Abstract:
A cooking grill comprising a housing defining a cooking chamber and having a side opening therein, a heating element in the chamber, a drawer slidably disposed in the side opening, the drawer having a bottom tray and a front wall that substantially fills the side opening when the drawer is inserted in the housing, a grilling module adapted to sit in the drawer having a support portion for supporting a grilling surface, and a removable grilling surface, wherein the drawer can be inserted into the side opening in either a first orientation in which the bottom tray is below the heating element and the support portion is above the heating element or a second orientation rotated 180 degrees from the first orientation in which the bottom tray is above the heating element and the support portion is below the heating element.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The invention pertains to cooking grills. 
     2. Background 
     Cooking grills are extremely popular in the United States and elsewhere for outdoor cooking during the warm months of the year. However, they also are often used indoors and/or during the colder months of the year. 
     A conventional cooking grill comprises at least a cooking chamber, a grilling surface disposed in the cooking chamber, and one or more heating elements, such as a flame manifold and/or an infrared heater, proximate (typically beneath) the grilling surface within the cooking chamber. The cooking chamber is commonly provided by a metal housing comprising two parts configured in a generally clamshell type arrangement, within which the heating elements and grilling surface are disposed. Typically, the top half of the housing is hingedly connected to the bottom half of the housing so that the top half of the housing can be tilted up relative to the bottom half in order to provide the user access to the cooking chamber. Particularly, the user must have access to the grilling surface in order to place food on the grilling surface, remove food from grilling surface, and generally observe the food to determine when it is done cooking. The heating elements are coupled to a fuel source (e.g., a self-contained source such as a propane tank mounted to a base of the cooking grill) in order to create the heat for cooking. 
     The grilling surface usually is disposed above and close to the heating elements inside the cooking chamber. It usually comprises a grating positioned above the flame manifolds made of metal, porcelain, or another material that can retain heat from the flames and release that heat to food placed in contact with the grilling surface in order to sear the food where it contacts the grill grating. The grating provides a surface on which food to be cooked can be supported, but which has openings therethrough so that the food placed on the grill is directly exposed to the flame and/or heat from the heating elements through the openings or spacings in the grating. 
     Grills of the prior art suffer from many drawbacks. For instance, the cooking of the food in a cooking grill is the result of two separate phenomena. First, the bottom side of the food that is in contact with the grilling surface is heated directly by the flame and/or contact with the surface of the grating. However, the entire piece of food is also heated and cooked by means of convection by the heat that builds up inside the cooking chamber as a result of the flames. However, every time the user opens the top of the cooking chamber, as is frequently necessary to insert, remove, or observe the food being cooked, all of the heat that has built up inside the cooking chamber that cooks the food by convection escapes and cooking by convection essentially halts. When the grill cover is closed again, then the heat can build up again over a certain number of minutes and cooking by convection again commences. Thus, opening the top of the cooking chamber slows down the overall cooking process and wastes fuel. It also ultimately tends to lead to drier food when it is finally cooked. 
     Another drawback of conventional cooking grills is that, typically, only one type of cooking, namely, grilling, can be performed. For instance, one cannot fry food in a conventional grill because there is no solid continuous surface on which the food can cook, only the grilling surface, which has openings in it. Also, there is no convenient location in a conventional grill to place water for steaming food. 
