PLAYING WITH FIRE One is quietly charming, the other completely disarming. Two different

chefs, two different personalities, both renowned masters for whom freshness is the key ingredient and technique is the mantra.

When it comes to barbeque nirvana, both are elemental-no three-star kitchen could compare to the primal pleasure of digging a pit in the ground with some buddies and spending the next 12 to 14 hours awaiting pig heaven.

Each promises he won't be beating his chest here on Nantucket (shucks!), but Brian Kingsford and Pino Maffeo will be playing with fire. The two celebrity chefs kick off barbeque season as part of the White Elephant's "On the Grill" weekend series. Executive Chef Brian Kingsford of Providence's famed Al Forno will man the grill from May 5 to 7, with Pino Maffeo, Executive Chef of Boston's posh Restaurant L relighting the coals from May 12 to 14. Each weekend will begin with a Chef "Meet and Greet" port and cheese reception, with grilling demonstrations featuring tastings with paired wines. If you can't decide which one to go to, you'll find me a disappointing tie-breaker- I recommend both.

Providence's Al Forno Executive Chef Brian Kingsford, left, and Boston's Restaurant L Executive Chef Pino Maffeo. PHOTOS COURTESY OF ALICE MARSHALL PUBLIC RELATIONS

Kingsford, who initially comes off as reserved, needed very little coaxing to get right into the undeniably corporeal lure that's drawn men to the flame since Cro-Magnons stomped the earth. "It's like breaking a wild horse." Whoa, thought I, as he further explained, "Men want to control things that can't be controlled." Be that as it may, Kingsford has clearly found a way to tame his fire and the cultish popularity of his restaurant is proof. Al Forno, internationally famed for having "invented" wood-grilled pizza, showcases an opulent array of Northern Italian-inspired dishes, such as Polenta Lasagna with Prosciutto & Homemade Soppressata and PepperGrilled Chicken over Balsamic Onions. The menu is written daily and everything is made to order with only the freshest, indigenous ingredients.

Al Forno put Providence on the culinary map when it opened in 1980, with accolades ranging from Cond Nast Traveler's "Distinguished Restaurants of America" award, to The International Herald Tribune's Patricia Wells proclaiming Al Forno "Number One in the World" for casual dining. Kingsford not only knows his way around a grill - but the passion with which he speaks of high-heat cooking nearly put me into a sweat. His medium is Canadian hardwood charcoal which heats up to an inferno-like 1,000 degrees. One sure way to stoke his coals is to simply mention the possibility of gas grilling, as if it could ever be fathomable. So revolted was I by his detailed explanation of how the "old fat" remains seeped onto the burner (forever!) that I just might haul my own backyard grill to the "take it or leave it."

Kingsford's all-consuming love of cooking with fire inspired him and 29 of his chef pals to found "The Chefs That Do Hell" -grilling parties that alternate between the hellions' respective restaurants and feature pairings by wine purveyors. I couldn't resist asking if there were any female chefs among the group. A sheepish "no" was the answer, but not for the reason I suggested (Don't they raise enough hell for you!?). Kingsford said (quite genuinely) that he and his fellow pit masters can't seem to recruit women into their kitchens. Having worked with talented grill mistresses in the past, he wishes there were more to be found because (get this) "they keep the men in line." - I really liked him-so I bit my tongue rather than spell out the fact that keeping men in line is already a full-time, unpaid position in a job called marriage.

When Kingsford arrives at our fair shores, it will be for the first time without his motorcycle and sleeping bag (he apologizes if he slept on your lawn). He names American Seasons and Brant Point Grill among the restaurants he's familiar with, adding that he couldn't afford to eat at either in the sleeping bag days. He plans to share the technique for grilling his world famous pizzas ("me not doing grilled pizzas would be like a Billy Joel concert without him singing 'Piano Man'"), which drew Mario Batali and his "Ciao America" T.V. crew to Al Forno a few months back. He'll also demonstrate the restaurant's wildly creative "dirty-style grilling," which you'll have to show up to find out about.

