Extracts from the NYT July 2011

Written by Erik S. Lesser for The New York Times, one of the best storys on Ceramic Cookers that I have ever come across.
The story does fails to mention that the secret is out and Grill Dome Kamado's are now sold in USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark and other nations of the EU and now in Ireland!
Also doesn't mention the fact they a Kamado is cooker that will be passed on from generation to generation as they last decades, name something that you own that fits that bill? let alone something you cook on?
Its one of the reasons that retailers have not picked up on Kamado's as they are a one off sale, you wont be back in a few years to purchase another, unlike the gas/steel cooker market, Its pretty old school mentality that doesn't exist in todays society, save your penny's and then purchase something really good quality that will last you for ages, our 'cheap and disposable' consumer mentality is one of the reasons why the world is choking itself, wasted energy and resources re building the same thing you just built and sold a little while ago because consumers wanted it cheaper!...who cleans up the mess thats dumped into land fill, who pays for the re build of that cheap piece of S%^! you just purchased? We all do, the cheapness is costing us in the long run! And the government doesn't give a Rats! everyday there is cheaper nastier copy of something that comes into this country, most do not meet any basic certification standards nor are tested for safety or quality, is just cheaper and nastier and sold by someone who doesn't give a rats either.

There are website dedicated to the cause.... but maybe the next time your purchasing something of value, stop and ask yourself, 'is this good quality, will it last?'

Recently I saw a  'cardboard commercial' fridges that you throw away the outer evey 4 weeks, and replace with this months favoutite design or colour, it had no insulation, no energy performance data, didn't work and consistently will waste energy and resources all the time, not to mention wont keep your beer cold!
Look out soon for the battery powered cardboard car!

and now onto the story!...

Ed Fisher (MD of BGE) opened a store here called the Pachinko House to sell the upright pinball games of that name that he imported from Japan. He also shipped in ovoid earthenware grills called kamados. But they only collected dust in the back of that strip-mall storefront until he began cooking chicken wings with them and fanning the smoke toward the street to attract shoppers.

“We were selling something called a kamado from a place named after a pachinko,” recalled Mr. Fisher, who first saw the charcoal-fueled cookers in the 1950's as a Navy lieutenant in Japan. “That didn’t sound American, and that was not’t easy. But once I got people to try one, once they tasted the chicken we cooked on them, they were hooked.”

Giving them a distinctive green, dimpled surface and a catchy name helped. So did that cool shape, which looked somehow countercultural when compared with conventional grills.

Now, more than 2,000 retailers across the nation(USA) stock BGE's, the brand of ceramic kamados that Mr. Fisher eventually developed, with sales, he said, growing by more than 20 percent every year for the past two decades.

More than a dozen competitors have entered the market, latching onto a customer base that proselytizes as well as cooks. Sometimes known as Eggheads, devotees are sold on manufacturers’ claims that kamado grills light faster than other grills, require less charcoal and hold and distribute heat more evenly, and that meats cooked on them are more moist and succulent.

At first, the eggs caught on as compact backyard barbecue pits. But as the fervor grew, fans began using them for many things that could be made in an oven, as well on a grill, whether Bundt cakes or pepperoni pizzas.

“I was a Weber and briquettes kind of guy,” said Michael Barry who has prepared everything from turkeys to apple brown betties on a ceramic cooker in his San Rafael, Calif., backyard. “But then I heard about Big Green Eggs, and then I cooked on one, and I never looked back.”

The metropolitan Atlanta area, where egg-shaped cookers have gained wide popularity and where four kamado companies are based, remains the de facto hub for ceramic cookers. It is also the region with the most passionate fan base.

A half-dozen or more restaurants in the area feature kamado cookers, including Kevin Rathbun Steak, which serves a pork shoulder entree slathered with Korean chili paste and smoked on a Big Green Egg.

At Muss & Turner’s, a creative suburban deli, cooks work three Big Green Eggs. Outside, on two 24-inch-diameter cookers, they roast turkeys and chickens. On a third, positioned inside, next to the deep fryer, they grill hamburgers.

“It draws them in,” Todd Mussman, one of the owners, said of the grill’s devotees. “It’s like these cookers are the common ground between backyard barbecue heroes and professional chefs.”

In the universe of kamado users, some of whom gather regularly for a growing roster of ceramic-cooking exhibitions often called Eggfests, the backyard is still the place where new techniques are perfected and where communities of users are forged.

Just east of Atlanta, in Decatur, Billy and Kristin Smith have established a monthly Big Green Egg supper club. No matter which of the eight couples hosts, the focal point is always the backyard, where a Big Green Egg stands, wreathed in smoke, looking like a Humpty Dumpty stunt double on the set of a pyrotechnic-dependent action film.

For a recent Sunday evening gathering that began with shucked oysters set in muffin tins and roasted on a Big Green Egg, Mr. Smith cooked a garlic stuffed boneless pork shoulder that was done in 90 minutes. Ms. Smith baked a peach and blackberry cobbler that, after an hour on the hickory charcoal-fueled Egg, tasted lightly and pleasantly of wood smoke.

“I can do anything I want on an Egg,” said Mr. Smith, a trial-and-error cook who has honed his techniques over a couple of years. “Anything you can imagine, I can cook. We’ve done prosciutto pizzas. When you crank the coals, you get this perfect, fire-crackled crust.”

While the Smiths connect with fellow fans at cookouts, Doug Hanthorn, who tends three Big Green Eggs and one $3,600 Indonesian-made Komodo Kamado in Raleigh, N.C., has built an online community focused on the wonky pursuits and pleasures of the cookers.

On NakedWhiz.com, he charts developments in the world of kamado cookery and rates hardwood lump charcoal, which aficionados prefer to briquettes because, they say, it leaves less ash and its smoke has a cleaner flavor.