     Yet another drawback of conventional cooking grills is that drippings from the food that is cooked on the grilling surface fall through the openings in the grilling surface onto the flame manifolds and/or the bottom of the cooking chamber. While some buildup of the drippings onto a surface above the flame manifolds is desirable since it adds flavor to the cooking, most of the drippings will fall onto the flame manifolds themselves and/or to the bottom surface of the cooking chamber. This is undesirable because the food drippings tend to cause the flame manifolds or bottom surface of the housing to corrode over time. Hence, the bottom of most cooking grills are sloped toward one central location so that the drippings will flow to a single location in the bottom surface of the housing where they can exit the cooking chamber through a hole and into a container disposed beneath the hole. The user can occasionally remove the container, empty its contents, and replace it beneath the hole. This process is performed relatively infrequently and thus is easy to forget to perform. If the user forgets to empty the container and the container overflows, it may damage the deck or other surface on which the cooking grill is placed. Furthermore, as noted above, the container is positioned beneath the bottom of the cooking chamber and, therefore, typically is difficult to access. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention is a cooking grill comprising a housing defining a cooking chamber and having a side opening therein, a heating element disposed in the cooking chamber, a drawer slidably disposed in the side opening, the drawer having a bottom tray and a front wall sized and positioned so as to substantially fill the side opening in the housing when the drawer is inserted in the housing, a grilling module adapted to sit in the drawer having a support portion for supporting a grilling surface thereon, and a removable grilling surface, wherein the drawer is adapted to be inserted into the side opening in either a first orientation in which the bottom tray is below the heating element and the support portion is above the heating element or a second orientation rotated 180 degrees from the first orientation in which the bottom tray is above the heating element and the support portion is below the heating element. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a cooking grill in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention with the top shown in a partially open position. 
         FIG. 2  is an exploded side view of the cooking grill of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  is an exploded perspective view of the drawer. 
         FIG. 4  is a perspective view of the drawer in the flipped position in which the frying surface is on top. 
         FIG. 5  is a cross-sectional view of a segment of a first embodiment of a grilling surface. 
         FIG. 6  is a cross-sectional view of a segment of a second embodiment of a grilling module. 
         FIG. 7  is a cross-sectional view of a segment of a third embodiment of a grilling module. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a grill  100  in accordance with one particular embodiment of the present invention with the top of the grill partially opened for illustrative purposes. It should be understood that the grill would not normally be used with the top partially open, but with the top either fully open or fully closed.  FIG. 2  is a side view of the same grill  100 , but with the top closed and the side drawer partially open. Again, it should be understood that the grill would not normally be used with the side drawer partially open. 
     The grill  100  comprises a base or stand portion  102  comprising a plurality of legs  104  for supporting it on the ground or other horizontal surface and a shelf  106  for storage of items such as cooking supplies, cooking utensils, etc. The base  102  may be open, enclosed on one or more sides, or enclosed on all sides. If enclosed on all sides, preferably one of the sides includes or comprises a door for permitting access to the shelf or storage space. A fuel source, typically self-contained, such as a propane tank  108 , is mounted somewhere on the base  102 . However, in other embodiments, the grill  100  also can be connected to a permanent source of fuel, such as a household natural gas line. A fuel hose  110  typically extends from the fuel source  108  to one or more heating elements, such as flame manifolds  115  (not shown in  FIG. 1 , but shown in phantom in  FIG. 2  and in full in  FIG. 5 ). The flame manifolds  115  are disposed inside of a cooking chamber  113  defined by a housing  112 . Housing  112  completely encloses a volume  113  including the flame manifolds  115  and within which the cooking occurs. The housing  112  comprises a bottom housing portion  112   a  and a top housing portion  112   b  connected to each other by a hinge  114  at the back of the housing  112 . Preferably, a viewing window  117  made of high temperature glass is disposed in the top housing portion  112   b . A first handle  116  is disposed on the front of the top housing portion  112   b  so that a person may grasp the first handle  116  and tilt the top half up about the hinge  114  in order to gain access to the cooking chamber  113  from above. 
     The grill also is equipped with controls  109  for operating the grill, such as a spark igniter and rotary knobs for controlling the rate of gas flow to the flame manifolds to control the temperature in the cooking chamber  113 . 
