Article on the Egg --
Put all your grilling in one Big Green Egg
By Jonathan Levitt, Globe Correspondent
May 23, 2007
Americans tend to splurge on big powerful things: 400 horsepower pickups for getting around; 15,000 BTU burners for the kitchen; and for the backyard, the Big Green Egg.
Ovate in shape, and British racing green in color, the egg is an enameled ceramic grill/oven/smoker that is heavy (the large model weighs 140 pounds) and expensive (it costs about $900). Fueled by hardwood charcoal, the egg can slow- cook a beef brisket for 18 hours, sear rib - eye steaks over hot fruit wood flames, or blaze up to 750 degrees to bake thin-crust pizza in two minutes. Devotees of the grill -- it has a cult following -- refer to themselves as Eggers or Eggheads. They share cooking tips in online chat rooms and gather for the annual EggFest in Waldorf, Md.
The Big Green Egg factory opened in Atlanta in 1974. Now the grills are made in Mexico, the design loosely based on the ancient Japanese Kamado cookers. Ceramic walls retain and radiate heat. "It cooks like an oven, but then you have the smoky flavor, too," says Frank Monzione, a 64-year-old salesman at Yankee Fireplace & Grill City in Middleton. Of course Monzione has a large Big Green Egg on his back patio in Revere. "In the summer I cook on my egg just about every day," he says. "I even roasted my first turkey out there." The eggs come in several sizes, ranging from the "mini" at $300 (large enough for three or four hamburgers) to the extra-large at $900, and there are a variety of accessories, including wood stand s or "nest s," some with shelves.
At Kirley Masonry Supply in Mansfield, owners Jefferson and Eric Strom, who are brothers, sell a few Big Green Eggs a day in the summer. "Once people figure out what it's all about they become fanatical about it," says Jefferson. Both agree that while there are many kamado-style cookers on the market -- even Viking came out with a stainless steel "Charcoal Ceramic Cooking Capsule," recently -- none have the broad appeal of the Big Green Egg.
Monzione says that a lot of his customers have high-end stainless steel outdoor kitchens with high BTU gas grills. But they can't provide what the Big Green Egg can: the taste of food cooked over wood. "They come in looking for charcoal cookers because they want that wood flavor."
That wood flavor is essential to good barbecue. Chris Hart, a 38-year-old competitive barbecue champion and software designer from Hopkinton, cooks on a Big Green Egg with his pit crew. He won his first egg at last year's Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbecue contest in Tennessee. The iQue team was one of six squads chosen at random to cook on the eggs in an Iron-Chef-style contest. Cornish game hens were the mystery ingredient. Team iQue roasted the bacon-wrapped breasts, barbecued the legs, and made a white chocolate chip cake with bananas Foster for dessert.
"Cooking on the egg was like going from driving a normal car to driving a Ferrari," says Hart. "Right away we bought another egg for the team and commissioned a hand-carved wooden handle with the iQue logo. We've been cooking on it ever since."
Hart keeps the egg he won on his back porch. "It's my go-to grill," he says. "Even my wife is pleased. She was sick of all my greasy iron barbecue rigs. But she likes the look of the egg."
