I like to cook, and while I don’t fancy myself a chef of haute cuisine, I’m pretty comfortable in the kitchen, and have a reputation for delivering simple, fully flavored, multi-course meals. I’ve spent the last three years mastering my selection, preparation, seasoning, marinating , grilling, sautéing, braising, and roasting techniques. I can make magic with puff pastry and engineer deserts that will make you cry with as few as three (puff pastry, a peach, vanilla ice cream) or four (butter, brown sugar, amaretto, banana) ingredients Cooking dinner for a friend of the female persuasion, while chatting and sharing a glass of wine is (to me, at least) one of the most romantic ways to spend an evening. (Including a dessert course of something rich and chocolaty, and a recently released DVD watched with the lights down low, slumped on a comfortable couch). While dinner on a boat never seemed to have the same level of romanticism, I believed it had the potential to be. Unfortunately, the boats I have owned prior to this particular one were not equipped in one way or the other to pull off the romantic dinner evening with aplomb. And, much to my chagrin, even this most recent acquisition was missing something. Most boats in this size range are equipped with stoves, but not ovens. I have seen several variations of cooktop, including pressurized and non-pressurized alcohol, propane, bottled butane, and electric. AGK came with a Kenyon pressurized alcohol stove (which, honestly, I didn't trust). Most captains who plan on serving meals aboard also install one of the several alternatives of stainless steel grills, mounted externally on the cockpit railing and heated via charcoal or bottled propane (Or are those small bottles of butane?). Magna and Force 10 products come to mind, and West Marine has recently re-badged one of them into it's own branded product line. But, generally speaking, the larger the boat, the more capable the galley it contains. Since I think of myself as a man of simple tastes, I wanted to find a simple solution to my dinner-aboard problem. Coincidentally, one Friday evening while flipping through the cable channels looking for the encore showing of the previous week's Over There (FX is the cat's pajamas), I clicked into the Home Shopping Network. The show was being hosted by Wolfgang Puck of Spago fame, and he was demonstrating several products with his branding on them. The one that caught my eye was the Bistro Dual Sided Electric Grill. It had several features I liked, especially the one that allows you to stick the messy grill in the dishwasher to clean it. Since it was electric, I could use it on the boat when I was connected to shore power. Besides, they were on sale for $69, plus $14 in shipping. (Two burner non-pressurized alchohol marine stoves start at around $350, before installation, and go up from there). I ordered two of them. One for the boat, and one for the house. As you can see by the series of included pictures, I removed the gimbled Kenyon pressurized alcohol stove and inserted in lieu thereof the Wolfgang Puck grill now solidly mounted on a piece of varnished marine plywood. I had the opportunity to try it over the weekend, grilling a steak and some vegtables without any difficulty at all. The aroma of the cooking marinade, grilling onions, and garlic powdered tomatoes attracted some inquisitive boat-mates as it wafted over the marina. It was easy to clean with a quick spray of dishwashing liquid and a hose down. The following morning, I flipped the grill top over and boiled some water in a pot to make coffee, along with some pancakes and turkey bacon. The water was perfectly boiled in about five minutes. The pancakes were light and tasty. I made soup, the same way, for lunch. All done without the paranoia associated with the evil hissing of the pressurized alcohol stove. (It will be relegated to an eBay auction sometime this week.) My only regret came when I tried to make some Jiffy Pop. It didn't get hot enough to steam open more than a handful of kernels. Now all I need is a willing dinner date who doesn't like popcorn with her movies. (Right. I forgot to mention the flat-LCD, bulkhead mounted DVD player.) vlog vlogging video quicktime wmv mov mpeg sailing stove kenyon pressurized alchohol wolfgang puck bistro grill cooking grilling PLEASE NOTE: There are a few moments worth of buffering before the video starts. To play the video, click on the START ( ) button on the control bar above. Requires Windows Media Player for the PC or Mac, and a cable, DSL, or LAN. If the video doesn’t play when you click the START button, you may need to download Windows Media Player for your computer at: Windows Media Player Download Center