     In accordance with the present invention, the grill  100  includes a second means for gaining access to the cooking chamber. Particularly, disposed in the main body  112   a  of the housing is a sliding drawer  120  that holds a grilling module  121 , as seen in  FIGS. 1 and 2  and shown in more detail in  FIGS. 3 and 4 . The drawer can slide horizontally outwardly from the housing  112 . The drawer comprises at least a bottom tray  122  and a front wall  124 . A second handle  118  is disposed on the external side of the front wall  124  of the drawer  120 . This drawer is mounted on the main housing portion  112   a  via slides, rollers, or any other mechanism typically used for mounting a drawer to a main body so that the drawer can be slid open and closed easily. Furthermore, the drawer is completely removable from the housing  112  via any reasonable means.  FIG. 2  is a side, exploded view of the grill housing  112 , drawer  120 , and grilling module  121 , illustrating an embodiment in which the drawer is mounted to the housing by mating high-temperature slides  131 ,  132  on the bottom of the housing  112  and bottom of the drawer  120 , respectively. Preferably, the drawer mounting mechanism is any one of several widely available drawer mounting mechanisms that includes some type of safety mechanism that requires the drawer to be maneuvered in a particular manner relative to the housing in order for it to become completely disengaged from the housing. This will prevent the drawer from accidentally falling out merely by pulling it too far out of the housing. 
     The grilling module  121  sits freely on the drawer  120 . Preferably, the bottom surface  122  of the drawer includes a peripheral lip  122   a  all the way around the surface  122  inside of which the grilling module  121  is retained laterally so that the drawer cannot accidentally slide off of the drawer. Thus, the grilling module  121  must be lifted above the lip  122   a  to be removed from the drawer. Also, the front wall  124  preferably is solid so that, when the drawer is closed, the front wall  124  is coplanar with the front surface of the housing  112  so as to substantially seal the housing  112  to keep the heat therein. 
     The grilling module  121  is best seen in  FIGS. 2-4  and comprises a generally rectangular box with no top. Particularly, it includes a solid bottom surface  140 , a solid front wall  141 , two solid side walls  142 ,  143 , and a segmented rear wall  144 . 
     In an alternate embodiment, the drawer may not have a front wall  124 , but instead the front wall  141  of the grilling module  121  forms the front surface that closes the drawer opening in the housing  112 . The rear wall  144  is segmented to provide openings through which the flame manifolds  115  extend so that the flame manifolds will not interfere with the sliding of the drawer  120  (with the grilling module  121  mounted therein) in and out of the housing  112 . 
     The front wall  141 , side walls  142 ,  143 , and segmented rear wall  144  are provided with, shaped, or bent so as to collectively define a shoulder  131  substantially around the grilling module  121  on which the peripheral edge  135  of a cooking surface (e.g., a grill)  126  can rest so as to suspend the cooking surface  126  in the grilling module  121  above and generally parallel to the bottom surface  140 . The cooking surface  126  is vertically spaced from the bottom surface  140  a distance that permits the flame manifolds  115  to be positioned vertically between the cooking surface  126  and the bottom surface  140  of the grilling module  121  when the drawer  120  is closed. 
     In the embodiment shown in  FIG. 3 , for instance, the cooking surface  126  comprises two identical pieces  126   a ,  126   b , as is conventional. However, the cooking surface may also comprise a single, unitary piece or two or more non-identical pieces. 
     In a preferred embodiment, the grilling module  121  and/or cooking surface  126  is equipped with one or more mechanisms to help retain the cooking surface  126  in the grilling module  121  so that it requires a small amount of force to detach the cooking surface from the grilling module. This mechanism may comprise spring clips on the cooking surface that sandwich one or more of the walls  141 ,  142 ,  143 ,  144  of the grilling module between two resilient legs of the clip. However, any other reasonable mechanism can be employed, including tabs formed on the peripheral edge of the cooking surface or adjacent the shoulder  131  in the grilling module so as to form a low-force friction fit or interference fit between the grilling module  121  and the cooking surface  126 . 
     When the drawer is closed, the bottom surface  140  of the grilling module  121  is positioned beneath the flame manifolds  115  while the cooking surface  126  is positioned above the flame manifolds. Hence, the bottom surface  140  serves as a drip pan for the drippings that fall through the cooking surface  126  when food is being cooked. 
     The drawer can be slid out to permit the user to remove the grilling module  121  and carry it away from the grill  100 , such as to a refrigerator or kitchen counter prior to cooking to place the food on the grilling module  126 , rather than bringing the food to the cooking grill on a separate tray or plate. The user can insert the loaded grilling module  121  into the drawer  121  and close the drawer to commence cooking. 
     The user can pull out the drawer without opening the top of the grill while the food is cooking in the cooking grill to add food to the grilling module, remove food from the grilling module, or simply view the food to see how it is cooking without the need to open the top  112   b  of the housing  112  and thereby let all of the heat out of the cooking chamber. Only the small side opening  133  of the cooking chamber is opened when the drawer is slid out to the open position. Much less heat will escape from the cooking chamber for two reasons. First, the side opening is a much smaller opening than the opening created when the top of the housing  112   b  is tilted upwardly on the hinge  114 . Second, the opening is a side opening rather than a top opening. Heat tends to rise. The heat will escape much more slowly through a side opening than through a top opening of equivalent size. 
     Thus, most of the heat will remain inside the cooking chamber when the drawer  120  is slid open. This is preferable to tilting the top half  112   b  of the housing open, whereby all of the heat in the cooking chamber will immediately rise up and out of the cooking chamber, essentially halting cooking by convection. 
     However, the present design also provides a tiltable top housing portion  112   b  so that the user still has the option of opening the top, if so desired. For instance, the user may wish to rapidly dissipate heat if the food is cooking too quickly. 
     Since, the grilling module  121  includes its own bottom surface  140 , the drawer can be opened to expose the food without the risk of drippings falling on the ground or surface beneath the grill since the bottom surface  140  will remain beneath the grilling surface  126  and will continue to catch any drippings even while the drawer is open. 
     In an alternate embodiment of the invention, the grilling module and drawer may be integrally formed as one unit. 
     Other advantages of this configuration include faster cooking and reduced fuel consumption because much less heat is dissipated when the drawer is opened and less dried-out food because the food cooks more quickly. 
     Further, because the grilling module and/or drawer is removably coupled to the housing, it can be completely removed from the grill for cleaning. Furthermore, because the cooking surface  126  is removably mounted to the grilling module  121 , it can be easily removed for cleaning. Furthermore, the bottom surface  140  of the grilling module has a lip for retaining liquid. This feature helps keep drippings from falling out of the grilling module. 
     Furthermore, the lip allows the bottom of the grilling module  121  to be retain a layer of water, which will be heated by the flame when the drawer is closed so that the cooking grill can be used as a steamer as well as a conventional grill. The fact that the top  112   a  of the grill housing need not be opened to access the grilling surface allows the water to be heated quickly above boiling temperature and to remain at or above boiling temperature to generate the steam for steaming vegetables or other food on the grilling surface immediately above the boiling water. 
     Also in accordance with a particular embodiment of the invention, the grilling module  121  (or entire drawer in the aforementioned unitary embodiment) can be flipped over as illustrated in  FIG. 4  and inserted into the cooking chamber upside down so that the bottom surface  140  of the grilling module is on top of the flame manifolds  115 . The outer surface  140   a  of  140  can then be used as a frying or griddling surface in the cooking grill  100  for cooking fish, pancakes or other foods that cannot be cooked on a grated surface. In one embodiment, at least the outer surface  140   a  is coated with Teflon or another non-stick surfacing to provide a better, non-stick cooking surface for frying. In this embodiment, the cooking surface  126  may be removed from a drawer since it is not used in this configuration. However, in other embodiments in which the cooking surface might be non-removable from the grilling module (or drawer), the cooking surface can remain and will not interfere with the use of the cooking grill as a fryer in this configuration. 
     In one particularly useful embodiment, the grilling module  126  and/or drawer  121  includes folding side handles  119  to facilitate carrying of the grilling module in a balanced manner and without getting one&#39;s hands dirty. 
