Professional chefs are beginning to return to basic cooking techniques in the kitchen – and there’s just no comparison to the flavor produced by wood. Fine dining restaurants are looking to harness traditional cooking methods with a commercial wood-fired grill system.
Finding the right commercial wood grill for restaurants can mean the difference between crafting your menu around a machine versus allowing the machine to dictate your daily operations. Commercial wood grills for restaurants need a certain recipe of thermal mass, airflow, and rugged construction to survive an eighteen-hour kitchen shift.
But why do chefs require so much from these specific pieces of equipment? It all comes down to consistency.
During a rush, professionals require cooking surfaces that can hold up to sustained use and produce uniform results despite variations in outdoor temperature or wood moisture levels. No chef wants to serve a prime rib that lacks the signature char found on the first plate because the grill couldn’t retain heat through the night.
What Chefs Look For in a Commercial Wood-Fired Grill
There are countless reasons and features that chefs look for when choosing a wood-fired grill for a commercial kitchen. Chefs still must weigh the pros and cons of each unit before filling up their grills with wood chunks.
The first thing any professional cook will notice about a new grill is how it was built and its durability. Chefs looking at a new wood grill want to know how long it will last, day in and day out. You can do this, in part, by assessing the thickness of the steel and refractory board used to line the firebox. After establishing how durable a unit is, the chef should look for ways to maximize the productivity within their space.
Controlled Temperatures & Even Heat Distribution
Cooking over live fire is an art as well as a science — and like any artistic medium, it can be unpredictable. When wood burns, it creates incredible temperatures that most metal cooking surfaces can’t hold. If heat spots begin to appear on a grill, it creates uneven cooking temperatures and increases the risk of over- or undercooked meats.
Successful chefs understand that proper temperature control on a wood-fired grill begins with selecting the proper grill. By maximizing air ventilation, professionals can starve the fire when they need to reduce heat or fan the flames to hit higher temperatures. Wood-fired cooking is not limited to thin proteins that sear fast — restaurants with wood-fired grills frequently bake dishes on the grill as well. Maintaining consistent lower heat for long periods can be crucial.
Aztec’s airflow system offers three kinds of cooking heat: radiant heat, conducted heat, and high-velocity hot air heat. That’s control you can count on.
Wood-Fired Grills Enhance Flavors
The flavor you can produce on a commercial wood grill for restaurants is reason enough to invest in one. Cooking over hardwood produces smoked flavors that no chef can mimic over propane. As the wood burns, it releases delicious organic compounds that cling to the food, creating the” smoke kiss” we all know and love.
Not only can a wood-fired grill produce mesmerizing flavors, but it can recycle them through a process called vaporization. As meats cook over the grill, their natural fats and juices drip into the fire below. When those liquids hit hot coals, they vaporize and float back up to the grill, where they coat the food again in transformed flavor.
When you’re using a wood-fired grill, always use wood that’s been aged or “seasoned” to maintain a moisture content between 15-20%. Woods like pine are considered softwoods and can leach harmful chemicals into your food.
High Quality & Durable Wood-Fired Grills
Any professional kitchen equipment needs to offer a serious return on investment. A commercial wood grill that sparks an insurance claim during a busy night can instantly ruin any restaurant’s bottom line. That’s why professional chefs prefer cooking equipment from brands like Aztec Grills; they know that it is important to use high-quality materials. Since 1982, Aztec Grill has been providing restaurants across the USA with our wood-burning grill to be the workhorse of their kitchen.
Why Aztec Grill is The Preferred Choice for Professional Chefs
If you’re a chef or restaurant owner who doesn’t have time for equipment that can’t keep up with your vision, call Aztec Grill today. While there are many commercial wood grills for restaurants to choose from, none of our competitors use the patented technology that Aztec Grills does to enhance heat distribution.
Our exclusive airflow system is designed to mimic conventional technology while giving you precise control over the fire. By evenly distributing where oxygen travels to fuel the fire, you can achieve temperatures you may have thought were impossible for a commercial wood grill. This means burning through less wood while eliminating large temperature swings.