Larry Olmsted

Summer Scorcher

A powerful grill that has it all, including a full gas oven.

 

If you can't cook it on the new Viking Outdoor Range, it doesn't deserve a spot on the table at your company's barbecue. The 53-inch-wide main grilling area has four gas burners: three that put out a sizzling restaurant-grade 25,000 BTUs and one infrared searing burner that hits 30,000 BTUs to flash-sear steaks or chops, locking in juices as they do at the best steak houses. A heavy-duty motorized steel rotisserie is built right into the unit, and it has its own vertical infrared burner that evenly cooks a whole leg of lamb or several whole chickens. You can prepare sauce, boil ears of corn, and saute vegetables on the two side burners.

The range even comes with a full gas oven, a first for a portable grill. It handles everything from casseroles and pies to a 15-pound turkey. Yet despite all this cooking power, the grill is not a propane hog: In most cases, it won't burn up more than two five-gallon tanks in an entire season's worth of barbecues. $6,300, www.vikingrange.com.