Puritan & Company in Cambridge, says his charcoal-roasted duck breast with burned eggplant puree and charred carrots is the number-one selling entree on the menu.

Maiale al Latte, an Italian pork dish served at SRV.SRV

But chefs aren’t turning to charcoal just for the smoky flavor. The rich black color can look lovely on a plate. Michael Lombardi, co-owner and chef at SRV in the South End, says the ash trend can, in part, be attributed to diners looking for interesting dishes to post on social media sites like Instagram.

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“The unusual presentation becomes one of those dishes that a guest sees in the dining room and asks, ‘What’s that?’ ” says Lombardi, who serves Maiale al Latte, a traditional Italian pork dish that’s rolled in ash. “Diners [are] taking more interest and seeking out dishes with striking presentations and unique aesthetics.”

Poe says that, so far, his diners are enjoying the shades of black and gray on their plates.

“They tend to love it. The only one that looked really weird was the charcoal aioli,” which he put on a wild boar burger topped with pork belly confit tomatoes at Bukowski’s Tavern. “It looked like grey mayo. But once they tasted it, they were hooked.”

Black Rose, a drink with activated charcoal water at Cocobeet.John Tlumacki/ globe staff

Charcoal is also on the menu at several of the area’s most popular juice shops. Gilson is also the owner of Beatnik Beverage Company in Kendall Square, which sells a BBQ Lemonade made with lemon, lime, agave, and activated charcoal-alkalized water.

“The charcoal makes the drink jet black,” says Gilson, who points out that it shouldn’t be used in excess. “It’s flavorless, but we add it because it is a natural detoxifier. It sells best after heavy drinking holidays.”

But some people take the trend to another level, consuming large quantities of activated charcoal in pill form, claiming toxin-clearing benefits to the digestive system. But Dr. Caroline M. Apovian, a professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine, denies charcoal possesses any nutritional benefit. She cites celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow pushing juice cleanses as a root of the problem.

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“I basically think there’s zero benefits, and some major problems if some people have too much of it,” says Apovian. “Activated charcoal is used as a medical drug to rid people of toxic chemicals that they may have ingested. In the emergency rooms, most often for Tylenol poisoning. There is no evidence at all that, taken the way it’s being done by some people, [it] is doing something beneficial for your body.”

Charcoal-roasted duck breast with burned eggplant puree at Puritan & Company.Puritan & Company

Apovian says the use of activated charcoal could even be harmful to users, since it can bond to vitamins.

“Some of the vitamins that it can bond to are Vitamin C, Niacin, B6, Thiamine, and Biotin. Thiamine is a very important B1 vitamin, and if you don’t have Thiamine, you can’t metabolize carbohydrates,” says Apovian. “This could cause major problems.”

But when used sparingly, the age-old tradition of using ash and charcoal in cooking can be just the extra pop of color and flavor a dish needs.

“It may not be new,” says Lombardi. “But it’s delicious.”


Megan Johnson can be reached at megansarahjohnson@
gmail.com.