Middleby Outdoor International

The boss

Wes Osborne, managing director of Middleby Outdoor International

My hometown is now Den Haag in the Netherlands, via Atlanta, Georgia. I have spent nearly two decades in the outdoor space with various premium brands, be it fly fishing, coolers, hard goods or outdoor cooking.

The business

Middleby Outdoor is a three-brand platform – Kamado Joe, Masterbuilt and Char-Griller – providing all charcoal grill consumers a high value and quality piece of kit at all price levels. The business is relatively new in Europe, starting our own direct sales force in 2019.

The influence

I’m from the southern US, so my first memories were of whole hog BBQ. Standing around a pit all night with my father and grandfather shifting coals and turning the pig. I remember how I would smell the next day. It seemed it was more about the smiles and stories that brought us together while cooking than the meal itself.

The equipment

Anything that cooks with charcoal, as once you’ve experienced that taste, you need it all the time. These days I spend most of my time cooking on a Masterbuilt Gravity Series 800. It is amazingly versatile and I can have controlled charcoal ready to cook in 15 minutes, making weekday dinners for my children quick and effortless.

The meal

A Sunday roast. My colleagues in the UK got me started and it’s difficult to stop. A top sirloin in a JoeTisserie basket over live fire with roasted vegetables. Super simple to do and the results are amazing. My oldest son would say pizza as he loves making pizza dough first thing on a Saturday morning.

The next big thing

Connected technologies. At a time when we are spending more on food, both in terms

of money and sourcing, consumers can deliver high quality meals at home. Helping people to control and measure enables them to have consistent results with less waste. Not everyone is a pro and it’s our duty as ambassadors of our ‘sport’ to make great food more accessible.