COOKING SPOTLIGHT
25A
Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet with Grillmaster Russ Faulk by Kian Stave
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uss Faulk, Chief Designer and Head of Product at Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet, is something of a legend among grilling enthusiasts. A talented grillmaster and cookbook author, he is most known for creating a trilogy of gold standard grills that are second to, well, none. Working as chief designer at Kalamazoo has been a dream job, as his love of cooking and bringing to life the world’s best grills are nearly equal passions inspired by his parents. Russ attributes his keen ability to tinker to his father, a Navytrained engineer who instilled in him a spirit of doing things yourself. His mother was an artist, and the reason he went to design school.
When I ask Russ what his favorite product is there’s a dissonant pause. He does have one, however, and it’s the Gaucho Grill. “The Gaucho is a modern interpretation of an Argentinian-style wood-fired grill. I love it because it is so good at what it does, and it is such an engaging way to cook. In an Argentinian-style wood grill, the cooking grates raise and lower above the fire so that you can control the intensity of the cooking heat. The Kalamazoo Gaucho is unique in that its built-in motorized rotisserie system is designed to travel vertically along with the cooking rack and function at any desired level.
Russ's passion for cooking also began at an early age, He remembers the first time his father let him cook the steaks unsupervised for Sunday dinner. Steaks were not frequently on the table growing up, which made him appreciate this ritual all the more. He was twelve at the time and his mother had three boys that she wanted to make self-sufficient. She insisted that the boys know how to cook, and all three embraced it. This enthusiasm for cooking has come full circle for Russ, and at the highest levels. Now, he is the person inspiring others to develop an affinity for cooking and is responsible for the development of products such as the Hybrid Fire Grill, which some have deemed the “Rolls Royce of grills.”
Another engineering feat that you can’t see is the Acme screw mechanism that raises and lowers the cooking rack. Traditional versions of this style grill typically have a simple mechanism for raising and lowering the cooking grate and a ratchet that holds the rack at the desired height. Russ wanted to design a product that overcame the need for two hands (one on the crank and one on the ratchet) and eliminated the need for the ratchet to keep the cooking grates in place. "Kalamazoo's mechanism eliminates the ratchet, is buttery smooth and rock solid. The rack is easy to move, simply by turning the wheel, but if the wheel is not turned by the operator, it would take several thousand pounds of force to move the rack down.”
A World-Class Design Philosophy According to Russ, his overall design philosophy combines a beautiful aesthetic and the very best performance to create products that endure the test of time. “We place a high priority on proportions and scale, and we incorporate architectural design cues to help ensure a Kalamazoo outdoor kitchen looks like it belongs as part of the home.” This is evident in the emphasis on horizontal shadow lines and highlight lines, as well as in how curves always terminate in a defined angle. “The other important philosophy is that form and function go hand in hand. We want our products to be beautiful without calling attention to themselves.” The most popular Kalamazoo product is, of course, the Hybrid Fire Grill. It is what Kalamazoo is best known for, and is still revolutionary even though it was invented nearly twenty-five years ago. In Russ’s own words, “we call it Hybrid Fire because it cooks with any combination of gas, charcoal and wood. I firmly believe it to be the most versatile and capable gas grill on the planet.” 116
Metropolitan Magazine | 25AMagazine.com
Creating a Better Kamado The Shokunin Kamado Grill is one of Russ's favorites - perhaps because he designed it from the ground up. “It is our most recent design and I am proud of the innovations it represents in the world of Kamado cookers. We basically tore up the notebook for Kamado grills to such an extent that the immediate reaction on social media was a bit of a backlash with many kamado purists exclaiming that our offering was not a true kamado grill.” The Shokunin design emphasizes and enhances everything that is great about Kamado cookers according to Russ. It uses a full two inches of insulation within the body and lid, making it the most efficient Kamado on the market. The direct result of this is long burn times, which are perfect for traditional American barbecue. During prototype testing, the Shokunin ran for 65 hours straight at 250 degrees Fahrenheit on just twelve pounds of charcoal. "That’s an incredibly long time, and I can’t think of any reason I’d ever cook for that long in one session. But what it means is the Shokunin is incredibly steady in temperature." One independent tester observed
