Permanent or Portable?

Image via Pottery Barn

If you own your home and you’re ready to invest some cash into an outdoor entertaining area, you have a lot of options for installing permanent features, including a patio or deck surface, overhead protection, counters, and utilities. If you’re renting (or otherwise need your outdoor kitchen setup to be temporary), don’t despair. A gas or charcoal grill, a few weatherproof portable carts, an outdoor dining set, and an umbrella or two can serve you well, and most of the tips on this list will still apply.

Pick the Best Spot

Consider where you’d like people to gather in your yard, perhaps in a spot pointed toward the nicest view. You’ll also want to make sure you’ll have plenty of space for every outdoor kitchen element you desire. Choose a location that’s not too windy or fully exposed to the sun (unless you plan to cover it). It should also be close to the house, both for convenience while carrying food and other items back and forth, and for ease of running utility lines for electricity, water, and gas, if applicable.

Build Your Kitchen Around Your Grill

Image via Aquaterra

The grill is the center of attention, whether you go with a simple and inexpensive charcoal grill or an all-in-one outdoor kitchen setup complete with extra burners, a smoker, and a pizza oven. Just make sure its location is at least ten feet from combustible materials like wood siding, deck rails, and trees.

Set Up Four Main Zones: Cooking, Prep, Serving, and Entertainment

Your cooking zone, of course, is the area around your grill and other cooking appliances. The prep zone should include plenty of counter space for chopping and other tasks. The serving area is the spot where you’ll have plates, serving dishes, and other tableware waiting to be filled. Finally, your entertainment zone is where guests hang out while you cook. You can arrange these zones as an island with a separate dining table, an L-shape with a bar for guest seating, or a U-shape. However it’s laid out, make sure it’s clear where guests should sit or stand and where the cook can have a space free of obstacles to move around and handle hot objects.

Make It Weatherproof

Image via Mom’s Design Build

Choose tough materials that can withstand changes in temperatures and exposure to sun, rain, and wind. If you’re designing a built-in outdoor kitchen, you’ll start with either a metal, wood, or cement block frame, cover it in cement board backing, and add a cladding material like stucco, tile, stone, or brick.

Make Sure It’s Easy to Clean

You want your work surface to be smooth and non-porous so it doesn’t stain easily; experts recommend natural stone, cultured granite with UV stabilizers, or durable composite materials. Tile is cheap, but it can crack in climates with harsh winter weather, and cleaning the grout can get annoying. Quartz looks nice, but can yellow in the sun, and stainless steel gets very hot. If you choose concrete, it should be polished smooth on top and/or sealed.

Light It for Tasks and Ambiance

Image via Artistic Landscapes

Choose bright overhead lighting for work areas like above the grill and countertops, and softer, warmer lighting in gathering spaces. String lights, path lights, and perhaps even a chandelier can add a nice touch.

Design Your Outdoor Kitchen for Comfort

Cover cooking and seating areas to protect them from the rain and sun. A pavilion-style roof or lean-to roof off the side of your house offer the best coverage along with the ability to add gutters so you can enjoy the space in virtually all weather. Awnings and umbrellas are lightweight, affordable, and easy to move out of the way if you prefer to enjoy the sun. A pergola can also be a nice decorative choice, especially if it’s made of wood and serves as a sturdy structure for climbing greenery like grapevines, wisteria, or clematis. And of course, an outdoor fireplace or portable patio heater will give people something to gravitate toward in cooler temperatures.

Make It Fun

Image via Azuro Concepts

Before you finalize your design, think about whether you want to work a television or a sound system into the mix. You may also want to include custom niches or shelving to support them.

Don’t Forget Storage

Cabinets under your work surfaces are a great place to stash items like grilling tools, pots, pans, and outdoor tableware. You can also use storage benches, carts, or other detached, temporary storage furniture. Make sure there’s a pest-proof spot for your trash and recycling, too.

The post Design Your Own Customized Outdoor Kitchen with These 10 Tips first appeared on Dornob.

