This side of the Grill has ridges for cooking steaks. It will also make less contact with a sauce pan for slower cooking. For example. I can boil rice in a pan on the flat side and flip this over to simmer rice on this side with the ridges. The 'back' of the 14 inch circle will be hotter directly over the fire and moving the pan in or out will moderate the cooking heat. There is no quick way to change the heat from an open fire, but by changing the cooking surface and location of the pot will work just fine.