Abstract:
A grill or kitchen unit for outdoor use, and includes a cooking unit which is translatable between a position over a heat source and a position laterally adjacent to the heat source, for cooling and/or further preparation of foods being cooked within the unit.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This applications is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/044,184, filed Mar. 19, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,970,855 the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The invention relates to a portable grill or portable kitchen unit designed for outdoor use, and in particular to an outdoor portable kitchen unit which includes a cooking unit which is translatable between a position over a heat source and a position laterally adjacent to the heat source, for cooling and/or further preparation of the foods being cooked within the unit. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Portable outdoor grills have been known for many years, and recently the trend has been toward more complex units, offering larger cooking areas and greater degree of heat source control. However, a need has existed for units with incorporated food preparation areas, as well as a more convenient means of removing the cooked foods from the burner region for cooling an/or further preparation. It is therefore an object of the present invention to fulfil these needs, by providing a portable kitchen unit having food preparation areas on either side of the cooking area, and being provided with a grill or grate-style cooking surface which, together with an incorporated grate support/surround and a hood unit, is translatable fully laterally to one side of the heat source/burners, so as to provide a convenient means of removing the cooked foods from the heat source for cooling and/or further preparation. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The above and other objects and advantages of the invention will become more apparent and more readily appreciated from the following detailed description of the presently preferred exemplary embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, of which: 
     FIGS. 1A-1D are views of the front, side and top of the portable kitchen of the invention, with FIG. 1A schematically illustrating the primary internal components; 
     FIG. 2 schematically illustrates the cooking area; 
     FIGS. 3-5 illustrate details of the translation assembly; 
     FIGS. 5A-5C illustrate details of the hood assembly; 
     FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate details of the parallel tracks and cotterless pin; 
     FIGS. 8 and 9 illustrate the cooking grate which is supported to provide a “Lazy Susan” effect; 
     FIGS. 10A-10B illustrate knobs used for manual rotation of the grate; 
     FIGS. 11-12 illustrate the opening for the grate and details of the grate; 
     FIGS. 13A-15B illustrate the gas burners; and 
     FIG. 16 is a top view illustrating the main burners and a small pilot burner traversing the main burners. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     FIG. 1A illustrates schematically the general constitution of the portable kitchen unit, with base  191  housing a removable gas cylinder  193 , gas burner controls  195  and burners  197  of conventional type. Above burners  197  are located a series of ceramic bricks  199  for heat retention and uniform heat radiation for cooking. A grate or grill  110  of conventional form is located a short distance above ceramic bricks  199 . Ceramic bricks  199 , and, to some extent, burners  197 , are located within venturi  201 , and together constitute the heat source for the invention. Venturi  201  is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,053, and has several inherent advantages over conventional grill bodies. The disclosure of said patent is hereby incorporated herein by reference. 
     FIGS. 1B and 1C illustrate the external appearance of the portable kitchen, wherein base  191  is provided with storage areas, which may include a refrigerated compartment, accessed by doors  411 , and drip pan access via door  421 . The unit is mounted on at least two wheels  419  for portability, and includes door  421  shown in FIG. 1B for access to and replacement or replenishment of gas cylinder  193 . 
     As shown in FIG. 1D, the top surface of the portable kitchen unit is of generally rectangular cross-section and includes a left shelf  101  and a right shelf  102  for, e.g., food preparation, on either side of a movable cooking area generally designated by numeral  103 . The shelves may be surfaced with a hard, non-porous material such as ceramic tile, Corian or similar materials such as are commonly used for countertops and/or cutting boards. The shelves  101 ,  102  and cooking area  103  are surrounded by a small ledge  104  to limit spillage. and to prevent items such as cooking utensils or food items from inadvertently falling off the shelf surfaces. Cooking area  103  includes grill surface or grate  110  of conventional form, surrounded and supported by rectangular dished member  105 , which may be constructed of stainless steel. The dished member  105 , as best seen in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 2, has an upper surface  112  having a slight slope. The surface  112  may be of substantially conical form overall, or may be formed of four planar but equally sloped sides, and is surrounded by a flat outer ledge  115 , shown best in FIG.  3 . The inner peripheral portion  117  of the dished member  105  is of annular form, and provides support for the outer periphery of grill or grate  110 . In addition to providing for easy cleaning, the dished member  105  also allows spattered grease or oil to flow back toward the cooking surface, rather than outward toward ledges  101 ,  102 . 
     Referring further to FIG. 3, the mechanism for translating the cooking surface is shown. Under ledge  115  is located a square frame  119  which extends beneath the entire periphery of the ledge. At four locations of the frame  119 , near corners thereof, as shown in FIG. 4, are located small wheels or casters  121  which support the frame  119 , the dished member  105 , the grate  110  and hood  140  (described below). The casters  121  are arranged so as to be radially outboard of both grate  110  and the underlying venturi  201 . 
