"grills" news and stories

As pointed out by Nicole, backyard barbecue grills are fast becoming more and more exotic. This trend, first started in 1995 with the introduction of the Dynamic Cooking Systems DCS Professional Grill. The 48-inch-wide cooking behemoth hit the market with a $5,000 price tag, it included H-shaped cast-iron commercial-quality burners, a heavy-duty side-burner and more B.T.U.'s per square inch than any other grill then available.

Monster grills are similar to luxury sport cars in that the fancier, bigger and more gadget encrusted, the more impressive and popular. In the beginning of the luxury grill trend, it was the ultra-rich people who were purchasing them and spending anywhere up to $6,500, plus more for backyard renovations to showcase their grills. But in the past few years the luxury trend has filtered down to the more modest homes, where for $2,500 a machine with accessories like rotisseries, warmer drawers, side burners and hand lights can grace your backyard patio.

These new grills have something to offer to just about everybody in the family. For the "have meat, must cook it" fellows  these stoves are a dream come true. For the barbeque aficionado, the one who ponders which sauces will best compliment the mood of the day, the type of meat etc, this trend is a gift to his artistic cooking expression. And for those of us who just want to sit down and eat, the increased cooking power means the meal will be finished that much faster.

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It's the beginning of grilling season -- er, at least it is for us in southern California -- and with Slashfood's Steak Day coming up next week, it's a good time to start thinking about the grill that's hiding underneath moldy leaves and a dusty tarp on your patio. Maybe it's time for a new grill?

If it time to buy a new grill, the question that remains to be asked is whether you should go with gas or charcoal. Jon Bonne has written a good list of the pros and cons of both. As a summary, where one has a pro, it is a con for the other.

Gas grills can be used year-round, are easy to use, heat quickly, have temperature controls, and are relatively easy to clean. Charcoal grills, on the other hand, are difficult to use in say, winter, take a long time to heat and prepare the charcoal, rely only on the griller's experience and eye for temperature control, and are a bear to clean.

On the other hand, nothing beats the flavor that comes from charcoal, charcoal grills are much cheaper, and though they may lack temperature controls, they can heat to much higher temperatures than a gas grill.

In the end, it's up to you, so go get yourself a gas grill, you know, if you want to wimp out like that.

Depending upon where you live, it is quite likely to be the middle of winter at this moment and when it's cold, dark and icy outside, it's not the sort of weather that inspires you to drag your grill out of the garage. But if, like me, you love to grill, the Wall Street Journal went to the effort of rating indoor grills so we don't have to brave the elements to cook up a burger.

They rated the grills, looking for an electric version that could deliver the smoky flavor and great sear of a real barbeque. To get right to the point, they rated the Sanyo Smokeless Indoor Electric Grill from Cooking.com as the best overall performer and the best value compared to all the other grills they tested. The Sanyo grill had gaps in the surface - like a real grill - to let fat drip away from the meat, as well as being large enough to cook food for the whole family at once.

I've personally been disappointed with the results from my current electric grill, which is the type endorsed by a professional boxer. It never seems to brown the meat and, other than constantly opening it, I have yet to find a reliable method of testing for doneness as it cooks.

The other day, on a whim, I took my whole family to the Melting Pot, an outlet of the U.S. fondue chain. I was in the mood for quality fried food, and what's more quality than food you fry yourself, in oil only you've used? ("I think we'll have the Bourguignonne, or however you say it," I told our 20-year-old waiter, scraping up my best guess at its pronunciation. "Wow, that took me nine days of training to learn!" he said.)

As I was frying up tempura zuchhini and beef tenderloin au natur on the little hotplate in the center of our table, I remembered a Koreatown restaurant with mini copper hoods that descended when it was time to start frying. And I thought: I want one of these tables!

So my wishlist for my future kitchen is begun. The dining room will have a traditional table, but my "breakfast nook" will have its very own grill, with a mini hood. I'm sure it will cost thousands - so my future kitchen is FAR in the future. Now all I need to do is figure out where to get the hardware. Am I going to have to go to a restaurant supply distributor or are these in-table grills available commercially? Anyone ever installed one?