Today at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show, Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet introduced its new Gaucho Grill. Making authentic Argentinian/Santa Maria-style outdoor cooking easier, the grill features a gas-powered starter burner to light a wood or charcoal fire. Its cooking-surface cradle carries interchangeable grates cut specifically for meat, fish or vegetables. The cradle also houses a rotisserie; a Deep Hopper funnel under the burner moves ash away and creates a chimney effect for better heat flow.

Combined, these features turn the Argentinian/Santa Maria grilling on its head. Argentinian- or Santa Maria-style grilling is a traditional and pure way to cook outdoors. It regulates temperatures by raising or lowering a cooking surface over the flames of wood or charcoal fire.

"It's almost as if we can't help ourselves. We see a perfectly good grill style and we are compelled to make changes to it," said Russ Faulk, vice president of Design for Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet. "It's just in our DNA to question everything and then make something that works better than the original design. We think we accomplished that with the Gaucho Grill."

Kalamazoo's Gaucho burner makes starting a cooking fire easier. Just pile wood or charcoal onto the fuel grates, light the burner and come back as the fire is roaring. There's no longer a need to use kindling or chimney starters.

The Gaucho breaks another design rule. Its Deep Hopper funnel under the fuel grates and burner eliminates the need to shovel ash out of a traditional fire pan. As wood or charcoal burns, its debris falls through the grates, past the burner, down the funnel and into a sturdy clean-out bin. Shielding over the burner prevents clogging from falling ash.

The most noticeable feature of the Gaucho is its massive 36-in. spoked stainless-steel wheel. Supported on a 30-in.-tall bridge, the wheel raises and lowers the cooking-surface cradle. For high temperature searing, place the cooking surfaces level with the grill frame. Raise the cradle up to 18 in. above the fire for slow, low-temperature cooking.

Converting the Gaucho to rotisserie cooking is easy. Just remove the cooking surfaces and insert the roasting spit into a built-in motor.

The grill's interchangeable cooking surfaces are laser cut from quarter-inch slabs of stainless steel. The vegetable grate has openings small enough to prevent green beans from falling through and into the fire. The fish surface, with thin half-moon openings, is designed to prevent drying out, breaking up and flaking.

Hand built at the time of order in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the Gaucho Grill is available in two freestanding models and a built-in version. Pricing ranges from $17,495 to $21,195. The grill will be available to order in late May. It can be purchased through the website, select dealerships and certified design professionals.

Barbeques Galore, the nation's leading specialty retailer of outdoor living products, has announced the appointment of Henrik Stepanyan to the position of chief executive officer. He has been with the company for six years, the previous four as chief operating officer for the Ontario, California-based retailer.

Founded in 1980, Barbeques Galore has grown into the nation's largest specialty retail chain of outdoor living products, including barbecue grills and accessories, fireside and heating products, and dining and lounge furniture.  

Parent company Grand Hall manufactures some of the most well-known barbecues in the industry, including the Turbo line of grills. In addition, the retailer carries brands such as Weber, Big Green Egg, Fire Magic, Lynx and Twin Eagles.

Barbeques Galore has 20 company-owned stores, one franchise location, and several authorized dealers located in California, Arizona, Texas, Georgia and Florida.

Michael Mettendorf.

Homecrest Outdoor Living has hired Michael Mettendorf as vice president of Global Sales, effective immediately.

He has over 25 years experience in consumer products sales, and almost 10 years in the casual furniture industry. From 2005-2012, he was the general manager/VP-Sales and Marketing for New River Casual Furniture, starting and building their North American operations.

In addition, he has been in senior sales and marketing leadership roles with Terra Flame Home, Surya, Fox River Mills, Daka Designs and Sara Lee Corporation.

His leadership style and insights in understanding the casual furniture retail sales floor is coupled with a strong passion to contribute to making Homecrest, its sales representatives and valued dealers even more successful. He will play a pivotal role in leading the sales team, helping to define market direction and guiding new innovative furniture collections and continued sales growth in the months ahead.

Mettendorf originally hails from Kaiserslautern, Germany, has lived in many parts of the United States, attended Tennessee Temple University, and now resides with his family in Ooltewah, near Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Call Kelly McComb at (701) 280-5886 (direct) or visit the website.

Innovative Hearth Products (IHP), the manufacturer of Lennox Hearth Products and FMI Products, has issued a public statement about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) new standards for wood heaters. Known as the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), the proposed rule's goal is to reduce air emissions that endanger public health or welfare.

Mark Klein, president and CEO of IHP, said that the company welcomes efforts by the EPA to update standards for the hearth industry that encourage cleaner products for the environment. However, IHP has concerns that the proposed wood heater standards would substantially increase the price of hearth appliances for customers without proof of real-world, clean-air benefits. IHP recently participated in EPA hearings held Feb. 26, 2014, in Boston, to voice these concerns.   

"In spite of its best intentions, the EPA proposes particulate emission limits that are not cost effectively achievable for hearth manufacturers in light of new changes to proposed testing methods," says Klein. The changes will require unjustifiable increases in product costs that the market might not be able to bear. As a result, it will threaten jobs and burden consumers with unnecessary costs for products.

Making products that were already certified by an earlier EPA rule cleaner-burning will not appreciably impact wood smoke pollution. Increased incentives to change-out older, dirtier-burning products that pre-date the earlier EPA rule, or redirecting efforts to impose similar regulation on wood-burning fireplaces not currently under consideration for regulation, would have greater impact.  

"There are millions of standard wood-burning fireplaces that could be economically modified with devices that significantly diminish the particulate emissions," says Klein. This technology exists today and offers a greater reduction of wood smoke pollution with substantially less economic impact. The same technology is also available for wood boilers that produce elevated amounts of wood smoke.

IHP encourages the EPA to look at this more attractive benefit with lower cost, compared to the overreaching burden the rule will place on manufacturers and consumers. The negative impact it will have on affordable wood-burning stoves and inserts will prevent consumers from using them as a heating option and potentially damage many small fireplace and stove companies.

"To be clear, our industry does not oppose new emission standards," says Klein. "There are portions of the proposed standards that we can support. We want to make sure that some of these future standards produce a real clean-air benefit that consumers can afford."