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GRILLERY PART 1

By Steven Raichlen, 5-time James Beard Award-winner and Barbecue Hall of Famer

PART 1: BEHIND THE SCENES AT GRILLWORKS

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Have you ever dreamed of creating the ultimate grill? That’s what Ben Eisendrath does for a living. Ben is the owner and creative force behind one of the nation’s premier grill manufacturers: Grillworks, the company that created the Grillery, a wood-burning grill with a flywheel for raising and lowering the grill grate, and V-shaped grill bars to channel off fat. We’ve featured this grill often on Primal Grill, and get more e-mailed inquiries about it than almost any other on the show. Ben’s father, a former correspondent for TIME magazine, became enamored of asador-style grilling when the family lived in South America, and started the company after settling in Michigan.
Ben, in the foreground at left in the above photo, explains the dynamics of the newly designed “Infierno” model for Chef Dan Barber’s staff at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. The “Infierno” features two flanking grills, a firebrick hearth for baking, and a coal production station.

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When a new grill is conceived, Ben says, “whether through logical evolution or radical chef suggestion, it goes through several phases” before something is presented to a customer. The Grillworks design team, Ben notes, has a background in exotic and classic car design, so their conceptions are more than scribbles on napkins.

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TO BE CONTINUED…