An outdoor system for cooking and/or smoking food in which a smart phone, remote or other hand-held wireless device can be used to start the cooking and/or smoking unit. To allow the unit to he started remotely, or to permit one or more other operations to he remotely activated, the system first determines whether the hand-held device is within a predetermined geo-fence boundary distance of the cooking an or smoking unit and/or determines whether one or more other status criteria are met.