First and foremost, this Brazilian-made oven is highly compact and easy to move around, taking up less space than a conventional charcoal grill. It features a bullet-shaped body made of heat-resistant refectory concrete, with an L-shaped enameled pipe burning small-diameter wood at its base and directing the heat up toward the grill.

Second, it’s quite nice to look at. The design is almost sculptural, so you won’t mind keeping it in a highly visible place on your patio, even if you have very limited outdoor space. A tripod with wheels acts as the support for a clean, modern effect.

But even more importantly, the Noori packs four useful functions into one product. It’s a pizza oven, BBQ grill, fire pit, and rocket stove all at once, and shifting from one function to another takes just a few seconds. Its design is based on that of a standard rocket stove, which requires minimal fuel for ultra-efficient heat output.

The company website reads: “Noori is an equipment that mixes crafts and industrial techniques of production. For this reason, each piece is unique and has its own characteristics. Through the serial number, we record all information of the product and the owner, allowing [for] personal assistance and necessary support. Noori’s focus is its constant durability and refinement.”

“Noori’s Pizza Disc allows you to prepare pizzas in a few minutes. It can also can be used to prepare breads, or to support roasters and containers suitable for ovens. The Noori disc was designed after several tests with refractory stones available on the market that did not resist. For this reason, its use is indispensable to ensure this feature.”

They add: “The upper half-moon grill was specially designed by our team, with ideal permeability for cooking. [Combine it with the main grill to create a] second floor. Simply attach the kit to the holes, and [you’ll] have a larger surface for food. The lower ‘orbital’ grill was specially designed by our team and has two functions: to centralize the tube of the Rocket system in the refractory body, and to support the coal on the BBQ feature when capped.”

Wood is suggested as the best fuel when using the Noori as a rocket stove, but you can always switch to charcoal if you’d prefer to grill. To use it as a pizza oven, you add the special “pizza disc” and put on the lid. The temperature you achieve depends on how much wood you use, and can get as hot as 750 degrees Fahrenheit. To use it as a fire pit, you take off the central element and put the grill directly on the lower section for optimal enjoyment of the flames (and, of course, marshmallow roasting).

The Noori is now available for international shipment, with prices starting at $3,200.

The post Noori: A Sleek Modern BBQ Grill and Pizza Oven on Wheels first appeared on Dornob.

As it turns out, camping’s popularity has actually been on the rise for the past few years, driving companies to create all kinds of new products in hopes of simplifying the experience for everyone. One of the more noteworthy inventions to come from that surge is the GoSun Go Portable Solar Cooker: a small tubular oven that cooks your meals using nothing but the power of the sun. We recently got the chance to put a few of these ovens to the test at our El Segundo headquarters.

Setting up three ovens in a nearby park on a clear, sunny day, we tried our best to cook all of the foods listed in the accompanying instructional booklet, including  broccoli, canned corn, diced sweet potatoes, ground beef, hot dogs, and a chopped-up veggie patty. We found prepping the food and evenly distributing it between each unit’s two silicone cooking pads to be a total breeze, though we did have to give a little thought to the way we arranged everything in the stainless steel cooking trays. We knew they would be propped up at roughly 45-degree angles while cooking and found it best to place the meat-containing pads towards the bottom to keep their juices from running down onto the other dishes.

Since the muffins were basically all liquid before being cooked, we decided against propping up their oven, instead leaving it flat on the tabletop alongside the other two GoSun Gos.

After that, all that was left do was to sit back and wait for the food to be ready. The company stresses making sure that the small black circle on the front of each tube is in perfect alignment with the sun, but from what we can gather, this doesn’t seem to be to exact of a science. You should be good to go as long as you can see the sun’s reflection somewhere on the dial.

We ultimately needed to give each dish around an hour to properly cook (a little more than the 40 minutes advertised in the instructional booklet), but when everything was ready to eat, we found it all to be exactly as tender and charred as we wanted it to be. The muffins smelled absolutely delicious, and they were just as fluffy as they would’ve been coming out of a conventional indoor oven. Just remember to be careful when removing your own finished meals from the GoSun Go, since the cooking tray is extremely hot to the touch and capable of reaching temperatures of up to 550° Fahrenheit.