     In yet another embodiment of the invention, the grill is sold with (or the buyer can separately purchase) multiple cooking surfaces such as cooking surface  126 . This allows the user to prepare several cooking surfaces with food before cooking and then simply exchange cooking surfaces when the food on one cooking surface  126  is cooked. The multiple cooking surfaces may have different configurations. For instance, the different surfaces may include a conventional grated grilling surface, a corrugated solid grilling surface, and a solid, non-stick frying or griddling surface for cooking foods like pancakes and flaky fish that would fall through a conventional grated grilling surface. 
     Also, if each cooking surface comprise two or more pieces, as illustrated in  FIG. 3 , then two different types of cooking surfaces can be used simultaneously so that the user can perform two different types of cooking simultaneously, for instance, frying on half of the cooking surface and grilling on the other half. 
     In a further embodiment of the invention, the drawer can be equipped with steps or another mechanism that permits adjustment of the height of the grilling module in the drawer so as to change the distance between the flame manifolds  115  and the cooking surface  126  to accommodate different types of cooking styles. For instance, for steaming, the grilling module  121  may be placed at a higher setting so that the flame manifolds  115  are close to the bottom  140  of the module closer to the water. For grilling, especially foods that should be cooked quickly, the grilling module  121  can be placed at a lower position in the drawer so that the flame manifolds  115  are closer to the cooking surface  126 . 
       FIG. 5  illustrates a novel grilling surface that can be one of the interchangeable cooking surfaces.  FIG. 5  is a close-up perspective view of a portion of a cooking surface in accordance with one particular embodiment of the invention. As can be seen, the grilling module comprises two, preferably, generally parallel, generally planar sets of grates  151 ,  161  vertically spaced from each other. Each grate is comprised of a plurality of generally parallel longitudinal members  152 ,  162 , respectively. The two grates  151 ,  161  are joined at their edges to provide a unitary structure and, for each grate, the longitudinal members  152  or  162  may be joined together by transverse joining members  171  in order to provide sufficient strength to the overall structure. All of the components may be joined by welding or other attachment techniques. Alternately, the cooking surface may be cast or molded as a unit or as a few pieces that are then joined by welding or other techniques. 
     The two parallel grates  151 ,  161  are offset vertically (the y dimension in  FIG. 5 ) from each other by a small amount, e.g., anywhere from about the thickness of the longitudinal members to about four times the thickness of longitudinal members. However, any other vertical spacing would be acceptable also. Furthermore, the longitudinal members  152 ,  162  of the first and second grates  151 ,  161  are transversely offset from each other in the transverse direction (the x dimension in  FIG. 5 ) so as to form two offset rows of longitudinal members, one above the other, wherein the longitudinal members overlap partially with each other when viewed from directly vertically above. See, for instance, overlap distance b in  FIG. 5 . 
     In one embodiment, the members  152  of the top grate have upper surfaces configured to allow food drippings or other matter falling thereon to fall or slide off without becoming trapped thereon and the members  162  of the bottom grate have upper surfaces comprising a channel or other shape that will trap food drippings or other matter falling from above. In one particular embodiment, the longitudinal members of both gratings  151  and  161  have the same cross sectional shape, namely a U- or V-type shape or any other shape that has a channel on one side, including the illustrated shape of  FIG. 5 . However, the top set of longitudinal members  152  are upside down relative to the bottom set of longitudinal members  162  (i.e., rotated 180° about their longitudinal axes relative to each other). Hence, the upper longitudinal members  152  are upside down Us so the channels face downwardly and the bottom set of longitudinal members  162  are right side up Us so that the channel faces upwardly. In this manner, drippings from the food fall off the edges of the upper surface of the top set of longitudinal members  152 . Due to the aforedescribed overlap of the top and bottom longitudinal members, these dripping will fall down from the edges of the top longitudinal members  152  onto the bottom set of longitudinal members  162 . However, since the bottom set of longitudinal members  162  are oriented with the channels facing up, the drippings will fall into the channels  171  and substantially remain therein. 
