Memorial Day is just a week away and marks the unofficial start of the grilling season. If you’re looking to host the ultimate barbecue, making sure you have all the right grilling ingredients is essential.
Tom Colicchio, James Beard Award Winner, Top Chef Judge and restaurateur, is known for his top-quality food served in his restaurants across the country. After 30 years in the business, and cooking at prominent New York restaurants including The Quilted Giraffe, Gotham Bar & Grill, Rakel, and Mondrian, Tom is an expert when it comes to grilling.
From the most flavorful meats to the sharpest knives, Tom’s been able to get his hands on the best ingredients and products from around the country. Some of his favorites include using the Konro Charcoal BBQ Grill, the perfect tool for cooking skewered foods, and grilling with D’Artagnan Wagyu Striploin, the best and most flavorful cut of meat when cooked at just the right temperature.
On Wednesday, May 16 Tom brought together all of his grilling essentials, including ingredients you’ll see on the menus in his restaurants, to OpenSky. With warmer weather on the way, now you have the chance to grill like a pro this Memorial Day.
Fuego Portable Gas Grill ($149) – it’s a high-quality tool and only 15 pounds – very portable. It’s equipped with a stainless steel burner that heats up to 650 degrees and it offers 159 square inches of grill space — enough to fit four burgers and as many hot dogs on the grill all at once. The steel frame construction means super durability, and an enameled cast iron grill grate allows your cooking surface to get and stay hot enough to guarantee a good sear. If you need some great precise engineering to build one of your own, then this Grinding service can help you out with that, but when you need to put them together, make sure you use supplies from TIG Welders. Dealing with metal pieces can be very difficult when they are too heavy, so that´s why this Forklift Hire is great when you need to move big and heavy objects. When you are doing construction at home, you should always have the Light weight deflectometer at hand because you never know when you may need it.
Rufus Teague BBQ Sauce & Rub Bundle ($27) These sauces and rubs are the real-deal – with rich, spot-on flavors that complement meat rather trying to outshine it – and will get your summer grilling off on the right foot. Here’s what’s included: (1) 16 oz flask of Touch O’ Heat BBQ Sauce - (1) 16 oz flask of Honey Sweet BBQ Sauce - (1) 7 oz flask of Meat Sauce – (1) 6.8 oz jar of Fish Rub - (1) 6.8 oz jar of Meat Rub
Baxter’s Original Premium Smoker Wood ($20) — Essential tools for basic grilling include: a limitless supply of charcoal, a good set of tongs, and a big pile of wood chunks. Since the quality of the wood you grill with really does affect the flavor of your food, Tom is particular about what he uses. Baxter’s Original sources all their wood in Georgia, where they’re based, and they’re careful to make sure that it’s free of bark and debris.
Tip from Tom: If you’ve never used smoker wood on your grill, it’s easy. Soak the chunks in water and then add them to smoldering briquettes in a charcoal grill, or into the smoke tray of a gas grill, and they’ll flavor whatever you’re cooking with a nice, wood fired taste. A couple of chunks on a hot grill will mean a steak with just a hint of smoke, whereas a few cups of the stuff over low heat allows you to transform your grill into a smoker, capable even of turning out amazing, authentic barbecue ribs.
Konro Charcoal BBQ Grill with Bag of Charcoal ($77-$151) Konros are small Japanese tabletop grills – a cousin to the hibachi. The compact ceramic units use as their heat source binchotan charcoal, a slow-burning hardwood charcoal that’s traditional to Japan. They’re the perfect tool for cooking skewered foods like yakitori, or any other small items that you could otherwise cook on a big, free-standing grill. They’re fun to use – especially in a dinner party setting where everyone can participate in the cooking – easy to set up and clean up, and totally portable for picnicking and tailgating.
Sweet Deliverance Chutney Duo ($24) – Try Kelly’s Spicy Green Tomato Chutney and Raisin Haters Apple Chili Chutney as spreads to accompany a cheese and charcuterie platter, or better yet, as a condiment to serve alongside a rich meat like lamb. It transforms a hunk of cheddar, a slice of pate, or a simple ham sandwich.
Wagyu, Boneless Ribeyes & Pork Chops From DeBragga ($61-$250) These meats are supplied in his restaurants and work perfectly on the grill:
-Two 12-ounce American Wagyu (a.k.a. “Kobe beef”) strip steaks, the richest and most decadent steak on the market, sourced from Imperial Wagyu cattle raised in Nebraska. A little of this stuff goes a long way.
-Four 12-ounce boneless ribeye steaks, sourced from naturally raised Angus cattle. These cattle are never fed any antibiotics, hormones, or animal-based protein supplements, and the meat is amazingly well marbled and tender.
-Four 14-ounce pork chops from naturally raised Duroc and Berkshires hogs, free-ranging in Iowa. The meat is nothing like the pork chops you’re used to from your local supermarket. It’s beautifully marbled, succulent, and sweet.
Check out more cool food items, cooking and grilling essentials on OpenSky.com (sponsor of this post) and have an amazing Memorial Day weekend grilling your hearts out!