I thought that dirty might be a tough act to follow-but then I'd never spoken to Pino Maffeo. "BARBARIC!" is the way he characterizes men's basic instinct to grill. Irrepressibly charismatic, Maffeo is a chef with two distinct personas-public and private: the three-star virtuoso whose polished, Asian-inspired technique will land him on the cover of Food & Wine magazine's "Best New Chefs" July issue, and the feral homegriller who would tackle his best buddy for the juiciest piece of a lamb's lung. This East Boston boy from a close-knit Italian family of eaters ("whenever we see each other, it's 'hi, how are you, what are you eating?'") criss-crossed the country- leaving culinary conquests in his wake-before splashing back onto the Beantown scene as a star.

After several early positions in the kitchens of some of California's first fusion restaurants, Maffeo fine-tuned his cleanly inventive technique at the three-star Inn at the Opera in San Francisco where he worked alongside current fellow celebrity chef, Patricia Yeo. In 1996, he was beckoned back to Boston to join a childhood friend in the new venture, Sage, located in the North End. Maffeo's ultra-modern, west coast culinary style bedazzled diners, with his Poached Foie Gras in Prickly Pear Syrup and Braised Beef Cheeks with "Crazy Cut" Pasta hitting the old world, red sauce crowd like a head-on collision. With that, Maffeo's ascent to the ranks of ber chef was set on cruise control.

In 1999, his long-time friend, Patricia Yeo, asked him to join her as Chef de Cuisine when she opened the obscenely sleek, Asian-accented AZ in Manhattan. With a trio of three-star ratings to their credit from The New York Times, Crain's New York Business and The New York Observer, they went on to open Yeo's second "it" restaurant-a midtown Mediterranean affair called Pazo. In a city with more restaurants than pigeons and an easily under-whelmed critical press to boot, Maffeo had earned yet another feather in his toque and proved-as the song goes-he could make it anywhere.

For Maffeo, there's no place like home, so the offer to undertake the creation of Louis Boston's new restaurant was too good to refuse. In January 2004, Restaurant L was born to one proud papa. Maffeo's menu of transcendentally sensuous dishes-WokSeared Lobster with Spicy Thai Broth and Wood & Grapevine Grilled Prime Rib Eye-echoes Southeast Asian and Japanese influences with a hint of the Mediterranean. (I suggested calling it Meditasian - he thinks that will make us both rich.) He has been bested by Esquire, Travel & Leisure, Boston Magazine and The Boston Globe Magazine and has appeared on CBS's "The Early Show," NBC's "The Today Show" and The Food Network's "Simply Ming" with restaurant royal, Ming Tsai.

Maffeo surprised himself by realizing

he's never been to Nantucket,

but he has met Seth and Angela Raynor and knows of the popularity of The Boarding House and The Pearl. He, like Kingsford, would love to demonstrate the art of grilling in a pit dug with buddies (so many buddies!), but instead plans to share some favorite, simple techniques that home grillers can try out for themselves. Maffeo wants to show that "grilling makes cooking easier and is a great way to learn for both men and women." His recipes will include Pork Two Ways, each way reflecting the words of wisdom of his buddy's father, a butcher, on how to handle a good cut of meat, "Leave it the hell alone!"

I GET EQUIPPED Kingsford suggests using a funnelshaped "chimney starter" to get your coals fired up in about 10 minutes. "If you don't have 10 minutes, you shouldn't be grilling," he said.

To avoid sticking, Maffeo recommends a simple rag: "Use it to rub down the grill with oil-it does the trick."

oth like to use tongs: Kingsford recommends OXO's "Good Grips," and Maffeo opts for the flat type, also called "medical" tongs.

SLOW DOWN The top pick for a beef cut for both is prime rib. Maffeo says it has "just the right amount of fat." He recommends slow roasting to get "the complex smokiness from the grill into the meat."

Pork shoulder is another favorite for both. Kingsford recommends brining rather than marinating it. Brines are wet marinades without acid (water, salt, sugar and spice) which "allow for cooking meat without drying it out."

FEAR NOT FISH Both chefs recommend nothing fancier than a piece of aluminum foil for grilling fish. Kingsford makes individual satchels-he puts a fish filet together with olive oil, sea salt, pepper, herbs and some parboiled asparagus in each packet and "drop[s] them directly onto the coals-and then serve!"

Maffeo likes the "whole fish" approach-wrap up a fresh striped bass with some ginger, garlic and soy sauce and when it's done, "put it right on the table and let everyone pick at it."

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