Live fire cooking has recently been popularized by the rise of Argentinean and Spanish steakhouses and celebrity chefs like Jose Andres, leading more backyard cooking enthusiasts to look beyond gas.gettyMemorial Day Weekend is upon us, and for millions of Americans, that signals the unofficial start of backyard grilling and barbecue season. It’s a topic I am passionate about and have been covering for decades, and the good news is that while just about everything else in our lives, from food to gas to airplane tickets, keeps getting more and more expensive, for a couple of categories of gourmet outdoor cookers, backyard grilling just got more affordable.Backyard GrillingI have about 20 different outdoor cooking appliances at my home, including pellet smokers, Argentinian Asado, Brazilian rodizio, Komodo, basic charcoal, fancy charcoal with rotisserie, ultra-high powered gas/wood/charcoal hybrid, Japanese teppanyaki style grilling table, woodfired pizza oven, electric pizza oven, whole hog pig box, and more. The latest addition to my collection last summer was a flattop griddle, which for the past few years has been the hottest sub-category in backyard cooking, and rightfully so. Flat-top grills or griddles have been the hottest category in outdoor cooking in recent years, thanks to their extreme versatility and easy clean up.gettyOutdoor Griddles For Backyard GrillingThese griddles are extremely versatile, can do things otherwise extremely difficult in the backyard (from pancakes to fried rice and noodles), clean up easy, and are great for entertaining, as they are ideal at keeping large quantities of food warm for prolonged service. I wrote a very detailed piece here at Forbes on the griddle trend and all the advantages last summer when I got my new Traeger griddle, and you can learn a LOT more here. But as a quick highlight, multi-bestselling cookbook author and BBQ TV host Steven Raichlen, the Babe Ruth of outdoor cooking and undisputed leading expert, told me that, “Prized for their accessibility and versatility—and because they’re so much fun to use—griddles (also known as planchas and flat-tops) are soaring in popularity. I like to think of these griddles as the alter-ego to grills. I now have and use both in my outdoor kitchen. I use mine several times a week. I just love it. And thanks to the advent of the stand-up griddle, you can now cook outdoors a huge repertory of food once possible to prepare only in your kitchen.” Raichlen had just released his latest book, the 2025 Project Griddle: The Versatile Art of Cooking on a Flattop, which I have and use and heartily recommend. MORE FOR YOUGriddles let you cook things in your backyard that were once largely reserved for the kitchen—like breakfast. This is the new 2-burner Traeger Irontop griddle.Traeger GrillsSpanish Live Fire CookingThere’s nothing new about cooking over flames, and many, if not most backyard cooks began with a kettle or hibachi filled with charcoal briquets (please never these chemical laden heat sources again, especially “match light,” your bare minimum should be natural hardwood lump charcoal while wood has been the classic for centuries). But most Americans moved onto gas, while in beef obsessed countries like Argentina and Uruguay they essentially cook everything outdoors with elaborate wood fired grills with grates that raise and lower, something as standard in Buenos Aires and Mendoza backyards as grass.But no country is as passionate about wood cooking as Spain. Because Spain is home to so much diverse cuisine and iconic dishes like Paella Valencia (cooked over fire!) and jamon serrano, all kinds of tapas, and the birthplace of molecular gastronomy, its steak culture is often overlooked by Americans. But if you check any list of the world’s best steakhouses, you will find it dominated by Spain. I’ve written about Spain’s amazing steakhouse culture here at Forbes, but it’s not just steak: Spain is crazy for seafood, and all along the northern coast in Basque country, and the Southern coast along the Mediterranean, and on wonderful islands Mallorca and Menorca, you will find waterfront restaurants with outdoor seating and outdoor grills cooking whole fish, prawns and every kind of fresh seafood to order over live fire. Ditto for veggies and Spain’s amazing Iberico pork, the best on earth.So with tons of Michelin-starred restaurants, amazing quality beef, pork and seafood, a bevy of world-class chefs and a passion for cooking with fire, it’s no surprise that the Spanish have also perfected the highest-end live fire cooking appliances, and this style has especially been popularized by global superstar celebrity chef Jose Andres, whose Bazaar Meats in the Venetian, Las Vegas is often ranked by critics as the nation’s finest steakhouse (I’ve been, it’s awesome). Andres also has seafood specialist Bazaar Mar in the Shops in Crystals in Vegas, and Bazaar restaurants in Chicago, Miami Beach, Washington, DC and Nashville. I most recently dined at his excellent steak, lamb and pork specialist Txula Steak in New York’s Hudson Yards. What all of these world-class eateries have in common is live fire cooking as the centerpiece, and of course, Andres uses a famous Spanish grill, from Josper. Mibrasa is a venerable Spanish grill maker famous for its ultra high quality commercial coal fired outdoor ovens, now offered in consumer backyard editions like this one.MibrasaMore and more you’ll see restaurant menus around the country that boast of steaks “cooked on a Josper,” in the same way they flaunt wild caught Alaskan salmon, imported Japanese wagyu or the names of specific ranches for beef. I just visited the wonderful new Limelight Denver hotel (sibling of the Aspen original), a surprisingly casual place to find a Josper, but they had one in the open kitchen, bragged about it on the menu, used carefully sourced meats from boutique Colorado ranches, and the restaurant was excellent. The problem for home cooks is that if you do a quick Google shopping search for Josper Grills, you’ll find some small “basic” models at under ten grand, but most run $25-$40,000+ which is a lot for a backyard grill.The other big player in high-end Spanish live fire cooking is Mibrasa, which also makes restaurant quality commercial wood and coal fired ovens and grills. By the way, Spanish wood (or coal) burning ovens are not like Italian pizza ovens, they have doors and close, are steel, and combine the functions of a conventional oven, pizza oven and grill, have direct and indirect grilling and radiant heat, can do everything from slow braise to 750°, often burning hardwood charcoal. Mibrasa ovens and grills are used by a Who’s Who of celebrity chefs, including Dominique Crenn, Chris Cosentino, Curtis Stone and Paul Kahan.Mibrasa recently introduced a backyard series of its venerable ovens in three sizes, scaled down a bit from its high-end commercial models, but still high-performance, ultra heavy duty and hand made from heavy gauge steel, things of beauty, but not cheap at $12-$20,000. These are backyard centerpiece statements.The New Affordable Backyard Grilling AlternativesFirst two clarifications.One is that in all things outdoor cooking, I always recommend not buying cheap grills, smokers or any outdoor appliances and generally eschew big box store models, though big box stores have started carrying better stuff. Outdoor cooking appliances have to withstand a lot, from the high heat of cooking to being left uncleaned and full of ashes for weeks at a time (let’s be honest here), as well as the year round elements: rain, sun and snow. Cheap models are flimsy and built of lower quality materials, and they tend to fail quickly, rust, buckle, have ignition and fire issues, wheels break off, and they generally fall apart, often within three seasons. Traeger's new 2-burner Irontop griddle.Traeger GrillsNot only is your “bargain” very short lived, but they are a huge pain to dispose of. In addition to the durability issues there is a big performance gap: cheaper grills, griddles and smokers often heat unevenly or inaccurately, often can’t get hot enough, and lack more advanced technologies that prevent flare ups, make them easier to clean and make for more styles of cooking. At the bare minimum buy a legit reliable brand (like Weber) that is well built and will last. In general, with most outdoor cooking, below about four hundred dollars, you get what you pay for, which is not much. For reference, these days, even the entry level 2-burner Weber Spirit, the venerable brand’s least expensive gas grill, is $450, and many run over a thousand.That brings us to point number two. These alternatives are very affordable compared to the luxury models, but as the title above says, these are still products for backyard gourmets, and they are high quality, so they are not cheap, but instead, they are good values and far less expensive.Think of all the things you could make on the largest 4-burner Traeger Irontop griddle.Traeger GrillsLast year I got the first griddle model from Traeger, the company that popularized automated pellet smokers and is the respected leader in that space. If you have a pellet smoker—by any brand—you know how much easier