Restaurateurs entice customers into their establishments by utilizing a number of different strategies. Perhaps they employ a renowned chef, establish a jovial bar manned by a master mixologist, design an elegant dining room, or host specialty wine pairing dinners. The one common element each endeavors to achieve and maintain is a kitchen decked out with superior, state of the art commercial equipment. These grills, burners, steamers, and various appliances enable culinary artisans to create something nearly impossible to achieve back in the homestead. However, a California-based outfit by the name of Lynx is working to level the playing field.
I recently accepted the invitation to witness a full-scale Lynx operation and was in awe of what these residential products are capable of achieving. Granted, I was at the home of Kent Rathbun, who, as a Bobby Flay-defeating Iron Chef winner, Food Network star and repeat James Beard nominee, has more skill than most. That said, I witnessed an outdoor grilling setup that does the best job emulating that of a commercial kitchen, and it’s available to the public.
Rathbun was joined by Kevin Garvin, Executive Chef of Neiman Marcus Restaurants. While Kent engaged with media and kept a watchful eye on the grill, Kevin played pizzaioli, transferring piping hot pies from a Lynx pizza oven adjacent to the grill. Atop the pies were a diverse assortment of ingredients including, but not limited to, caramelized onions, shallots, garlic, mushrooms, sausage, eggplant and sardines. Each were topped with various types of fresh olive oil, shaves of Parmesan and Italian spices.
Chef Rathbun followed suit with family-style entrées that were familiar to those that have frequented one of his many restaurants in the Kent Rathbun Concepts empire. Duck slowly rotated on the rotisserie while gently being bathed in a soy marinade. Bone-in ribeyes and strips started on the variable temperature ProSear infrared burners below, soaking up the fat drippings from the duck, in addition to the red wine butter which was being brushed on simultaneously. The final sear was provided within the pizza oven which acted as a 700-degree broiler.
The griddle next to the primary grill was treated like a flat wok this particular evening to where Chef Rathbun created a fried rice, which would ultimately become the foundation for the soy glazed duck prepared on the rotisserie. Next door was the power burner, which acts as a “gentle giant”. With the ability to put out 46,000 BTUs, this device is formidable enough to handle a crawfish boil of consequence, yet delicate enough to simmer a gentle soup. On this occasion it was used to prepare a light and fluffy truffle risotto, topped with prosciutto wrapped diver scallops seared in Meyer lemon butter.
The most fun conversation of the evening came by way of James Buch, Lynx’s CEO. For the aspiring home chef, Lynx recently released the “SmartGrill” which won numerous awards at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Essentially, this is a Wi-Fi enabled, voice-controlled, iPhone app utilizing grill that employs numerous algorithms and pre-programmed recipes to do your cooking for you (or act as sous chef, should you prefer). It utilizes three separate infrared cooking zones so that multiple unrelated items (Think: “New York strip, prawns and radicchio”) can go on at the same time and, more importantly, be pulled off in concert so that everything is hot as it hits the table.
So go on and enjoy that second cocktail and throw on another album… your phone will text you when dinner is done.
