Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet Press Release

Background – Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet™

Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet™ is at the forefront of the outdoor living trend that is transforming America’s backyard into the newest room of the house.  Heck, this company started cooking up food on an outdoor grill a century ago.  Looking back, you could call it visionary, and that still would be apt today.  Steeped in history and innovation, Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet is leading the way with products that define the contemporary outdoor lifestyle.

They built their first outdoor grill in 1906.  At the time the company was a custom sheet metal fabricator in Kalamazoo, Michigan, prosaically called Kalamazoo Sheet Metal, which did a lot of work for another Kalamazoo company called Upjohn Pharmaceutical, now a part of Pfizer.  Dr. W.E. Upjohn, its namesake founder, wanted to cook outdoors, so Lewis Bullard, an inventor and the founder of Kalamazoo Sheet Metal, fashioned a working grill out of heavy gauge metal. Word spread around town of this unique contraption, and it worked so well that soon the company was building grills for other residents of Kalamazoo. 

So, this town immortalized in song, though not for grilling, could very well be the birthplace of modern grilling.  Long before any southerner bottled a family’s secret sauce, people up north were searing meats over an outdoor grill. 

Eventually the company went back to its core business and the plans for those grills were filed away.  In 1998, Geoffrey Bullard, the great-grandson of the founder of Kalamazoo Sheet Metal discovered those plans.  It seemed like an ideal time to take a fresh and serious look at great-grandpa’s original idea, what with the market for outdoor grills exploding.  And so, the modern day Kalamazoo grill was born. 

In the eight years since resurrecting grill production, the brand has become a must-have for anyone contemplating trading up to a performance grill or about to create a backyard kitchen. 

Hailed by barbeque aficionados and epicureans alike for unrivalled firepower, unequalled control and incredible versatility, the grills built by Kalamazoo provide cooking results and possibilities that surpass an indoor kitchen.  Such are the culinary results—one can grill, sear, smoke, rotisserie, roast, bake and boil—it’s no wonder cooking on one of these grills is such a joy.  Calling it a “grill” is a bit of a misnomer, but nomenclature aside, this is a food lover’s grill and it’s engineered to produce gourmet meals outdoors, no matter whether the chef is novice or professional.

Fitting then that the company would change its name to Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet in 2005.  Adding gourmet to the title is even more fitting when you realize these grills harness as much as 176,000 BTUs of power, yet keep vegetables in tact and meats succulent.  There are those who cook on a Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet grill that say they never want to cook indoors again.  Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night can keep many dedicated customers from their grills year round.

The foundation of the company’s reputation is a constant stream of innovations that have advanced the art of outdoor cooking.  Kalamazoo is undoubtedly best known for pioneering hybrid dual-fuel grills, which allow for the convenient cooking with gas, charcoal and wood, all in the same grill.

This breakthrough settles the debate between purists and convenience seekers, providing the flavor of wood with the handiness of gas.  Other innovations include a unique cast stainless bowtie-shaped burner called The Dragon Burner; a grilling surface laser cut with patterns optimized for meat, fish and vegetables and a deep hopper design engineered to improve heat dynamics and eliminate the hassles of clean-up.  Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet was also the first to integrate a southern-style smoker box into a high-performance gas grill. 

Each Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet grill is handcrafted to the customer’s specifications.  So fervent were its customers that in 2005, 90% of the company’s sales were direct.  Grills were purchased sight unseen.  Outdoor living retailers have sought to showcase the brand to meet the demand for high performance grills and now account for a larger percentage of Kalamazoo’s sales. Whether a customer is helped by a high-service dealer or a representative situated at the company’s headquarters, the grill of their dreams is ready to be shipped in about a week.

The name change back in 2005 also opened the door for the company to envision items for other aspects of a gourmet lifestyle; including the enjoyment of wine and beverage.  The company just launched the Custom Outdoor Kitchen Collection; with unique cooking equipment including a lobster boil pit and wok burners, weather-tight stainless steel cabinetry and outdoor appliances – from refrigerators, freezers, ice makers and wine cellars to keg tappers with two or even three taps.  The collection is a one-stop source for creating the ultimate outdoor kitchen and has the same uncompromising quality and detail of its grills. Kalamazoo’s experts will work with homeowners, professional designers and landscape architects to develop a freestanding outdoor kitchen or incorporate appliance and cabinet components into masonry, stucco, wood or other materials.

The folks at Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet know that Americans are doing far more than gathering around a barbecue; people are relaxing and entertaining in exterior spaces decorated with all the care and style of interiors.  Clearly, the company isn’t only meeting the needs of this trend, but rather helping to invent the outdoor lifestyle.  Thanks to inspired products like a martini bar and artisan pizza oven, two more indications that Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet is much more than a grill company, Americans are cooking and entertaining in ways they never could before.

Much as the company did with that first grill way back when, then again with a totally new type of grill, the hybrid dual-fuel, at the close of the last century, Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet seems to revel in conjuring up ways to enjoy life outside.  No doubt, its reputation as the leader in outdoor cooking and entertaining will be stoked with the new product being previewed at the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in May. Come on out back and enjoy what they come up with next.

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Media Contact:
Elizabeth D. Cooley
Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet
Phone: 312-423-8714
E-Mail: ecooley@kalamazoogourmet.com