Cleanup was nearly as easy as setup, with the brush included in the packaging making quick work of the buildup inside the tubes. It seems that some juice did manage to escape the oven containing the ground beef, however, resulting in a stained outer carrying case — but aren’t stains really just portals to treasured memories?

All in all, the GoSun Go Portable Solar Cooker is a nifty little appliance that’s perfect for anyone who plans on going camping with their friends in the near future. It might not always give you the same quality food as a conventional oven, and it does take quite awhile to work its magic in cloudy conditions, but when it works, it really works. Plus, it beats the traditional campfire by a long shot in the way of environmental consciousness.

Be sure to visit the company’s official website to learn more about the GoSun Go, the slightly larger GoSun Sport, and the full-sized GoSun Grill.

The post Product Review: GoSun Go Portable Solar Cooker first appeared on Dornob.

Barbecuing in particular has a special way of bringing friends and families together, although it does restrict us to our backyards or the nearest park. This can be blamed on the excessive weight and size that the typical barbecue has to offer. But what if we were able to place a barbecue on a bike and take it anywhere? Lucky for us, a Kickstarter campaign has just brought this idea to life.

German entrepreneur Carolin Kunert has created a bike accessory that can be easily transported anywhere you want. Knister Grill is an extendable charcoal barbecue that’s meant to be mounted onto the handlebars of your bike. The mount fits any bike, is tool-free, and can be quickly removed when not in use. If you don’t feel like riding your bike or simply don’t have one, you’ll be happy to hear that the barbecue’s legs double as handles, allowing you to just carry it around with you. Once you reach your destination, you’ll have the choice of using the grill in its collapsed form (26 x 30 cm) or extending it to nearly twice its traveling size (26 x 49 cm).

Knister encourages its users to store their uncooked food and utensils inside of the barbecue. This makes transporting your grilling necessities extremely simple. While the thought of placing food on top of leftover grilling residue may alarm you, Kunert worked hard to make sure her product was cleaning friendly. Open up your Knister Grill to wash it by hand, or just place it in the dishwasher.

“I first developed a transportable barbecue in the third semester of my industrial design studies in Munich,” Kunert explains. “Back then, it was super-heavy and mounted on the bike rack — I wasn’t able to use it because I had a basket on my bike. In November 2017, during my Erasmus semester, I continued the project intensively, won the competition ‘Startup Weekend,’ and created the first prototypes. I created a team behind Knister Grill and developed the product to get it into serial production.”

You’ll only have to wait a few minutes for the Knister Grill to cool down before heading home. The strategic placement of the barbecue on the bike was designed to prevent any dust or coal from flying into your face while you cycle. This is further prevented by having the two racks slide over one another as it closes.

“There are already small, high-end camping products and transportable barbecues on the market,” Kunert admits. “We don’t exactly compete with them. We offer a lifestyle product, where the spontaneous ‘barbecue-with-friends’ is the most important thing.”

The Knister original is available at the early-bird price of $135, while a customized model will run you $200 (or more). When all is said and done, the retail price is expected to be $250. Check out the Knister crowdfunding page for more information.

The post Knister Grill: A Handlebar-Mounted Barbecue for Any Bike first appeared on Dornob.

Made of food contact grade 430 stainless steel, the Nomad weighs just 10 pounds and folds up into a 20” x 24” machine washable travel bag. Its design is similar to that of a flat pack camp stove, like the Hexagon Wood Stove by Vargo, but stretched out to larger dimensions for more versatility. According to its designers, the unique geometric shape of the grill helps radiate heat over the entire grilling surface using less fuel than average.

To assemble it, you just pop the stand into place, open the octagonal vessel, set it inside, and add in the charcoal/wood rack and the food rack. You end up with 370 square inches (2,400 square cm) of cooking area, which is more than enough space to cook up some hot dogs for the whole family.