it is to make great slow smoked barbecue, and you can thank the folks at Traeger.Last year they moved beyond their venerable smokers and rolled out their first griddle or flattop, the Flatrock model, which is what I have. Leading culinary website SeriousEats.com awarded it “Best Splurge” in backyard griddles, specialty site TheBarbecueLab.com ranked it number one among the eight top brands, and Wirecutter, the impartial New York Times gear review site, also picked the Flatrock as its “Upgrade Pick” calling it a “A luxe option for griddle mavens.”The Flatrock comes in 2and 3 burner models (small and large) for $7-900. That’s not a fortune compared to a twenty thousand dollar Spanish grill, but it’s still a lot for an appliance that for most backyard cooks will be the second or third purchase after a gas grill and a smoker.A peak "under the hood" of the new 4-burner Irontop. Traeger is highly rated for its consistent heat across every square inch of the griddle, and this is why.Traeger GrillsThat’s why the big news this summer is the new Irontop Griddle lineup from Traeger, with the same great design experience, same signature even heat across the entire surface, edge to edge, making every square inch count—but at a lower price point. One advantage is that while it also comes in two sizes, including a smaller 2-zone model, the larger Irontop has four burners instead of three for even more precise zone control when cooking multiple things, or when cooking on one part and keeping things warm at the same time. It’s also bigger than the larger Flatrock, mine, at 648-square inches versus 594. I’ve been testing a 4-burner Irontop and have seen no drop in quality from my other Traeger. But the price? Irontops are $500 and $600, and I’d rather spend $600 on the larger, 4-burner Irontop then the more expensive 2-burner 468 square inch Flatrock. It’s a lot of cooking power, flexibility and quality for $600.Also, many gas griddles for outdoor use being sold today have no hinged cover and do not close, which makes no sense to me and I would never buy a model like this.The new Handcrafted Hibachi Collection from Spain's Mibrasa makes for elegant tabletop grilling.MibrasaFrom across the pond, our friends at Mibrasa just rolled out a new and much more affordable series of Spanish tabletop coal fired grills specifically for consumer backyard use. According to the company, its new Handcrafted Hibachi Collection is “Bringing Spanish-built precision to the tabletop,” with “compact, portable hibachi grills deliver an approachable entry into luxury live-fire cooking – designed for backyard tables, tailgates, and open-air gatherings.”These are not your grandfather’s hibachi grills they used to sell at the front of supermarkets next to patio chairs. They are handmade in Palamós, Spain from heavy duty steel and are completely welded—meaning no screws or bolts to fail. They look great and they cook great, with high temps and a simple but elegant open grate design perfect for skewers, steaks, chops anything you can put on a grill. A lot of grills and smokers sell accessories that look cool but you will never use. Not so with Mibrasa, these add-ons are things you want to seriously consider that will greatly increase functionality for backyard grilling, especially an elevated second tier top grill that sits on the hibachi and gives you greater heat control, a place to keep things warm, cook over lower heat or an ideal setup for toasting buns, all while greatly expanding the cooking area. There are heavy duty lids to turn them into roasters/smokers and stands to allow you to use them right on a nice table with no fear of scorching. There are also secondary finer grates for cooking things like fish, shrimp, scallops and veggies so they can’t fall through the slots.The same Mibrasa hibachi with some of the more useful accessoiresMibrasaThe hibachis come in three sizes from $395 - $895 and are the new gold standard in tabletop grilling. If a $15,000 Mibrasa oven is the centerpiece of a backyard kitchen, then the much less expensive Mibrasa hibachi is the centerpiece of the backyard table and fosters a communal and social cook yourself or cook in front of everyone ambiance—the same kind you can get from a backyard grill table like the one I have, which runs over ten grand.At the end of the day, backyard grilling is often about entertaining, and in many places, there’s a bit of one upmanship and bragging rights. Withs its functional elegance, there’s little doubt that hosting a tabletop grill dinner on one of these Mibrasa hibachis will up your neighborhood envy quotient.