Outdoor kitchen design
We’ve always loved to entertain outside, even in our first terraced house with its small garden, folding table and chairs, and a gas grill that had very little in terms of outdoor kitchen design. It was simple, but we had many good times.
Fast-forward close to 30 years, and we’re still entertaining outdoors. The difference now is that the furniture is a little more comfortable, and our outdoor kitchen setup has improved. Our choice of barbecue grills has certainly changed with its Big Green Eggs, Charlie Ovens, pizza oven and OFYR.
Our outdoor kitchen design has evolved. Our desire to cook and entertain outside has always been a priority. Business needs have influenced the current layout, and whilst we may scale it back at some point in the future, we’ve learnt a lot along the way.
We’re not professing to be garden or outdoor kitchen designers, but what we can do is share our experience of creating our own outdoor living space for cooking and entertaining and some pointers.
How do you want to use your outdoor space?
Most people we talk to want to build themselves a full outdoor kitchen, but we’d question, is that really what you need? We’ve seen people build in sinks, fridges, dishwashers, gas grills, charcoal grills, pizza ovens, bars… but will you actually use all of these?
Obviously your budget and how much space you have available will ultimately determine what you can achieve.
We’d encourage you to think about the problems you are trying to solve. To do this, you might want to ask yourself a few questions.
- Is this a space to entertain or a space for me to cook more comfortably?
- What time of day and year am I going to be using it? Will my setup or needs change through the seasons?
- Do I need to stay dry or out of the sun?
- What type of cooking am I going to be doing?
- How much work surface do I need to prep and serve food and drinks?
- Am I going to live here a while, or do I need to take my kitchen and grills with me if I move?
Where you have limited space, it can be a simple setup, where your primary goal is to optimise storage and maybe give you some weather protection so you can cook outside all year round and move around comfortably.
You may have a larger area, and you want to make sure you can spend more time with your guests while you entertain them, so you need more prep area and storage, and maybe a fridge.
Or perhaps your area is just somewhere you want to escape to, so you can indulge in your passion for barbecue, but not somewhere you’re going to spend time with others.
We always wanted a space where our family and friends could relax and eat alfresco in comfort. Some of the changes to our garden have been driven by turning our passion for outdoor cooking into a business, but the following considerations are relevant to everyone.
Storage, prep and cooking space
We find most people have found a passion for cooking and entertaining outside and have bought themselves a nice grill, hopefully, a Big Green Egg! They’ve then gone on to accessorise it and now have a whole bunch of bits and pieces stashed away in a shed or in the kitchen cupboards, or more often than not, on shelves around their grill. They also want space to work on while cooking.
While the Big Green Egg tables are nice, and that’s how we started out, they don’t hide things away, so they always look cluttered. Being wood, they also require care and maintenance.
What you really need, as we’ve all discovered in our indoor kitchens, is cupboards and a work surface. Big Green Egg has tackled this with its modular nest and expansion system, but the cupboard space is limited, and the work surfaces are small. While we can supply the Big Green Egg modular system, there are better options.
The three options we really love and use are Big4Space, OFYR and VLAZE. They have very different price points, even though they are very high quality.
Big4Space makes kitchen islands for both the Large and XL Eggs (as well as other kamados) and even has a unit designed with no cutout for the MiniMax or a pizza oven. Built with locking casters, they can be moved around or just left in place. We love the sliding doors that never get in the way, and the huge amount of storage.
VLAZE have some truly beautiful units with enamelled surfaces and doors. The systems are modular just like normal kitchen units, so you can build in fridges, sinks, bins, cutlery trays… This comes at a price though. We have three of their units and love them. These units only fit the Large Big Green Egg.
OFYR offer two units from their Professional range, to which storage can be added. These only fit the Large Big Green Egg.
Built-in or mobile?
While your outdoor kitchen may not move most of the time, you might want to consider whether to have your units fixed or mobile on casters. We have a unit with a sink that needs to be plumbed (at least for the water source). Our unit is still on casters; the water source is through a food-grade hose pipe.
