Why tabletop grilling
Tabletop grilling is a very inclusive experience, bringing friends and family closer together, where the fun starts with preparation, grilling and dining becomes the cherry on top of the cake. Awesome food and great conversation for hours on end. Our exclusive wooden hibachi elevates this experience with the use of charcoal, replicating a campfire ambiance in the comfort of your outdoor dining area.
There are no rules when it comes to what you can or cannot grill on our hibachi, likewise with pairing specific dipping/basting sauces with meat, fish or vegetables, the sky is the limit. The ultimate goal is to enjoy the flavors you have created, use them to inspire others and be inspired by the entire dining experience.
A few tips to elevate your hibachi grilling experience:-
Bite size pieces - When you prepare your meats, cut them in bite size pieces (about 1 1/4" (32mm) square and 1/2" (13mm) thick. This shortens the grilling time and eliminates the need to cut food at the table.
Fresh ingredients - To maximize flavor, texture and appearance, only use fresh ingredients. Unfrozen and bought on the day guarantees best results.
Seasonings - Premium fine salt and ground black pepper (recommended). A light sprinkle of both during the grilling process will enhance the natural flavors of all meats and vegetables. However, there are no rules, mix and match spices to meet your preferred flavor profile......and enjoy!
Dipping and basting sauces - This determines the ethnicity of the flavor profiles. An example of this is grilling a chicken wing, baste it with Tare sauce and you have traditional Japanese Yakitori. Baste it with your special buffalo wing sauce and you have traditional grilled American buffalo wing..........and both will taste great!
Hibachi Vs Shichirin
In many parts of the world including the USA, small tabletop grills are referred to as Hibachis, which surprisingly is incorrect.
Hibachi - The authentic Japanese hibachi can be traced back to around 700 AD, made out of hardwood and internally lined with ash or clay. It was not a grill or stove, its primary function was a room heater. Small amounts of charcoal were paced on top of the ash or clay to radiate heat in an effort to warm the room.
Back then houses were not well insulated and rather breezy, limiting the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Do not grill on charcoal indoors or in confined spaces (like a tent or camper), carbon monoxide poisoning can kill you!
As time progressed, examples can be found where water was boiled and small portions of food grilled or heated on the wooden hibachi. In the absence of efficient thermal technology, the wooden hibachi was obsoleted and replaced with clay or ceramic versions. Removing the wood component allowed these units to hold more coals, in turn radiating more heat. These units were ideal as a small single family stove, that became known as the Shichirin.
Shichirin - This was a very progressive and convenient step forward in Japanese culinary history. Until this development, all cooking was done outside in a communal kitchen where families shared large clay/ceramic stoves. Shichirin's were made from diatomite and ceramics which provided more insulation and thermal control.
As metal became more common and less expensive, some shichirin's were made of metal and lined with diatomite for insulation. This became a standard, still employed today by most modern commercial yakitori grill manufactures.
ORITSU technology
We were determined not only to resurrect the authentic hibachi made out of wood, but create a beautiful, exclusive piece of table art with unsurpassed quality, functionality and longevity. Our goal is to seamlessly blend 1000 year old technology with modern materials, whilst respectfully maintaining the rustic look and feel of the original hibachi.
GRAG - During our product test and approval process, diatomite (widely used by shichirin manufactures) did not meet the thermal or longevity standards we were looking for, this led to the development of GRAG. GRAG, an acronym we gave our proprietary formulation that is used to create a heat shield between the firepan and wood exterior. This safely protects our wooden table art from 1000F + charcoal temperatures. Coupled to this our proprietary design collimates heat vertically that radically increases the efficiency of our hibachi and in turn dramatically reduces the amount of charcoal required. Very little heat is waisted radiating out the sidewalls of the grill, great for safety with kids around plus providing a heat free grilling experience.
GRAG heat shield
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Forced Air Injection - At the base of our hibachi we have integrated long life (35 000 hour ON-time) air pumps that force ambient air into the grill. Pump "A" is user controlled and injects air directly into the coals instantaneously raising the temperature of the grill. This replaces the requirement to fan the coals as done with traditional yakitori, also prevents ash contamination of the food which is common with the fanning process.
Pump "B" injects air through the sidewalls of the grill that provides excellent cooling to the outer surface of our hibachi making it "touch-safe". This forced air exits vertically out the top of the hibachi, creating a 360 degree air-curtain that chimneys any smoke from grilling vertically and away from diners.
Silk Skin - Another proprietary product we developed inhouse. When applied to wood increases the thermal resistance, makes it totally waterproof, leaves the surface with a skin like texture and brings the wood grain to life. The combination of Silk Skin and GRAG, coupled with 304 stainless steel hardware used on all ORITSU GRILLS results in a totally heat safe, waterproof tabletop grilling solution.
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Charcoal
Our design and test phase took a little over two years, we built 53 prototypes and procured over 500lbs (230kg) of charcoal sourced from many different manufactures. We are by no means the "expert" when it comes to charcoal, but when it comes to which is the best charcoal to use in an ORITSU GRILL, we have a great wealth of experience.
Briquettes Lump Ogatan (Log) Binchotan
There are hundreds of formulations of charcoal out there, some are great, some are not. The best charcoal for our hibachi is one that maintains a constant high temperature for as long as possible with minimal flareups. We have found ogatan (log charcoal) best suited for the ORITSU GRILL, and highly recommend it in the stipulated quantities for each grill session. There are a wide variety of log charcoal brands available, we preferred sustainable brands made from fruit trees, coconut husks or bamboo. A single ORITSU GRILL only requires six pieces of log charcoal each measuring 4" - 5" long, combined weight +- 25 - 30oz (700 - 850g). This is the maximum recommended amount of log charcoal that will provide over two hours of grill time.
Binchotan - Clearly the creme de la creme of charcoal. Binchotan is widely used by Yakitori chefs globally. Its noted for its clean burn, high heat, prolonged burn time and unique glass like sound when tapped together. Japanese binchotan is made from Holm oak, its extremely dense and as such difficult to light. Typically binchotan costs approximately double that of good ogatan (log charcoal).
Log charcoal is difficult to light - Yes, good log charcoal is difficult to light, and it should be. Unlike briquettes that are molded, good log charcoal is extruded under very high pressures which increases its density and ultimately burn time. Charcoal that ignites easily typically burns out quickly, not what you want for tabletop grilling. We recommend you use a BBQ chimney but do not use lighter fluid, most other ignition methods will suffice. Log charcoal is completely gray on the exterior when lit.
Log charcoal is reusable - The burn time on good log charcoal can exceed eight hours. If you complete your awesome dining experience with large coals left, we recommend you extinguish the coals and reuse them another day. There are many videos on "how to safely extinguish charcoal for reuse" on YouTube for reference.
Smokeless grilling - All of the log charcoal we tested did not expel smoke once lit, so technically the ORITSU GRILL is smokeless...........but that's not all the truth. Charcoal has a high surface temperature, as does a gas grill or even a frying pan on an electric stove. If oil comes in contact with any of these surfaces, smoke is created, the more oil, the more smoke, simple. The Masters of Japanese grill cuisine will tell you that smoke is one of the key elements to achieving perfection in the craft, it substantially elevates the flavor profiles. To minimize smoke, don't over oil ingredients, if basting, lightly baste and try not to drip basting sauce on the coals.
