Wall of Fire: A ChefSteps Story
Oct 22, 2014
We have a tradition here at ChefSteps. Every spring, just as Seattle awakes from its winter hibernation, we devise an outlandish culinary exploit, and invite our friends to come and gawk at it. There are three requirements for these exploits: One, an enormous amount of heat. Two, an enormous amount of meat. And three, an enormous contraption for wielding the heat, so it cooks the meat. We design and build that contraption from scratch, and then we invite a bunch of our family and friends to a barbecue starring the flaming invention, and set up a smorgasbord of sides cooked using recipes from our development kitchen.
Sounds fun, right? But what's the point? Simple to do what we love: challenge ourselves to learn new things, and connect with our friends and family over food. We're always looking to do something better than the year before, but at the end of the day, we need to build an apparatus that allows us to cook a great meal that we're proud to share. It's about thinking ambitiously, solving common cooking problems (but on an enormous scale), eating well, and having a ton of fun. It's the soul of ChefSteps, encapsulated in one very smoky annual event.
When we came up with this year's contraption, dubbed the "Wall of Fire" for reasons that are apparent, we figured, why not use the project to tell a story about our fledgling company? To help us, we brought aboard award-winning film and television director Sandy Smolan. Sandy worked with our team of in-house filmmakers, musicians, and writers to make this mini ChefSteps documentary. A true labor of love, the film showcases the passion for cooking and technology, not to mention general over-the-top ridiculousness, that ChefSteps embodies.