Having your units on casters works when they are smaller. Our sink unit is 2.4 meters long, but having it on casters means I can change the garden’s layout and, more importantly, get behind the unit should I ever drop anything down the back or need to get to the back of the Egg to adjust it. We’ve even used the casters during a few classes to move a workstation into the shade on extremely hot days.
Our only units not on casters are our fridge, because casters weren’t an option, and our OFYR firepit, again as the model we chose, doesn’t have casters as an option.
To cover or not to cover?
For many years, our only outdoor cover was a parasol, which was lowered into the middle of the table. We supplemented this with free standing parasols when we needed more shade. But this isn’t a great solution when it’s raining.
We also tried a cantilever parasol in a solid concrete base as it could cover a bigger area. It was bit more mobile, but still cumbersome, and a sniff of a breeze and frankly, it had to come down. Have you ever nioticed the wind always seems to get up when it rains?
We have now upgraded to a Renson pergola with automatic roof and lighting. It was a significant investment but it provides both shade and shelter, with the added bonus of built in dimmable LED lighting.
We’ve designed our pergola to keep our guests shaded and dry, not to keep our BBQs dry. The BBQs work just fine in the rain, so why spend a lot of money covering them when you’re not stood next to them all the time. I can take one step back from the grill and be undercover.
Big Green Egg and….?
Our outdoor kitchen started with a gas grill, a Weber Summit S-650. It was a beast of a gas grill with side tables, a side burner, a rotisserie with an infrared burner, six burners, and a smoking box with its burner, and storage underneath. It was fabulous. Almost 20 years later, it’s still working perfectly and serving great food, just not in my garden. Shortly after buying the Big Green Egg we realised the taste was so much better, and getting it lit and up to temperature was just as quick as the gas grill. My brother-in-law, Rob, now has the Weber.
I’ve seen so many people design an outdoor kitchen and put in a Big Green Egg and a brand new gas grill, as ‘it will be used more and it’s easier for quick cooks’. From my experience, the gas grill won’t be used.
Depending on how keen on outdoor cooking you are, you might want to think about another type of oven. We have two that are part of our kitchen:
- Charlie Oven – these are big charcoal ovens, a little like you’d find in a commercial kitchen. They have loads of space within them so you can cook whole meals with ease. If we’re cooking a roast dinner, I’ll be found outside cooking in the Charlie Oven.
- Pizza Ovens – while the Big Green Egg makes a good pizza in about 5 minutes, a pizza oven will make a great pizza in 1.5 minutes or less. If you’re throwing a pizza party, or feeding a family, the shorter cooking time will be welcome. We’ve chosen the DeliVita Woodfired oven for its authentic wood-fired taste and clay lining. I think you get better results than with a metal-lined oven. We do also own the DeliVita Diavolo, a smaller gas-fired, metal-lined oven, but it doesn’t get as much use.
- OFYR – as well as having their Kamado Table Pro range that host a Big Green Egg, OFYR have superb fire pits with iron cooking surface around the fire. This is real live fire cooking. We love their products and use an OFYR in just about every class.
Wire it up
When designing your outdoor space make sure you consider the following:
- Lighting – not only is it lovely to create a beautiful lighting scene for entertaining, it’s also fabulous if you can see what you’re cooking, especially when the nights draw in. We cook outdoors all year round, so good, well-positioned lighting is key. A light just behind your Big Green Egg is almost useless as the dome will cast a shadow.
- Power sockets – some of the accessories we use require a power socket. The LetzQ Spit Rotisserie needs a socket to run the motor. We position ours just behind the Egg so they remain out of sight, but are easily reached. Other accessories like the Egg Genius may require power if you don’t run them from a portable phone charger.
Other features to consider
You’ve got your Big Green Egg set up perfectly for you. But what else might you consider for your outdoor kitchen?
A sink
We speak to loads of people who want a sink in their setup. We have one. It’s lovely to have water for cooking and to wash your hands. However, consider these points:
- