Arteflame Grills & Smokers

An Arteflame is a solid half-inch carbon steel cooktop ring around an open central fire — a griddle and a fire pit in one, with no lid and no dampers. Heat is controlled by where food sits on the ring: the inner edge sears past 1,000°F, the outer edge holds finished food warm. The base is Corten weathering steel, which is meant to rust to a stable patina and then stop, so it is designed to live outdoors uncovered.

The smallest Arteflame: a 20-inch round CORTEN steel cooktop with an open centre grate over the fire and a flat plancha surface ringing it. You sear over the centre at 1,000°F-plus, then move the meat outward onto the griddle ring to finish, where the temperature falls off with distance from the fire. It is the same one-piece weathering-steel construction and the same cooking geometry as the Classic 40 the catalog already carries, at roughly a third of the price and a quarter of the footprint.

The middle Arteflame: a 30-inch cooktop cut from a single piece of CORTEN weathering steel, with over 700 sq in of surface between the centre searing grate and the surrounding plancha. Four large steaks fit in the centre while vegetables roast in the middle band and bread toasts on the outer edge, all at once. It is the size that fits a normal patio, where the Classic 40 is a landscape feature.