The grill sits on top of a large ash tray to contain the mess, so the whole thing is easy to dump and clean almost as soon as you’re done. When it’s all packed up, it’s small enough to carry on your shoulder for picnics, tailgating, camping, and  beach days. As long as you’re in a place that allows grilling (and has plenty of ventilation), you’ll have a quick and easy way to get the party started.

Since the grill can use either wood or charcoal as fuel, it’s able to double as a portable fire pit, so you can go from cooking burgers and steaks to roasting marshmallows in a matter of minutes. That functionality is pretty priceless when you’re camping or hanging out in a spot that lacks a designated grill or fire pit.

“It took multiple design trials in order to come up with a lightweight, but extremely durable grill that could provide a large grilling surface area, but would also be able to collapse and fold into a small travel bag, which would allow you to easily carry it with you anywhere,” say the designers.

The Nomad Grill set out to raise a humble $5,000 on Kickstarter and was met with unexpected enthusiasm, ultimately racking up nearly $50,000 from over 400 backers. They got a head start on production, manufacturing the grill before starting their fundraising campaign, so lucky backers will be receiving their rewards just in time for the summer barbecue season. While early bird backers snagged a Nomad for just $89, it will be available to the public in the coming months for $119.

The post The Portable Nomad Grill Folds Down to Practically Nothing first appeared on Dornob.

The Toto grilloven marries baking and barbecuing by allowing people to practice traditional cooking methods with modern efficiency. This sleek appliance is easy to use and heats up very quickly thanks to its thick steel insulation, which also improves its overall heat resistance. The grilloven was designed for year-round use, acting like a hot outdoor kitchen in the winter and a place to flip some burgers and entertain guests in the summer. While most cooking companies try to bring the outside in, Alfa 1977 is bringing the inside out.

“Toto is a real breakthrough in the barbecue market,” explains Andrea Lauro, the company’s Head of Research and Development, “and an important innovation for Alfa 1977, on the eve of its fortieth anniversary. In fact, we have added a multifunctional grill to the classic stainless steel oven to provide our customers with not so much a tool as a total cooking experience that finds its essence in the conviviality and the joy of sharing. Toto is a brand-new alternative to traditional barbecue and a seductive key to outdoor cooking.”

Toto has been pre-equipped with an arsenal of handy tools, including an oven burner, cook deck, wood and charcoal fuel grid, grid lifter, and grill burner, allowing you to bake, stir-fry, sautée, and barbecue with ease. A steel dome was integrated into the grilloven’s design to “overcome the stereotype of [a] barbecue with [a] rounded bottom,” according to the company website. The grilloven’s innovative craftsmanship makes it the perfect all-in-one appliance for outdoor food preparation.

If you feel like you don’t have enough yard space for the grilloven or just want a simpler outdoor cooking experience, you’re in luck. Alfa 1977 has also released a stylish standalone Toto grill.

If your outdoor cooking needs are more specific, you might be interested in the company’s “Ciao” pizza oven. Ciao comes in three different sizes and features a stainless steel roof and a cooking floor made from three-centimeter thick tiles that store heat and transmit it back to the food being baked. For transportation convenience, Ciao has been fitted with a set of wheels. Why not roll it inside one night? You could try your hand at baking bread, pizzas, a juicy steak, or a pie! The oven even boasts a pyrometer, which gauges the temperature inside the combustion chamber. Ciao is practically ready to use the moment it arrives — you just have to put in the flue and attach its legs.

“Fiesta,” like the Toto, is a two-in-one model. Try putting bread, pizza, cakes, or pies in the oven while you whip up some delicious fish, meat, and vegetables on the barbecue. If you love to entertain guests and eat outdoors in style, then Alfa 1977 has your cookware needs covered.

The post World’s First Outdoor Grilloven first appeared on Dornob.

