Skip to content

How to BBQ like a professional chef

Share This:

Now that you’ve invested in an outdoor kitchen, it’s time to make the most of it. At CENA we want to share our passion for cooking amazing food and creating a truly memorable social event with our customers. That’s why we’ve compiled this comprehensive professional outdoor cooking equipment list to help you elevate your alfresco cooking.

There will be items you’ve not thought of, but which will help you be more adventurous and creative with your cooking. There will be tools to help you cook more complex dishes and stay in control, ways to get more out of your appliances and ideas to wow your guests with finishing touches they will remember. Let’s dive in!

Grill press

These cast iron presses can be used on the grill to flatten pork chops, chicken breasts, burgers, steak, seafood and squeeze out fats during cooking. We love them for flattening out minute steaks and stopping the edges curling in and getting burnt! Pair with a cast iron skillet and you’ll be well equipped to cook some show stopping meat.

Rotisserie kit

A rotisserie kit will take your grill to the next level, giving you a tool to grill a whole chicken, a leg of lamb or even prime rib of beef with even application of heat for a succulent finish. There are both manual and motorised options available to help you create a spectacular centrepiece for your meal. Pair this with a roasting tin containing your vegetables. This way you’ll catch the juices and can turn them into a rich sauces or marinade.

Skewers or fish cages

If you’ve always used bamboo skewers on the BBQ, it’s time to upgrade to the best. We love flat metal skewers (preferably stainless steel) as they stop food spinning around when you want to turn them over, they can be used over and over, and they last for years! Grill cages are ideal for foods which can fall apart when cooking and therefore fall off a skewer, such as fish, halloumi, and some vegetables!

Smoking racks

Hands up who loves a deep smoky flavour on their spare ribs? Or perhaps it’s not summer until you’ve smoked from fresh Cornish mackerel and enjoyed it with a warm potato salad and home-made mayonnaise? A smoking rack will give you the tools to smoke food on your outdoor kitchen grill and make for some impressive summer dinner parties!  

A pizza peel

If you invest in a wood-fired or gas pizza oven you can look forward to creating some of the most delicious pizzas you’ve ever tasted right in your own garden. A pizza peel is an essential piece of kit to help you move pizzas in and out of the oven (especially when they are raw!) and to move them around to ensure an even bake.  

Tongs

If you’ve ever fiddled about trying to turn over sausages or kebabs on a grill with a fork or spatula, you’ll know how tricky it can be. A pair of tongs make it far easier to turn things over and to handle large steaks or joints of meat. Having one small pair and one large pair of tongs means you’re ready for anything.

A meat cleaver

Are you the proud owner of a collection of fine, sharp knives for slicing, fleeting and chopping? A meat cleaver will help prolong the lifetime of those knives by doing the ‘heavy lifting’ in the cutting department, making cutting up joints of meat and portioning steaks a breeze.

Meat shredding claws

If a slow-cooked beef brisket or pulled shoulder of pork sounds like your dream BBQ meal, you might find meat shredding claws a very useful addition to your outdoor kitchen. Instead of a slow, laborious process using two forks, meat claws are an inexpensive way to speed up the process and impress your guests.

Cena_11-1

There are myriad other cooking tools which will help you perfect your recipes and wow your guests - and, we hope, make your life easier too! We have a stash of eco firelighters and a butane torch lighter so that lighting the wood fired oven is easy every time - and you don’t end up with a box of damp matches on your worktop. A good quality thermometer, particularly a digital one which is smart phone enabled, means you can keep an eye on the cooking when you’re enjoying a pre-dinner drink. A wire grill brush makes cleaning off the grill quick and easy and ensures the outdoor kitchen is ready for the next time you want to use it. We’ve even been to parties where the meat was marked with a personalised branding iron before being served…

Recommended Posts

Outdoor Kitchen Design, Outdoor Living

How to get your dream outdoor kitchen

Outdoor kitchens have become a must-have element of luxury homes and gardens. They create the perfect atmosphere for al fresco entertaining ...
Read More
Outdoor Kitchen Design, Outdoor Living

How to make the most of your outdoor kitchen

Al fresco dining has been prevalent in warmer climates for many years now and it is very easy to understand its appeal. The UK is starting t ...
Read More
Outdoor Kitchen Design, Outdoor Living

Designing an Outdoor Kitchen Pt 1: Location, Location, L ...

The team here at CENA love using our gardens all year round, and with an outdoor kitchen you can even cook a full English for a fun al fresc ...
Read More