     Thus, drippings from the food will generally slide down off of the longitudinal members  152  of the top grating  151  into the channels  171  in the longitudinal members  162  of the bottom grating  161 , where they will remain. 
     This presents an ideal grilling situation since, as noted above, having the food drippings remain in the grill above the flames is desirable because the drippings volatilize when heated and add flavor to the food being cooked above it. However, the food does not come in contact with these drippings, which would be undesirable. 
     The longitudinal members of at least the top grating may be oriented slightly askew from perfectly horizontal (i.e., perfectly in the x, z, plane in  FIG. 5 ) in order to facilitate the flow of drippings off of the top grating  151 . This may be achieved by constructing the cooking surface with the longitudinal members (either both sets or just the top set) slightly tilted about either the z axis or the x axis. Alternately, the entire grilling module  121  may be mountable in the drawer at a slight angle from the horizontal about either the z or x axes. 
     This cooking surface keeps the drippings from falling onto the flame manifolds and the entire grilling module  121  keeps the drippings from falling to the bottom of the housing  112 , which saves the manifolds and the housing from corroding. When the drippings become excessive, the grilling module and/or the cooking surface can be easily removed for cleaning. In another embodiment of the invention, the top and bottom gratings may be removably coupled to each other to even better facilitate cleaning of the longitudinal members of the bottom grating  161  by removing the top grating  151 . 
     Furthermore, the grilling module still provides an open grating so that the flames and the heat have an unobstructed path through open space from the flame manifolds to the food, as illustrated by wavy arrows  141  in  FIG. 5 . 
       FIG. 6  illustrates a V-shaped embodiment of the longitudinal members  181 ,  182  of the cooking surface. One advantage of this particular embodiment is that the top set of longitudinal members  181  have an apex  182  in the middle from which the surface of the member  181  slopes downwardly in both directions. Therefore, drippings will more readily slide down from the top set of longitudinal members  181  into the channels  183  in the lower set of longitudinal members  182 . 
       FIG. 7  is an exploded view of yet another embodiment of a fat removal cooking surface  190 . In this embodiment, the cooking surface comprises two parallel closely spaced corrugated sheet surfaces  191 ,  192  defining a series of troughs (or channels)  197  and peaks  195 . The corrugations may be U-shaped, V-shaped, square channel-shaped, parallelogram channel shaped (illustrated in  FIG. 7 ), or any other reasonable shape. Longitudinal slots  194  are cut into the corrugated sheets  191 ,  192  to allow the flames and heat to more readily reach the food. Also, the slots in the top corrugated sheet allow the drippings to fall through the top corrugated sheet  191  into the troughs or channels  197  in the bottom corrugated sheet  192 . 
     In at least the bottom corrugated sheet  192 , the slots  194  should be positioned slightly above the bottom of the channel  197  so that the channel can trap the drippings without the drippings falling through the slots  194  in the bottom corrugated sheet. In the top corrugated sheet, the slots  194  may be formed in the same position to minimize manufacturing cost. Alternately, however, the slots  194  in the top sheet can be formed in the bottom of the troughs  197  to better facilitate the flow of drippings through the top sheet. The two sheets may be welded or joined together by any other reasonable means. 
     The embodiment of  FIG. 7  is advantageous in that it is very inexpensive to manufacture since it essentially comprises two corrugated sheets with slots formed therein and joined together at their edges. 
     With respect to the fat removal cooking surfaces, it may be desirable to provide longitudinal end walls, such as wall  196  illustrated in  FIG. 7  at the longitudinal ends of at least the bottom corrugated sheet (or bottom set of longitudinal members) in order to better retain more drippings without the drippings running out of the longitudinal ends of the longitudinal members (or corrugated sheet). 
     Having thus described a few particular embodiments of the invention, various alterations, modifications, and improvements will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Such alterations, modifications and improvements as are made obvious by this disclosure are intended to be part of this description though not expressly stated herein, and are intended to be within the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the foregoing description is by way of example only, and not limiting. The invention is limited only as defined in the following claims and equivalents thereto.