Commercial Gas Chargrills

A cast iron pan can give you the marks. It does not give you the flavour you get cooking over the bars, which comes close to a wood-fired barbeque and is the sort of taste customers come back for.

Steaks, vegetables charred to bring out the sweetness, a caramelised finish on a larger cut of meat — one grill covers a lot of the menu. There are freestanding models and benchtop models, so you can add one to the line you already have.

A barbeque restaurant, a food truck with high turnover or a catering company all have to cook at scale, so look at multiple burners, and decide whether the grill sits on a bench or stands on its own.

Cookrite and Fagor are both worth comparing, and either will handle meat and vegetables through a full service. For an outdoor grill, remember it still needs a fixed gas connection, and keep it undercover so it is out of the rain and the worst of the sun.

Yes, and a grill with multiple burners is what makes it easy. The grill is one piece, but each burner runs its own heat zone, so steak, chicken and seafood can be on at the same time at different settings without you running two grills. That also helps when you are cooking around dietary requirements.

For bulk cooking ahead of service, scrape the bars down and clear the drip tray between batches, then put the next lot on.

More than char. It can stand in for a gas cooktop for grilling, broiling and frying, which is worth knowing in a small kitchen where space on the line is tight. Some models also have a rapid sear setting for crisping the outside of a steak while the middle stays rare.

Steaks, ribs and kebabs are the obvious ones, but the menu goes well past meat. Seafood needs a gentler hand and still picks up the smoke. With adjustable heat and a large cooking surface you can char capsicum for your own harissa, put corn ribs on as a vegetarian option, or crisp up zucchini fritters. It works much like a frying pan or a griddle, with the flavour the bars give you on top.

When the covers are going up: a refit that brings more people in, more seats, or pickup orders on top of the dine-in trade. A chargrill cooks in bulk and at pace, and it gives you dishes you cannot do on the rest of the line. A venue with a beer garden or an outdoor area gets a seasonal menu out of one.

Caterers heading into the wedding and festive season get the same from a portable model — festivals, pop-ups and events, served fresh and made to order.

Once it is up to heat, yes. Multiple burners and adjustable settings let you hold one zone hot for searing and another lower for finishing, so plates come off together instead of one at a time, and nobody is waiting on the grill.

Cleaning down is quick too. Removable drip trays take the fat and the waste out without pulling the grill apart at the end of a shift.

If the kitchen is open to the room or behind glass, put the grill where customers can see it — it gives them something to watch. It needs proper ventilation either way, so size the exhaust canopy for the heat the grill puts out.

Outdoor cooking is an Australian favourite, but keep the grill out of the weather. If you want something made for outside that can be moved in at the end of the season, look at a charcoal grill instead: more smoke in the flavour, and no gas connection to arrange.