Gyros are a tasty part to the cuisine of America for about 60 years now and brought over by Greek immigrants in Chicago. Traditional gyros are made by turning meat over a spit. The word is from the Greek for “to turn.”
To simulate this, vertical gyro cookers, sometimes called vertical broilers, were invented. Meat is spitted on a vertical spike and turned slowly in front of panels that are rather like the inside of a toaster over. Drippings are caught in a lower pan. When serving, the cook slices off what he needs until that cut is gone. Some restaurants do buy pre-made gyro meat, or even pre-sliced pre-made gyro meat, but nothing can replace the smell, the display, or the taste of a gyro made properly on a vertical broiler.
If you like gyros and live in a big city, you can find the original dish it was based off of in Turkish restaurants, called doner. Doner and gyros come in many different varieties depending on the tastes of the chef and how they learned to make it. Some are very plain, and others are packed with sauces, potatoes, and other vegetables. What this means is that if you decide to add gyros to your menu there are a lot of possibilities. The most important part is the vertical broiler.
Thanks go out to Jeffrey W on Flickr for the Creative Commons use of the picture.
