Success Is In The Cards For The Grateful Griller Thanks To Envy!

Hello Grilling Nation!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah! Sun's up and my BGE and Primo's are loaded and about to be fired. I love days like this because its all about cooking, relaxing and enjoying the moment and experimenting on the GTO lab! Yesterday I spent the day grilling up a storm between Ottawa and Packenham with some great people and I got to thinking about how many business cards I've handed out over the last few years and then I got thinking about my right hand man and creative guru who also happens to me my brother from another mother. Yup, you got it folks, my brother in law. He goes by many names, first and foremost Simon, Nunky to my daughter, Bro, Amigo, Chief and occasionally, Buddy!

Not only is he family but without him and his company called Envy Communications ( fyi, best dam brand communications company in the world!) there would be no visible face to The Grateful Griller and no face means no brand and no brand probably means no business! Parish the thought! As my concept is just now starting to take off the tarmac I want to thank Simon and his efforts not to mention patience and creative vision and style at being my go to guy for everything and almost anything to do with the look and feel of The Grateful Griller. From business cards to the website design, to the logo, he is the guy who makes all this tick and rarely if ever gets noticed for it unless I am making mention of his abilities, which I do constantly and his unique ability to create that very important foundation that great brands are built on.

Without Envy's guiding light I would have made many mistakes in the branding process of my own concept hence loosing time and probably money over the long haul. As I've learned on this wild ride thus far as I do my best to inspire the masses on this "grilled to obsession" lifestyle, a designer like Simon is critical and key to the success of the brand and the message I am trying to articulate to the end consumer and my potential client. Although we are family we can talk shop as if we aren't related at all and brutal honesty works best in these situations because let's face it, who has time for bull shit? No one!

I'm a guy totally devoted and committed to what I do as The Grateful Griller and I fire on a lot of cylinders from both a business and artistic perspective and I'm always amazed if not blown away at Simon's ability to take some if not all of my idea's and make sense out of them, visually speaking. He has been able to take my all out passion for what I do and who I am and put it all together and for this I am very grateful, no pun intended! LOL! From the grilled to obsession tag line to the food, family, friends and music that make me tick as a person to that logo on my truck that will one day be recognized as a universal symbol for grate times and grate vibes, I have only one guy and one company to thank, Envy Communications and the captain of his own ship, Simon Cooper!

So as I sign off and get my backside in the sun and my hands dirty on the kamado's, I leave you all with some advice. If you are totally passionate about something you want to do for the rest of your life and want to make a business out of it, give Envy a call and sit down with a guy like Simon if you really want to understand how to position yourself and get your message and image out to the world at large!

Keep on grilling brothers and sisters and feed that fire! I've been listening to a lot of Kings Of Leon lately, so much so I can't get enough so as you would expect from the grilling poet, LOL, some lyrics have been borrowed and altered by yours truly!

Keep it saucy, keep it sticky!

The Grateful Griller's Kamado Is Like Sex On Fire

Consumed by what transpires on my deck,

the party elevates to a higher place.

I look at where your standing "K".

We've got people talking "K",

about our history, our food, our journey together.

Your like sex on fire!

By day or by night, your just the greatest "K".

You have me totally consumed by this party, taking shape around me on this deck.

When night falls and friends gather, glasses will come together,

regardless of the weather.

When dark smoke turns clear almost white,

that's my sign that all's alright.

Your the greatest "K", your like sex on fire!

With appetizer's down and entree's to come, the feelings for all if not some,

are that of euphoria, ecstasy.

Enjoying the vibe and being welcomed into our tribe called quest.

The quest for celebration with no boundaries!

The quest for food, for flavor!

The quest for life's perfect balance,

as we all stare this day's sun going down.

The party elevates to a higher place.

I look at where your standing "K",

your like sex on fire!

Your just the greatest "K"!

With dessert in our scope,

our "gto" family can barely cope.

Ties ripped off, shirts untucked, feel it "K" as we get sucked up by your magic!

Your like sex on fire!!!!!!!!!

Another meal savored, devoured, you always make me feel empowered,

to take this grilling game higher "K".

Let's dance, let's move,

let's groove till morning, never boring as we swing and sway to our own smoky beats.......

GG Love and special sauce!

The Grateful Griller says "Traditional Kamado's Zig, While Primo Zags"!

Greetings grateful grillers in the house of smoke and fire!!!!!!!

Well, well, well, how time flies when we're all having fun and I notice another ten days at least has passed me by since my last story from the kamado vault and the "gto" lab. My thoughts over the last few weeks have been quite focussed on the Primo product and the incredible cookers they manufacture and have manufactured over the last fifteen years or so. I must confess that I love all my cookers pretty equally and as all of you know I am a devoted purist when it comes to cooking or grilling, smoking or searing with these mystifying and remarkable devices called "kamado's".

What really impresses me about Primo however, is the vision that they had that many years ago to create a unique oval shaped kamado styled cooker that no one had seen or thought of before and that would eventually be the Big Green Egg's main competitor in the marketplace today, although Big Green Egg still maintains a sizable lead in sales, that's not the point at all. My point is that while BGE and others were zigging, Primo zagged, BIG TIME! You see, in my humble opinion folks there's only so much anyone can do with a circular shaped cooker, as fantastic as they are, there are limitations and that's precisely why anyone who's interested in one of these incredible devices should give yours truly a call so we can have what I have coined over the last few years my "facts without the fiction" chat about what you really need in a cooker like this before you spend your good hard earned money.

Let's face it friends, it's easy to walk into a store, any store these days bbq related or otherwise and simply be in that store browsing around wondering what you want to purchase and all of a sudden you are approached by a sales person who has already pre-decided what you need based on inventory on the day or simply because they might only sell one particular product that suits your needs and in most cases theirs, and then all of a sudden you are a moving target about to be sold something. Case and point! When I ventured out bbq shopping almost a decade ago with my wife I really only had a few concrete idea's as to what I wanted in a new bbq from a features and benefits point of view. The last thing I knew I wanted was another gas oriented grill for no other reason than they never really lasted more than three years or so for me, so why waste more money even if it means spending a bit more for the long run.

I also had no idea at the time what a "Big Green Egg" was and would only have ventured a guess that it was a planet somewhere off in the solar system that I was uninformed about! The chap who helped us was very nice, not aggressive, fairly informed about his craft and quite helpful and as we engaged with him I clearly remember being led over to this funny looking device which happened to be a "Big Green Egg"!

This is where things get interesting, and yes this will be the coles notes version of the story! He went though the over view of BGE all the while I was staring at the price and getting some serious looks from my wife who wasn't ready to part with $1500 pre tax of our hard earned money, but I was on a mission, determined to purchase quality and I knew that although I had no idea about this weird looking device that could have doubled as something that Mork from Ork travelled in to get to the show on , I was intrigued on that natural lump charcoal story, flavour, aroma, essence, quality, history etc, etc. What I didn't know, however, was that "Big Green Egg" was not the only "kamado" styled cooker in the world at that time. Nor is it today and if I would have been able to have access to a few other brands that were equivalent in quality and came with the same warranty I would have purchased the Primo XL because it fit my requirements best at that time but the nice chap we were dealing with had only one thing on his mind that fit our needs as "kamado" cookers go and that my friends was the case closed and deal sealed as they say, Big Green Egg it was! For the record, he was only doing his job but imagine if "The Grateful Griller" existed and could have educated us on our options before buying, what then? I know, and I admit that that was a selfish plug but you people get my drift right? Right.

We ended up putting our money down and it was by far one of the best product purchases I have ever made in my life because it not only inspired me to really take my cooking game higher but "The Big Green Egg" motivated me to start my own brand and to really explore, research, study, travel and become totally obsessed and possessed by these incredibly magical devices!

I am also happy to report that I still have that first medium sized BGE on my deck and it still churns out the best of foods all these years later and although it was the wrong size and product for our needs at that time its an extension of our family unit here in Wakefield today and one that I will never part with. So my message as I close this post is this. Keep your eyes open and do your homework before accepting the advice of anyone who might gladly take your money and steer you in one direction and look for the pros who specialize like I do in these uber niche markets because then and only then will you get the entire story, remember, facts without the fiction!

Today there are close to six companies globally that all make fantastic "kamado" styled cookers, all have unique features and benefits and all come with their own fascinating story that yours truly is excited to tell and yes, I have great relationships with all of them and pride myself on that and love cooking on and with all their products. So when the world is zigging, you might just want to zag!

As always and forever more my next few lines have been inspired by Xavier Rudd and altered by The Grateful Griller. If you've never heard of him just go buy his music and let's chill and grill together soon!

Grateful Griller's Tribal Feelings for Kamado

I guess I can say, you are all that I need.

Music and you and the air that I breathe.

I guess I can say, these feelings I have

come up from your hot coals and make me just want to dance.

I guess I can say, I'm so lucky today

to have my family and friends and the vibes that you bring.

The food, the fire, the culinary desire to let alchemy reign true and amaze us every day.