Maybe you’re extremely particular about how your steak is cooked. Maybe you’re a vegetarian who can’t stand the thought of your tofu dog touching even a microscopic charred speck of meat left behind on the grill surface. Maybe you actually just love the idea of every guest at a cookout getting to grill their own food at once, cutting down the cooking time and making BBQ an even more social experience. Why entrust your meal to a designated grillmaster when you could have total control over your own burgers and kebabs?

That’s the idea behind the Jag Grill, a communal grill table with built-in grilling stations for six to eight people.

The Jag Grill comes in two models: the Jag Six and the Jag Eight. The six-seater is more portable, with a single hexagon-shaped removable grill top and six individual bamboo tables facing it. The whole thing is collapsible and lightweight, so you can easily pack it up and take it on the road or store it during the off-season.

The Jag Eight is bigger and sturdier. Not only does it feature an octagonal ‘grill dome,’ which elevates a communal grilling surface above the level of the table, but also it offers eight individual grilling racks so that each guest has his own park grill-sized surface for his food.

The dome can also be lifted to add more coals during grilling. Side door access on both models makes it easy to sweep out the charcoal or wood chips when the BBQ is over.

You can also take out the central rack in both tables and transform the grill into a fire pit, perfect for roasting marshmallows or just relaxing. The legs are individually adjustable up to three inches, so you can tailor it to the height of your existing patio chairs or make it level on an uneven surface.

It’s a novel idea, and definitely changes the dynamics of a backyard barbecue, making the process a little more egalitarian. It also solves the problem of an inexperienced cook failing to pace the food properly, which leads to some guests eating immediately while others stand around longingly sniffing at the meat-scented air.

But there are a few downsides, too: there’s a lot more surface area to clean. You’re going to need six to eight times the BBQ tools. You’ll go through charcoal briquettes a lot faster and everybody’s going to be dodging the smoke as the wind shifts. Not to mention sitting so close to a flaming-hot metal object in the heat of the summer.

Whether or not this table appeals to you may depend upon your grilling style and the expectations you set for guests before they arrive. The responsibility of producing the party’s food shifts from the host to the guests, enabling you to socialize more, but you might want to warn everyone that they’ll be responsible for grilling their own food, and step in to help anyone who hasn’t gone through Grilling 101.

The JagGrill doesn’t come cheap, with the smaller version selling for $1,599, and the Jag Eight bearing a hefty price tag of $2,499. Would you be willing to drop that kind of cash on this multi-functional backyard centerpiece?

The post Social Grilling: Communal BBQ Table Lets Everybody Cook Their Own Food first appeared on Dornob.

The JAG Grill manages to combine several things that were already pretty great on their own: barbecues, picnic tables, fire pits, and those restaurants where the chefs cook your food on the grill right in front of you.

Available in six-seat and eight-seat options, the JAG Grill is an impressive piece of outdoor equipment. In the heart of the structure is the fire; you can use the single grill level on its own or also cook on the removable fire pit cover.

On the larger model, eight wood table platforms surround the interior steel grill. They provide space for a group to sit down and have a freshly-cooked meal hot off of the coals.

Each of the spaces at the table allows the person sitting there to cook their own food just the way they like it. The individual grill segments lift up easily so you can tend to the fire from any position.

The wood platforms can also be removed easily for storage or if the cook prefers to create grilled masterpieces without the table in the way. And if you just want to have a nice night out under the stars with some friends, the JAG converts to a fire pit in seconds.

At $2,500, the Jag Eight isn’t a budget-friendly item, but then again, it basically replaces several bulky items you might already be looking to buy for your backyard, so it might be just the thing you need.

“THE JAG EIGHT IS ONE-OF-A-KIND WITH ITS UNIQUE FEATURES!

• Pop up the removable stainless steel grilling racks to adjust your charcoal
• Open the side-door for air-flow, or to clean out the pit
• Use the adjustable legs to accommodate uneven surfaces
• Remove each of the wooden outer-tables for storage or transportation
• Take off the grill dome for access to coals, and for conversion to an open fire pit

The JAG Eight ships for free, and arrives in 2-4 days within Continental USA.” 

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