How a chef cooks with Robata grill? Yakitori grill

There are also no control knobs in robata grills that allow you to control the temperature like in other grills, instead, the layout of the grills is set up in a way that there are different levels of grill grates where you can place the food on top of.

Raw meat is placed at the bottom grill gate to receive the searing temperatures directly from the coals and then you place the food on the higher grill grates until you reach the top grate where you only need to saute the meat/food.

Depending on the kind of food/recipe you’re cooking you can transfer them from the top grate after a few minutes of sauteing.

So, in essence, you control how the heat affects the food by placing and replacing the food at the different layers on the robata grill in order to cook them.

It’s quite the challenge, but with enough time to practice robatayaki-style of cooking, you should be able to master it.

How does the Robata Grill Differ from other grills?

The teppanyaki iron griddle, when compared to the robata grill, is actually not a grill, but just a flat square or rectangular chrome/stainless steel surface where the chef mostly stir-fry things, although they can technically grill meat, vegetables, and other food.

Robata grill vs hibachi grill

Meanwhile, the hibachi grill is a small cylindrical or cube-like baked clay or melted diatomaceous earth that was originally built as a heating device in ancient Japanese homes.

Later on, people used it for grilling seafood and other recipes that were perfect for quick grilling on small grilling equipment.

Tobata grill vs Yakitori grill

The yakitori grill, on the other hand, was specifically made to cook yakitori meat (skewered meat like Mongolian BBQ style).

There are also your normal American charcoal grills and they are vastly different from the robata grill.

With the robata grill, the heat source (the smoldering Kishu binchotan charcoals) cannot be adjusted and remains constant all throughout your cooking and grilling.

You do robatayaki-style cooking/grilling by adjusting the height on which the food/meat is placed on top of the grill.

Raw food recipes/meats are placed closer to the heat source to cook them evenly, then the chef moves them higher on the multiple layers of grill grates to lessen the amount of heat that they receive.