Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Grateful Griller Is More About A Movement Than A Brand!

What's up in all of your smoke and fire filled world's grillers!

Whatever it is I hope it's been bringing you all huge happiness and tasty creations! My world over the last few weeks has been truly inspiring not to mention a tad crazy! As some if not all of you know by now I took delivery of the newest kamado called the Komodo Kamado to add to my "gto" lab last week thanks to my friend Dennis Linkletter in Bali Indonesia who has been producing these 650lbs. fine pieces of technological art for the past seven years or so. It was truly a day to remember as we, my Father-in-Law and I needed the heavy equipment to get it into place unharmed. I refer to the heavy equipment being a big old Hungarian tractor I have recently named "Boris" and without him I don't know how anything could get done on the vast acreage we live on!

All this said, we were able to get the new kamado into place without incident, thank-god, and while we were busy rigging the hoists for this beautiful, precision oriented, mosaic tiled, kamado grilling, inverted pylon of perfection I couldn't help but look back on what has been a truly remarkable and personal journey thus far with the kamado cooker since 2001!

Now, today, as some if not most of you know I now make part of my living by throwing down pretty unique and "out of the box" parties called "The Grateful Griller Experience" whereby, mostly all the food I prepare is grilled and or effected positively by smoke coming from these marvelous earthen vessels while my clients get to look on, be entertained, and hopefully become inspired to the point that they too want to become their own "Grateful Grillers"! Trust me people, its not hard to catch this bug and when you do, the pleasure, the pictures, the parties not to mention the extraordinary food will make fantastic stories and memories for the rest of your lives.

That's just it! The back catalog of memories I hold today of the places I've been and people I've met and parties I've thrown for family, friends and clients alike are to me, PRICELESS! This is why for me, my business today is so enjoyable because its more about inspiring millions of people one day, I hope, on a lifestyle, the "grilled to obsession" lifestyle that has brought me so much joy as opposed to just another unit that needs to be sold for the sake of the sale, and that's coming from the mouth or should I say keyboard of a veteran sales guy, LOL!

As this post title suggests, The Grateful Griller today and forever moving forward will be about creating excitement about the kamado and food and fire and smoke and desire to taste the difference on this side of the fence. For me, its also about the excitement and the movement I am in the midst of creating and  the party and ultimate celebration with those who matter most to you! If this all makes sense to you then you know who to call and hire for your next party!

This last couple of weeks has also felt a bit like a chapter closing out in a favorite book that you can't put down . I still remember the day like it was yesterday when I brought my first kamado cooker home and thought that the Big Green Egg was where this whole experience started and ended, lol! Little did I know then that an entirely new world was about to open up for me and here I am all these years later still learning about these mysterious earthen vessels. Its also been incredibly cool to meet all, (almost all) the interesting people who like me share a passion for all things kamado.

Today a kamado cooker can be purchased anywhere between $500 to $4000 and its fascinating to see and learn all the differences in technology between the various cookers that are available on the market. From the bare bones cheap and cheerful to works of fine art like the Komodo Kamado I look forward to the day that these cookers get the international attention they so deserve for no other reason than the incredible results they produce with any food when they are fired up and its so very easy to learn how! Its also for this very reason that my philosophy about "The Grateful Griller" as a business has changed, even morphed dramatically from merely selling units of one particular brand or another to now, through  "The Grateful Griller Party Experience" articulating a much bigger and louder message about this "grilled to obsession" lifestyle and my kamado turned conduit I call "K" for short.

Don Henley, former Eagle penned the lyric, "yesterday I saw a dead head sticker on a cadilac and the little voice in my head said, don't look back you can never look back". I love these words and they are so true. We can't get the best high school or college days back, or our first real kiss that felt like fire works going off, we can't bring loved ones back from the dead nor can we relive that first stadium rock concert vibe. One things for dam sure however, we can live for the now and dream big for tomorrow and thank the likes of Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe, Primo, GrillDome, Saffire and Komodo Kamado for taking the time and looking back themselves to ancient times and learning, studying, and passionately pursuing the goal of recreating the kamado cooker as we know it today and they are bigger and better than ever friends!

I also know that without the kamado, "The Grateful Griller" in its current form wouldn't even exist so when I get my own sticker you can all have one for free but you have to promise me that as I welcome each and every one of you onto my magic bus we will get grilled, chilled and obsessed together!

Feed those fires and desires to take your grilling games higher! The next few lines were inspired by Billy Corgan and The Smashing Pumpkins who I love dearly and as per my signature style people, the lyrics were altered by yours truly!






Grilling Zero's To Grilling Hero's


I feel a deep connection to that reflection I see in the street corner window.
I'm a grilling lover who will cover all your smoky bases and never forget your faces,
while putting me through my paces as we party from dusk till dawn, savoring every single salty prawn,
while chanting this grateful grilling song to anyone who cares to listen.


Your the one for me K,
you're are all I really need, you're the one for me K,
like my daily hit of speed!


Save your prayers and embrace the dares,
wanna go for a kamado grilling ride?
With humble "g" we'll take it in stride and all my grilling secrets in you I will confide,
and on this side of the well you will soon learn why life is so swell when you're not dancing to someone else's ringing bell!


Intoxicated with this grilling madness, I'm in love with the smoky radness!
A cheeky bit of culinary badness cos cleanliness is godliness,
and godliness is grillingness and grillingness is happiness,
and happy is me alongside the rest of this global grilling family tree!


Full to the rim, spilling over the brim with no excess fat to trim, we can all embrace each other and celebrate a new day about to begin.


Feed the fires and all your grilling desires friends...........