Bison Hill started with an apron. Specifically, with the absence of a good one.
In 2022, we were cooking over live fire regularly — charcoal sessions, a swing grill at events, occasional wood-fired cooks. And we were wearing the same aprons everyone else wears: thin canvas, one pocket, adjustable neck loop, printed logo. The kind that came in a three-pack. The kind that stain through in two sessions and whose pocket will not hold a probe thermometer without it falling out sideways.
The search
We looked for a better option. There were catering aprons — heavy and expensive but not designed for outdoor cooking. There were leather aprons — visually satisfying but uncomfortable for a four-hour session in July and requiring maintenance that most people will not do. There were branded aprons from BBQ accessory brands — thin fabric, novelty designs, no better than what we already had.
Nothing had the right combination of features, fabric weight, and construction for serious outdoor cooking at a fair price.
The decision to build
We are a design-led team. The decision to build it ourselves was not a long deliberation. We specified what we wanted — heavy denim, knife sheaths, deep pockets, a proper accessories belt — and worked through the design. This took most of 2022. The protected design specification was registered. The first production run was tested at the fire.
The result was the Gaucho BBQ Grill Apron.
What happened next
The Gaucho sold. And the feedback from customers kept returning to the same theme: they had not realised how much better a well-designed apron made a grill session until they had one. The knife sheaths especially — people did not know they needed them until they had them, and then they could not understand how they had managed without.
That feedback confirmed what we suspected: the opportunity was not just the apron. It was building a full range of live-fire cooking gear to the same standard. Tools that work in real conditions, made from the right materials, designed by people who cook over fire.
Where we are now
Bison Hill is a small, design-led brand based in Reigate, Surrey. We are a member of the STEAMhouse Create Programme, which gives us access to production space and tools. We have received internationalisation funding from the UK Government’s Department for International Trade. And we continue to make, sell, and ship from the UK.
The range includes the Gaucho apron, the Couples’ Gaucho set, the King Fork, the Bison Skewer, the Trio Skewer, the BBQ Blade, and handcrafted BBQ Blocks made from English oak sourced a few miles from our workshop.
Every product has been tested at a live fire before it went on sale. That is the only standard we hold ourselves to.
What Bison Hill Stands For
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