Last Updated on December 9, 2019
Sous Chef Cookware Range and the BBQ Smoker and Grill King.
Do you grill? I have a pretty garden here in London and whenever the weather is good, I end up sitting outside all day with Lena, my cat. Going indoors to cook seems somehow wrong – and yet lighting a BBQ for one or two people feels excessive. So, when Sous Chef asked me to check their cookware range and find something to review, the tabletop BBQ smoker looked spot on!
I know Sous Chef best as the first point of call when I’m looking for an unusual ingredient. If you check their website, you’ll find out just what I mean. There’s everything you might ever need and more, from edible insects and liquid smoke through to bags of the finest Callebaut Belgian Couverture Chocolate! I hadn’t actually spotted the cookware range before – or perhaps I’d been deliberately avoiding looking, simply because now I know about it, I’ll want to buy more things!
In a range which includes every kind of cookware gadget you might ever want (and yes, there are plenty more things on my wish list – from a potato ricer and chinois through to an anova sous-vide) the tabletop BBQ stood out to me for two reasons.
Firstly, it’s small enough to pick up and carry – whether that’s to put it in the back of the car when you are going off for a picnic or to keep your garden neat and tidy when you are not playing with fire! Secondly, it’s really cute – and just the right size to set up a BBQ for two people. As someone who has missed out on years of BBQ food in the summer simply because it has never seemed worth lighting the BBQ for one or two, I’m thrilled to find this little beauty.
It does need assembly – but once it’s put together, it really doesn’t disappoint. It has a proper thermometer to monitor the internal temperature when you are grilling and adjustable air vents both on the top and sides.
Most exciting of all for me that it is carefully designed so you can use it both as a BBQ and as a hot smoker. The burner at the bottom is divided into two sections and if you want to hot smoke that piece of salmon all you need to do is fill one section with charcoal and one with wood chips and adjust the air vents.
The same sectioned areas will let you use indirect heat to slow cook roasts or a whole chicken without smoking at all – you just leave one side of the base empty and put your food over that part of the BBQ. When the lid is closed, your food cooks in the same way as in an oven but, with charcoal power.
For smaller pieces of meat, fish or vegetables, you can, of course, grill with the lid open too (though not on your kitchen table!)
I’m really looking forward to summer 2020 – and you can expect to see a whole range of smoked and grilled recipes on London-Unattached.
I personally think the Rough and Authentic BBQ Smoker and Grill King from Sous Chef would make the perfect Christmas present. But, for other ideas that are suitable for the food lover in your life, do take a look at the Sous Chef Cookware Collection.
Disclosure – I was sent the small BBQ Smoker and Grill free of charge from Sous Chef for the purposes of review. I was not obliged to write a positive review
Does this come with instructions on how to use? I’m trying to decide between this and the cameron stovetop smoker as a christmas present. The cameron comes with some sample woodchips and an instruction/recipe book, but it’s not clear on whether this one does on souschef.