One of the signature dishes at Erik Ramirez’s Peruvian hot spot Llama Inn is anticuchos, marinated skewers that are a ubiquitous street snack in Lima. But the Brooklyn chef’s cooking method is straight from Japan: He employs a squat countertop grill known as a konro, glowing with clean-burning, long-lasting (and very pricey) binchotan charcoal. “It’s precise, methodical,” Ramirez says of the grill (he recommends it for everything from octopus and skirt steaks to asparagus and zucchini.)
He’s not alone in his reverence. The ceramic-lined box is an obsession among a growing cult of chefs, like Josef Centeno, who sears wedges of puntarelle at L.A.’s Orsa & Winston, and Christopher Kostow, who uses it for daylily flowers at The Restaurant at Meadowood in Napa. “When a meat’s fat and juices drip onto the binchotan, it creates a cloud of flavor that engulfs the food,” Ramirez says. “You don’t get the flare-ups you do with American charcoal, which create bitter, burnt flavors.” The result is distinct from meat cooked any other way: an even sear plus a whisper of smoke. “There’s a delicacy to Japanese grilling,” he says, “and chefs here are just catching on.”
There are as many types of konros as there are gas grills, but one model in particular stands out as the status symbol among chefs: Korin’s Charcoal Konro Grill with Net, Medium ($240). Korin also sells the binchotan you’ll need to fill it.
Lowlife, NYC
Blanca alum Alex Leonard uses a konro to slow-cook his signature sweet-sour Sasso chicken to lacquered, juicy perfection.
AL’s Place, San Francisco
Aaron London, BA’s 2015 Best New Restaurant winner, crisps the skin of “fish mullets” (fish collars cleverly butchered so that the belly remains attached) over binchotan.
Orsa & Winston, L.A.
Wedges of bitter puntarelle get a hard sear before being dressed with red walnut, miso, anchovy, and Pecorino at Josef Centeno’s Japanese-Italian tasting-menu spot.
The Restaurant at Meadowood, St. Helena, CA
At his three–Michelin star Napa Valley tasting room, Christopher Kostow leans on his Japanese-style grill when he wants to lend smoke to delicate ingredients like spot prawn–stuffed daylily flowers.