Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet Press Release

About Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet™

Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet™ is founded on a passion for outdoor cooking and a heritage of superior sheet metal expertise that goes back more than 100 years. Our exclusive focus on outdoor cooking and entertaining allows us to deliver beautiful and functional outdoor kitchens that consistently set the standard for quality, performance and innovation. Every Kalamazoo product is custom-engineered from the ground up to perform outdoors, and hand-crafted from the highest quality materials and components to last a lifetime in any environment. Our product line provides all the components for homeowners and designers to create the outdoor kitchen of their dreams — from the best grills to professional outdoor refrigeration to weather-tight cabinets. Thoughtful features abound, such as hassle-free grill cleaning, customizable grill cooking surfaces, and flexible slot systems inside cabinet doors for utensils, waste bins and sauce racks, making every Kalamazoo kitchen a joy to use year after year.

A heritage of innovation

Our heritage of superior design and craftsmanship dates back to 1906. The original company, Kalamazoo Sheet Metal, was an innovative, family-run business known for inventing a range of products including "The Mighty Kalamazoo," the first successful slot machine, the first folding daybed, and one of the first adjustable wrenches. The company also was a highly successful fabricator of custom equipment for the dairy and pharmaceutical industries. These two businesses share the most stringent sanitary standards for equipment, which dictate the finest welding and finishing in any industry. A welder or finisher who fabricates "dairy standard" equipment is viewed in the sheet metal trade as a highly skilled and valued artisan.

Leveraging the talents of these expert craftsmen, Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet has provided the most innovative and highest performing outdoor grilling and entertainment products available for decades. Kalamazoo’s reputation was first established with superior, hand-crafted stainless steel grills. Most notably, in the 1990s, Kalamazoo launched the first hybrid grill which combined the flavor and cooking experience of a real charcoal or wood fire with the always-at-the-ready convenience of a gas grill. This innovative design remains exclusive to the company even today and is coveted by avid grillers and leading chefs across the country. Chef Rick Bayless is one of these notable Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet aficionados, effusing, "The feature that really puts Kalamazoo over the top is that you can easily switch between gas and charcoal or wood. It’s as simple as opening the drawer!"

However, the innovative design and superior performance of every Kalamazoo grill goes far beyond hybrid grilling capabilities and includes:

• The Dragon Burner™ — our exclusive cast stainless steel bowtie-shaped burners that deliver more even and controllable heat and are warranted for life
• Custom laser-cut grilling surfaces with patterns optimized for meat, fish and vegetables
• Our exclusive deep-hopper design, which is engineered to optimize heat dynamics, deliver the best indirect cooking performance, eliminate 95% of flare-ups, and make clean-up easier
• An accessory slot system that allows cooks to further customize their grills with sauce racks, wine buckets, waste receptacles and more
• The only high-performance gas grills to offer an offset, Southern-style smoker box for true American barbecue
• The only built-in grills that include their own cabinets as standard equipment

Leadership in custom outdoor kitchens

Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet’s full range of outdoor kitchen components is founded on the same commitment to innovation, uncompromising quality, design and performance. And, every Kalamazoo kitchen is built-to-order, enabling an unrivaled level of design flexibility and customization. Only Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet kitchens offer:

• A wide range of cooking equipment which includes not only its distinctive grills, but also lobster boiler pits, wok burners and even a countertop stainless steel pizza oven that delivers superior performance to a Tuscan wood burning pizza oven
• Weather-tight cabinets with top quality professional stainless steel construction inside and out — from the doors and drawers to every pull, hinge and slide
• Customizable cabinet systems that serve the needs of every cook — glide out cabinet bottoms for easy access to heavy items, under-counter cutting board trays, pull out spice racks, slot systems inside doors for utensil hooks, waste bins, sauce racks        and more
• Energy Star® qualified outdoor refrigerators and refrigerated drawers that are the only undercounter refrigerators rated for food storage. The full line, built in partnership with Perlick, includes refrigerators, freezers, clear ice makers, wine chillers and keg tappers, which are proven to perform even in ambient temperatures of 110°F.
• Ventilation hood designed specifically for Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet’s largest and most powerful hybrid grill when cooking with a strong wood fire and/or gas

Whether you dream of an outdoor kitchen with all the amenities or simply want the ultimate grill for your patio, Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet offers unparalleled options to build the kitchen of your dreams.

We’re very proud of the fact that top chefs, industry experts and respected media such as The New York Times, Forbes Life and Food & Wine have consistently singled out Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet for our exceptional line of products.

"Delivers the kind of performance I normally find only in restaurant kitchens."
— Chef Michael Chiarello

"The biggest, meanest, off-the-charts grills in the land."
— Barbecue Authority Steven Raichlen

Experts dedicated to making every project a success

Our focus on delivering the best to every customer goes far beyond our superior equipment. We work closely with our customers to ensure that every project is a success. Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet kitchen consultants assist homeowners and their chosen design professionals at every step — from understanding needs to component selection to kitchen layout to the engineered drawings that help installations run smoothly. We pioneered the outdoor kitchen, and our experts are available to answer any questions during design, installation and beyond to ensure a lifetime of exceptional outdoor cooking and entertaining.

With its 100-year heritage of superior craftsmanship and exclusive focus on the outdoors, Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet’s hand-crafted grills and kitchens, produced in Kalamazoo, Michigan, continue to set the standard for design, quality, performance and innovation. Our outdoor experts and experienced craftsman look forward to helping you shape the kitchen of your dreams. With Kalamazoo, it is all about enjoying the best of the outdoors.

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Media Contact:
Chris Mordi
Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet
Phone: 312-423-8714
E-Mail: cmordi@kalamazoogourmet.com