I'm so grateful for so much and want nothing more,

than to share you and your secrets with the world at large.

I love my obsession with you "K".

I love your simplicity, your beauty, your mystery.

I love our low "n" slow rapport.

You've taught me well

to say to hell with the fast paced jungle around us.

To live in the moment now, forever.

Let's keep dancin our kamado dance, its like a non stop trance!

Today, tomorrow, forever.......

Always feed that fire friends!

G

Grateful Griller Says, "You Think This Guy's Sexy"? You Should See His Light Saber Called Looft!!!!!

What's up grillers!!!!!!!!!

Can you all believe the weather that we are having over the last few days and weeks? I've been cart wheeling around my deck and smokin and searin up a storm, from fish to foul, steak to cake, doing it all griller style and dropping it down into low gear with high enthusiasm, go figure coming from yours truly! LOL! Well, this post has been on my mind for the last couple of weeks because this post is as much about the man as it is about the product he invented, not to mention the great team of guys I had the pleasure of meeting down in Orlando at the recent HPBA Show.

The company is called Looft Lighter, the man behind the product is Richard Looft! Both the product and the man intrigued me, fascinated me, not to mention blew my mind with what is going to become known as the sexiest, smartest and most practical natural lump charcoal electric starter that the bbq industry has ever seen and yes grillers, you heard it from the grateful one first! At least in Canada!

If the Looftlighter would have been around when Mick Jagger penned the words to "Start Me Up", this hot little tool would have been his motivation for the tune but more on this later. I enjoyed every minute I spent with these guys and I was not only sold on the product after seeing it demonstrated numerous times, but I was so impressed with the way this company presented itself in what was probably the smallest booth space at the show but the impact from the passion, authenticity and story from this company could be felt across the convention centre! The moment I connected with Richard, St.John, Nisse and crew I knew I was surrounded by guys who like myself, loved what they were doing as we carried on like a bunch of court jesters, laughing and sharing stories of food, family, friends, music and occasionally pausing to try and compose serious faces to talk shop or as I like to refer to it as passion!

Looft's story is incredible and one that a book could probably and will probably be written about some day, but in a nut shell, Richard got mad one day when chicken he was bbq'ing got ruined and tasted like lighter fluid! This former theatre director started thinking and the more he thought the more he became convinced that there was a greener and easier way to start the bbq. The mad scientist in him kicked in and with the help of a toaster, some coal and reverse airflow from a vacuum cleaner he soon realized the coal was ready to use in a few short minutes!

2003 saw the first prototype created and presented to the Swedish Inventor's Association and by 2005 Looft Industries Ltd. was established. By 2006 the first 5000 Looftlighter's landed in Stockholm and then the man behind the company knocked on the best retail doors to show off his product only to be ignored! Being the driven, passionate soul he is he fought fire with fire so to speak and parked himself outside these retail venues and asked for 60 seconds of time from each of the them and the rest grillers is history as they say.

Today Looftlighter is being sold as the leading edge devise of its kind to safely start both charcoal bbq's and fireplaces and is sold right across Scandinavia, over ten countries in the E.U. and you guessed it, LooftLighter has landed on terra firma right here in North America and for the record, The Grateful Griller is ecstatic!!!!!

Richard and team! The Grateful Griller congratulates you on your vision and I really look forward to helping you spread your message and awesome story to the masses of grateful griller's out there who need your product, big time! Here's to our next steak and pint together where ever we are in this world, keep on grillin!

Before I bid you goodnight fellow grillers, as you should expect by now, I share with you some Grateful Griller speak inspired tonight by none other than The Rolling Stones and my new found friends at Looft! Lyrics respectfully borrowed from the Stones and altered by The Grateful Griller.

Grateful Grillers Looft Really Start's Me Up!

If you start me up

If you start me up, I'll never stop.

You'll be runnin hot "K", so fast,

you might just blow your top.

These other gadjets can make a grown man cry.

Throw out the oil, the gasoline,

we'll be cookin smooth and clean with our new Looft machine.

Press on that starter,

I'm given you all I got.

No other riders keepin up to this heat!

Looft's gonna rough it up,

as it fires up our passion to cook and create together "K".

This grown man cries no more, eyes like dinner plates.

My lips are clean, my hands aren't greasy,

thanks to our new Looft machine.

So just fire me up,

give it all I got.

Looft's gonna teach us how to ride the wind at double speed,

taken us places we've never ever been.

Dreaming about the day we never stop,

chillin, grillin, never spillin while we're fillin our bellies with food and joy!

feed that fire and the desire to always take it higher........

GG