The Thrill Of The Grill

By Belinda Luscombe

In the beginning, there was fire. Then somebody tossed a hunk of antelope into the embers, and, lo, there was barbecue. Then a million and a half or so years later, there was the $12,000 Frontgate Deluxe Outdoor Kitchen, with a 48-in. built-in grill, 15,000-BTU dual range-top burner, warming drawer, granite tiles, outlets for an outdoor fridge and barbecue light and the phone number of an on-call barbecue expert, in case you feel you're overdoing the scallops--all shipped to your door with a box of dry, aged steaks from a New York City butcher.

America's culinary taste is going through its neo-neolithic phase: burned flesh is more popular than ever. The apron-and-tong brigade snapped up 15.4 million outdoor grills in 2000, up 32% from 1997, according to Barbecue Industry Association figures. And while most were gas fired, sales of wood chips and chunks are up almost 50% too. About 75% of American households own a barbecue, and more than half of them are used all year. The best-selling cookbook in America at the moment is How to Grill by Steven Raichlen, who has started a Barbecue Boot Camp after being besieged for grilling tips. High-end kitchen appliance companies like Jenn-Air and Viking have moved into the al fresco business, and a flurry of new releases have come from mass players like Coleman and Char-Broil. There are more devices on which to burn meat than ever before: grills big enough to cook 45 hamburgers, grills in the shape of pigs and grills with solid-gold bezel knobs.

While the vast majority of people who will be grilling the burgers and steaks this summer will do so on cookers that cost less than $500, plenty of nesters, having redone their kitchens with commercial-grade equipment, are spending several thousand dollars on this posh patio or that garden accessory. In the '90s, a $3,000 grill was shocking; now manufacturers are seeing how high consumers will go, and the ceiling hasn't yet been reached. "The backyard has become another room in the house," says Shaun Chinsky, brand manager for Vieluxe, a $6,000 barbecue brought out this year by the company that makes the humble old Weber. (Its top model, the $3,000 Summit 650, just wasn't pricey enough.) "It's the last place people had left to remodel." The handmade Vieluxe comes with such features as an integrated smoking system, a table that slides out to reveal two side burners, and what Vieluxe is calling "a concierge"--on call 24 hours a day to answer any questions, including what wine to drink with your char-broiled lobster. Built-in rotisseries and refrigerators are becoming more common, as are dual systems, barbecues that use both gas and charcoal, or even infrared heat. Grease-management devices, to prevent flare-ups and make cleaning easy, are standard.

It cannot be that people think food cooked on a $6,000 grill tastes 30 times better than that cooked on one costing $200, any more than people who buy Manolo Blahniks expect to be able to walk 30 times as far as those who wear Keds. The backyard has become part of the home-improvement trend that market researchers call "fluffing the nest." The grill has entered the world of luxury goods, status symbols, showmanship and precision performance. Kalamazoo, a small company in Michigan, sells its customized sculptural grills largely for their beauty. Boris Yeltsin has one at his dacha, according to the company. It's no accident that stainless steel--functional, low maintenance and totally showy--has become the metal du jour for all early 21st century grills. And where luxury items go, the mass market follows: Coleman released a stainless-steel grill this year.

Despite evidence that eating proteins cooked at high temperatures can cause cancer in animals, the popularity of barbecuing has not waned. One reason may be that the grill bill of fare is no longer simply meat with a meat chaser. The Kansas City pitmaster and the Texas brisket king are alive, well and perfecting their marinades and slow-cooking techniques. But the backyard griller can now prepare every part of the meal on his (and it is still mostly his) grill, from breakfast to dessert. "The barbecue moved from the center of the plate to the outside," says cookbook author Raichlen, who has recipes for grilling lettuce, pizza and creme brulee in his book. "People now prepare their vegetables, starches and polenta on the grill."

As the American palate increasingly accepts and incorporates foreign cuisines, grilling is an early adapter. "The Indonesian satay guy, the Indian tandoori master, the Argentinian asador, the Mexican carnita lady all have a lingua franca with the Texas brisket guy," says Raichlen. But to cook these new dishes, the patio daddios need temperature control, they need more than one method of cooking and they at least think they need to upgrade constantly. "We tell people the [$5,000] Ultimate Grill is the last grill they'll ever have to buy," says David Lally at Frontgate, a high-end home furnishings-catalog company. "But it isn't the last grill they buy." Barbecuers are also enhancing the grill thrill with an array of accessories, some high-tech, like forks and tongs with built-in meat thermometers, and others low tech, like customized branding irons (presumably not to be used with that other indispensable barbecue accessory, beer).

The plethora of grilling gear is only partly a case of consumerism run rampant. Barbecuing is the classic multitasking cuisine. First, there's the sheer spectacle of it: it's cooking as showing off. Grillers with a flair for the dramatic can cook such eye-catching dishes as beer-can chicken (cooked standing upright on two legs with a half-drunk beer shoved into its cavity). Then there's the opportunity to network. Who can resist rallying around the chef while he slaves over the swordfish? As Raichlen says, "Nobody ever comes and gives me a beer and a kiss hello when I'm deep-frying."