Why?
1. You can now cook outside at anytime of the year.
2. You're cooking with wood, so everything you hot or cold smoke, roast, bake, braise, plank, or slow roast will have a delicious hardwood smoke flavor.
3. You will become a famous chef, at least on your own block, and become even more popular with the neighbors.
The two stainless steel double insulated cooking chambers—one a heat circulating smoker oven and one a brick hearth baking oven—are uber energy efficient thanks to an air tight fire box, so minimal wood is required to fire up a feast. Smoking meat for six hours takes a $5 of chunk of tree from your local hardware or specialty barbeque store. Pizza night will cost you about $2 worth of wood, with a charcoal assist if you want it to bake for an hour at 650 degrees. Under the firebox, the unit has four cubic feet of storage, enough to hold many meals worth of dry wood, as well as your spatula, tongs and other accessories. The backlit temperature dials and knobs, not to mention the shiny stainless roasting pans and pizza stone, will have your guests in awe until the gastronomic stupor hits. Available November 2011, $1799, ecoque.com.
-Berne Broudy