This year marks the 40th anniversary of the invention of the infrared grill by Thermal Engineering Corp. (TEC®). In the mid-1970s, Bill Best, CEO and founder, was focused on industrial paint-curing systems that used his patented infrared burner. A personal project—taking a burner from his lab and putting it into a grill for his family—became a full-blown business when Best discovered that infrared heat didn’t dry out food on the grill.

Best set out to manufacture the best grill out of the best materials made in the United States, and TEC sold its first infrared grill in 1978. TEC’s first customers are still cooking on their original grills, 40 years later.

“We’ve found that many people associate infrared grilling with high-temperature searing. That’s because my first ceramic burners would only turn down to 650 degrees,” Best explains. “This is the technology that you see in our competitors’ infrared grills, which they started using when our patents expired in 2000.” The newest generation of TEC grills features a 100% infrared grilling system that slow cooks, smokes, and sears.

Best says, “We’ve perfected a grilling system that features a high-temperature glass plate under the grates and a stainless-steel burner that allows you to turn the grill down to 200 degree and slow cook or smoke for hours—or turn it up to 900 degrees and sear a steak. It’s an incredible temperature range that enormously expands the potential for infrared grilling, and it’s 100% infrared. The original ceramic burners cooked with about 35% infrared energy and 65% hot air. The end result, with the new grilling system, is noticeably juicier food.”