A rusty metal tray on wobbly legs just doesn’t cut it these days, so choosing the right outdoor barbecue for your home may just give you peace of mind, while also providing you with a great outdoor cooking area for years to come.

"With the emphasis on outdoor entertaining, the trend is moving towards setting up an entirely functional outdoor kitchen," says barbecue retailer Stacey. "A large part of that means having the very best in barbecues."

Most barbecue retailers sell entire barbecue ‘units’, which might include items such as fridges, cabinets, sinks with in-built plumbing, even dishwashers and beer kegs.

These units can usually be customised to a certain degree, allowing you to choose benchtops (usually stainless steel or granite), cabinet sizes and how the individual pieces are arranged.

The biggest, most impressive, most high-tech model available is the Grand Turbo. ("We call it the Rolls Royce of barbecues," says Stacey.) Like many of the newfangled models on the market, the Grand Turbo would not look out of place orbiting the earth.

It’s all gleaming stainless steel, with metal arms (for preparing and storing food), a host of knobs along the front and hatches that open to reveal racks for grilling and roasting.

It’s fitted with an infra-red rotisserie burner – which, according to Stacey, "allows the meat to self-baste in its own juices" – and it has ceramic tiles beneath the grill, which add heat to the barbecue and cause meat juices, when they drip down, to vaporise and head back up to the meat as steam and smoke, keeping the meat moist and full flavoured.

Most modern models of barbecues come with roasting hoods to allow for cooking larger cuts of meat such as a leg of lamb and whole birds such as chickens and turkeys. The combination of convection cooking and easily managed heat allows for tender, tasty roasts with all their moisture intact.

"Barbecuing is not just about sausages and steaks anymore," says Stacey.

Contact a barbecue expert in your area to find out which outdoor cooking area is perfect for your backyard: