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The Otto Wilde OFB grill, hot and ready. Hollis Johnson/Business Insider The $1,000 Otto Wilde Grill is my new favorite cooking appliance. I’ve used it to sear steak, blackened calamari, grilled vegetables, whole-fried fish, and make pizza.
It’s a simple, yet powerful overhead broiler that nears 1,500 degrees F, right in your backyard. Otto Wilde The Otto Grill$999. 95 FROM WILLIAMS SONOMAOtto Wilde’s Grill, or Over-Fired Broiler (OFB) is a consumer-sized, restaurant-grade overhead grill (also known as a “sally” or salamander grill, finishing grill, or hotel grill) that gets up to a scorching 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
It’s mainly designed for cooking and finishing steak, which is why it’s one of the only grills ever to earn an endorsement from legendary meat man Pat LaFrieda, who provides meat to some of the finest restaurants and steakhouses in the U. S. If you’ve spent any time in the restaurant industry, you know exactly what a sally is, and exactly what it does.
But if you don’t have the slightest clue, it’s a highly simple, yet powerful appliance that approaches infernal temperatures, right in the comfort of your own backyard (or very well-ventilated kitchen). Yes, the $1,000 price is shocking, but let’s get that out of the way, right out front. How much are you willing to spend on a propane grill for your backyard? And do you have any interest in owning a pizza oven, at least someday? An average propane grill is going to run you at least a few hundred dollars, and a pizza oven will easily set you back $800 to start (though the sky’s the limit with both).
Between a fairly inexpensive grill and a bottom-of-the-line pizza oven, you’re already at the price of this Over-Fired Broiler. I spent a winter sampling the fruits of Pat LaFrieda’s signature Otto Wilde OFB Grill after LaFrieda himself gave me the rundown outside of his sandwich shop at The Pennsy Food Hall at Pennsylvania Plaza. Why Pat LaFrieda endorsed the Otto Wilde grillPat LaFriedaHollis Johnson/InsiderWhen Otto Wilde first approached meat purveyor Pat LaFrieda, his immediate reaction, he told me, was something along the lines of “Oh no, not another grill pitch.
” And, frankly, when I received a similar presentation from the brand, I thought the same: ‘I’m not paying $1,000 for that tiny little oven, and neither would anyone with any good sense. ‘But when you witness how unbelievably hot this grill gets, your mind (or at least mine) gets to conjuring up imagery of crispy T-bones, crackly salmon skin, and perfectly blackened calamari steaks, along with other delightfully crunchy textures you once deemed unachievable at home. Yes, whether we realize it or not, the salamander grill is often the very reason many of us dine out when we want a steak.
Achieving 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit is difficult without a restaurant-grade grill (or an incinerator), and while it may be unnecessary for most culinary adventures, this is, definitively, a meat eater’s grill. If you’re looking to get the best possible sear on your steak, you can’t really do much better. It does excel elsewhere, but more on that later.
Setup, cleaning, and maintenanceAny grill meister worth their weight in ribeyes knows that the trick a healthy (yes, that’s a relative term) crust is a generous seasoning with salt. Hollis Johnson/InsiderThe age-old salamander or overhead grill (or broiler) — possibly named after old folklore around dragons and lizards wielding fire, but who knows — is the very reason your steak crust and fish skin seem so impossibly crispy when you dine out. And at last, 1,500-degree Fahrenheit heat is safely available to the home cook at a (relatively) affordable price.
Yes, there have been other iterations of the consumer-scaled salamander (or “sally”, for short), but everything I’ve found has either been too small or too expensive (I’m talking over $2,000). The Otto Wilde OFB grill comes more or less assembled, which you may take for an exceptional luxury if you’ve ever had to assemble a large propane grill before. Just make sure you find the small brass adapter piece as you’re unboxing.
You’ll need this to attach the hose for your propane tank. Otherwise, all you really have to do is place the top unit on top (no fastening required) and slide in the cast iron grate (the company also offers a stainless steel grate, if you prefer)Preheating the Otto Wilde takes all of three minutes. Reminder: This thing gets up to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, which is most certainly a temperature that no part of the human body should ever encounter.