     The normal cooking position is shown in FIG. 3, where the grate  117  is centered above the opening of venturi  201 . As shown, the casters  121  are located approximately even with a tangent of the venturi  201  drawn in the widthwise direction of the shelves  101 ,  102 . At the leftmost end of dished member  105  is formed an air dam  161 , a portion of which is formed by a skirt  163  extending downwardly from frame element  119 . At the rightmost side, shown in FIG. 5, the skirt  165  is hinged, to allow for movement of the dished member/grate combination over obstructions, such as an auxiliary deck, cutting surface or drip pan (not shown) located on the top surface of shelf  102 . Thus, with reference to FIG. 1D, the entire cooking unit, composed of dished member  105 , grate  110  and hood  140 , can be translated from the illustrated position to a position at the extreme right of shelf  102 , with the hinged skirt  165  in this position being displaced slightly by the right hand portion of ledge  104 . Although not shown in FIG. 1, casters  121  would be located beneath dished surface  105  at locations approximately denoted by characters “X” in the figure, proximate the front and rear portions of ledge  104 . 
     Although not shown in the drawings, venturi  201  may be fitted with a fixed or removable second grate located below grate  110 , such that when the cooking unit is translated to the right in FIG. 1, cooking of other foods may be performed simultaneously with the cooling and/or further preparation of the foods on grate  110 . 
     FIGS. 5A-5C illustrate the hood assembly  140 , which includes stationary portion  141  and rotatable lid portion  143 . The lid portion  143 , shown separately in FIG. 5A, is essentially trapezoidal in cross-section, and includes handle  151  at its front end and fittings  144  for hinge pins  145  at its rear end. 
     Lid  143  is pivotally mounted with respect to stationary portion  141 , pictured separately in FIG.  5 B. Stationary portion  141  is of polygonal shape and includes fittings  146  for hinge pins  145 , which form the pivotal mount for lid  143 . At its front and rear ends, stationary portion  141  includes lips  147  which fit over frame  119  of dished member  105  and may be suitably affixed thereto. Lid  143  also includes lip  149  which fits over frame  119  when the lid is closed, the lips  147  and  149  being coincident in downward extension, when lid  143  is closed, to present an essentially unbroken line when viewed from the front of the portable kitchen. As noted above, since the hood assembly  140  is mounted to the dished member  105 , it is translatable therewith when the former is moved to the right or left in FIG.  1 . 
     In another embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the support for the cooking surface is translated linearly on parallel tracks or rails  301  disposed on the front and rear of the cooking unit. The parallel tracks serve as supports and a guides for guide rollers  302  for translating the support and cooking surface. Accordingly, with this embodiment, the parallel tracks and guide rollers are located away from the cooking surface so that they are not in the way of grease droppings and the like. Additionally, the parallel tracks and guide rollers are located away from the burners  197 . 
     In yet another embodiment of the present invention also shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, a stop  303  such as a cotterless pin is fixed to at least one of the parallel tracks  301  (preferably the front track) in a hole  307  disposed in the path of the respective guide rollers so as to secure the support for the cooking surface from inadvertently rolling away from either the heating source or side surface. 
     In still another embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIG. 7, a stop or restraining pin  304  is fixed to the hood assembly  140  (e.g., to the stationary portion  141 ) to restrain the rotatable lid portion  143  from fully opening (e.g., from fully opening a full  90  degrees). An added benefit of this feature is to reduce the amount of reach by the user&#39;s arm over the burners when opening the hood. 
     In still another embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIGS. 7,  13 A- 14 B, and  16 , the grill has at least two separately controllable burners (e.g., two side burners  197   a  and center burner  197   b  shown in FIGS.  13 A- 14 B), and a temperature gauge  305  located over one of the burners. Accordingly, a user can accurately determine the temperature of the air away from a lit burner while cooking indirectly using only one of the burners. 
     In another embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIG. 16, a small burner  306  serving as a pilot light for lighting the main burners  197   a ,  197   b  is positioned to extend under some or all the main burners. For safety, the small burner is fed through a separate valve. 
     In still another embodiment of the present invention, as illustrated in FIGS. 8-12, a cooking grate  308  is used in place of the conventional cooking grate  110 . The grate  308  is designed to be rotatable to provide a Lazy Susan effect. In a preferred configuration, the grate  308  is supported by four extended rods  309 . Accordingly, the grate  308  does not require pins placed around its periphery for support. As shown in the figures, the grate  308  rests on top of an opening  310  formed over the burn area. At four points, set ninety degrees apart, the grate is supported on the dished member or deck  105 . These four points are formed by extending the rods  309  beyond the perimeter of the circular grate, thereby forming a spread platform. The rods are turned upwards and have knobs or pegs  311  at their respective ends for a user to push the grate around to different positions as in a Lazy Susan. The knobs can be attached to the rods, for example, by inserting the ends of the rods into sleeve portions of the knobs. 
     Although several exemplary embodiments have been herein shown and described, those of skill in the art will recognize that many modifications and variations are possible, and it is intended to measure the invention only by the appended claims.