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500 Guests, Zero Caterers: What an Outdoor Kitchen Can Really Do

July 15, 2026Events

During Stampede week, our friends at Designers Edge threw open the doors of their Calgary studio for a western open house. From one in the afternoon until past six, Danielle Paul and her team ran two parties at once. Inside, the full group of design companies was on display, showroom polished. Outside, the parking lot on 44 Avenue SE became the best block party in town: hay bales, balloons, a bucking buffalo ride, and a Lynx photo backdrop of an outdoor kitchen. Around 500 people from Calgary’s building and design community came through in their Stampede best.

We brought the food. And all afternoon, guests kept asking us the same question: which catering company are you?

You could see why. Most of the cooking happened behind the tents, out of sight. What guests saw was platter after platter of pulled-pork tacos and smash burgers appearing, hour after hour, as if there were a restaurant hidden back there. The one station out front only made it more convincing: our pizza ovens ran in full view, dough spinning in the air, while we showed guests how it is done. Professional theatre, apparently.

There was no restaurant. No caterers either. Just our team, cooking on the same products we design into backyards across Alberta and BC.

The secret is not the chef

We cook a lot. It comes with the job. But that is not why lunch for 500 worked. It worked because the equipment our partners build is engineered to make anyone cook like a professional. Not on a good day. Every time. That is the whole promise of a well-designed outdoor kitchen, and Stampede week gave us 500 witnesses.

Station one: pulled pork over live fire

For the guests who ventured behind the tents, the Hooray grill was worth the detour: a Santa Maria-style open-fire rig, the style many people know as a gaucho grill, with a bed of glowing coals and a crank-adjustable grate. It is cooking at its most elemental, and the Hooray turns live fire into something you can actually control. Slow-rendered pulled pork came off it all afternoon.

Hooray Santa Maria grill cooking pulled pork at Calgary Stampede event

Station two: pizza, front and centre

Pizza was the show. Two Fontana ovens and an Alfa One ran in full view for five hours: stretch, toss, top, fire, serve, repeat. Guests watched dough go airborne, asked questions, and learned how a backyard oven turns out a blistered crust in minutes. These ovens hold their heat and recover fast, which is what keeps a lineup moving. If you have ever wondered whether one of our pizza ovens is worth it, an afternoon like this settles the question.

pizza dough toss at outdoor pizza oven station

Station three: smash burgers on the flat top

The Evo Circle flat top and the Eno plancha handled the smash burgers and meatballs, working backstage. In your backyard, they are the front row: everything happens in the open, the sizzle does the marketing, and there is no lid to hide behind. For entertaining at home, nothing beats a flat top.

Evo Circle Smash Burgers

Could your outdoor kitchen do this?

Honest answer: we brought more firepower than a typical backyard kitchen. A well-designed outdoor kitchen usually has one main grill, one flat top and one pizza oven. We ran three pizza ovens, two flat tops and a live-fire grill, because 500 guests is 500 guests.

But every piece was standard equipment, the same models we install, cooked on by the same people who will design your kitchen. If this gear feeds 500 at a Stampede party, your single oven and flat top will handle your whole street on a Saturday, and dinner for twelve is not a project. It is a pleasure.

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Thank you, Designers Edge

A huge thank you to Danielle Paul and the whole Designers Edge team for hosting an unforgettable afternoon, and to our partners: Middleby Residential with Viking and Evo, Lynx Grills, and Cosentino. This is the part of the job we love most: standing beside the partners whose products we install every week, and proving together what they can really do. The only occupational hazard is being mistaken for a catering company.

Come taste the difference

Every piece of equipment from that afternoon lives in our studios. Come see it, touch it, and plan the outdoor kitchen that makes you the most relaxed cook at your own party.