Go ahead and try this at home, but keep the kids and pets away, and don’t leave it unattended. One of my favorite things about this grill is the drip tray, which not only helps keep your food from drying out (just like a smoker) but also makes cleanup a cinch. Just let the grill cool down and pull the tray out to wash it (it’s dishwasher safe).
Grilling processConsider practicing on some cheap steaks first, and have a backup plan to stew or otherwise salvage torched meat. Hollis Johnson/InsiderThis is a delicate balance. First, preheat your grill for about five minutes; it doesn’t take long and it’s worth the wait.
The key, as with any grilling endeavor, is not to torch whatever you’re cooking. Different cuts of meat (or any other type of food) are going to respond to different temperatures and their proximity to the flames above. The good thing about the heat that the Otto Wilde OFB puts out is that it’s infrared, so you don’t have out-of-control flames blaring, nor do you have much likelihood of a grease fire.
Most importantly, though: This is a thrilling piece of equipment to use. Play around and have fun. Adjusting the grate heightBehold the “Meat-O-Meter”Hollis Johnson/InsiderWith the “Meat-O-Meter,” you can raise and lower the grate height respective of whatever it is you’re cooking.
It’s self-explanatory but useful. There’s also a clamp so you can adjust it and/or secure it more easily depending on how much weight you’ve placed on the grate. The resultsThis photo was taken several months ago, but I can still taste this hock in all its crispy, crunchy, yet supple-in-the-middle glory.
Hollis Johnson/InsiderLove or hate the tomahawk steak, you can’t deny that this is a thing of beauty. While the Otto Wilde will handle a lean cut like a filet, it prefers something with a formidable fat content, like a ribeye, or this tomahawk steak. That’s how you get an evenly sealed, crispy, golden crust like you see above.
Heaven is a place. . .
Perfection, incarnate. Hollis Johnson/InsiderSure, you can do alright with any old cast iron and a good gas stove with a finish in the oven at 450 degrees, but you will never quite get this. Filet mignon, post-fireThe Otto Wilde OFB prefers a fattier cut than a filet, which still came out wonderfully, but didn’t necessarily require the high heat for which the grill is prized.
Hollis Johnson/InsiderThe filets were markedly drier than the fattier tomahawk steaks, at least on the outside. That’s due to the lower fat content, as the filet mignon is almost pure muscle. Still, they held up on the inside (see next slide).
One trick I’ve found for keeping the juice on the inside is preheating a cast iron pan or skillet beforehand and then cooking the filet in that, which keeps what little precious fat in the cut from ending up in the drip tray. Sliced filet mignonEvenly cooked and full of flavor, but a little less golden brown than the tomahawk. Hollis Johnson/InsiderThere’s a lot more of a gray area between the crust and the core on this filet, and none of the golden-brown caramelization that happens with fattier cuts.
All in all, I’d be a fool to say that I wasn’t pleased with this deftly cooked and presented banquet, but one could argue that you might achieve the same results with a skillet on a stove. Also, a burger for the agesLike any good overhead grill, the Otto Wilde OFB is a one-stop-shop for anything and everything in the wonderful wide world of grilling. Hollis Johnson/InsiderIf you like your burgers as rare as you can get them, this is your grill, too.
And unlike with a filet, it will far outdo any stovetop or grill. Salivate away, fellow meat loversIt would be a fool’s errand to attempt to describe the rhapsody in the pleasure that was this (extremely short-lived) cheeseburger. Hollis Johnson/InsiderWe all know the man, the myth, and the legend that is Pat LaFrieda.
This is exactly where he, his meat, his artistic vision, and yes, his signature grill, shine. Did I mention that it cooks more than meat?This is my Otto Wilde OFB after about six months in my backyard through spring and winter’s worst, and it’s still chugging along seamlessly. Suffice it to say that as long as there’s room for an Otto Wilde Grill in my life, I’m never ordering pizza again.
Owen Burke/InsiderYou can cook or finish just about anything on the Otto Wilde OFB. One of our favorite things to cook on it, though, has to be pizza. This one, made from scratch at the masterful hands of my dear roommate, was done in 40 seconds flat.
We may have rushed our pizzas a little at the start though. After a bit of trial and (only mild) error, I’d recommend turning the grill down to about two-thirds to one-half of its full power and a Neopolitan-style pizza will be done within two minutes, tops. There’s almost nothing you can’t do with this grill and a cast iron panGrilled vegetables, fish, whatever: This grill can handle it all.
Owen Burke/InsiderI’ve been placing the cast iron in the Otto Grill thinking that it might dry out or fall apart, but anything you’d like to grill at high heat that might pose such problems (think whole fried fish, vegetables) will thrive in a cast iron in this grill. Whether or not it was in mind during the research and design phase, this grill was made for whole panfish like snapper and porgy, and I can’t wait for fishing season to hone my fish-grilling and -frying expertise with my favorite new backyard toy. But, of course, I had to try cooking steak, tooComparison is essential.
And, no, this doesn’t hold a candle to what I experienced with LaFrieda himself, but it’s not half bad for an amateur like myself. Owen Burke/InsiderOf course, I couldn’t leave out the steak. I don’t eat a lot of red meat, but I had a burning question to answer for myself if no one else: What would happen if I tried to emulate what LaFrieda and Chef Brandon Bryan of the Carlyle hotel did outside the Pennsy without any direction in my backyard? Everything Chef Bryan cooked was superb; how would my amateur skills and sub-par meat stack up? I still need some practice, but everything turned out more than alright, and certainly better than my average stovetop sirloin in a cast iron.
The verdict? Empty plates tell no lies. I could hardly get a photo before my guests made short work of the plate. Yes, it was getting late and those hungry hounds would have eaten my spindly fingers if they’d hit the table, too, but forgive my humble bragging and just look at that crust.
Did I mention I really don’t know how to cook a steak? Like, at all? My mother, I might add, still won’t leave me alone near a grill with a steak, as I’m sure to do this and that wrong. And I don’t blame her; steak isn’t cheap. But watch and weep, Mother dearest: It is so astoundingly easy to produce an exceptional steak in this bad boy that even your little bundle of joy can pull it off.
The bottom lineTwo prime Pat LaFrieda burgers up, and two more under fire. Hollis Johnson/InsiderI’ll admit that $1,200 is a hell of a lot of money for a grill, or, like, anything. But if you or a very lucky and beloved someone is a grilling enthusiast, the Otto Wilde OFB is the one-stop-shop for the backyard, and maybe your whole household.
You could, in theory, set this thing up inside, but you’d need a commercial-grade range hood to handle the smoke and grease that comes off of it. Short of a full-sized commercial overhead broiler, there’s nothing that comes anywhere close for grilling or pan-frying at high heat. The other big selling point for me is that if you’re also in the market for a pizza stove, which can be just as expensive but gets nowhere near as hot, the Otto Wilde has you covered on that front, too.
Lastly, if you’ve been using charcoal or propane grills for any significant period of time, there’s a good chance that they’ve only lasted you a few years on end. That $200-300 adds up over the course of a decade. You’ll get a lot more use out of an Otto Wilde, which comes with a two-year warranty on all parts, and it will all likely pay for itself in time.
Buy the weatherproof cover (and use it), clean it regularly, or not (mine has suffered a whole winter without a cover or a cleaning), and the Otto Wilde OFB will serve you plenty well and long. Pros: 1,500-degree-Fahrenheit heat, cooks anything and everything, easy to light, clean, and maintainCons: Price, would be nice if a larger model were available for those who want itOtto Wilde The Otto Grill$999. 95 FROM WILLIAMS SONOMAOtto Wilde Stainless Steel Grill Grate$68.
00 FROM OTTO WILDEOtto Wilde Grill Cover$58. 00 FROM OTTO WILDERead the original article on Insider.
From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/guides/kitchen/otto-wilde-ofb-grill-broiler-review-pat-la-frieda
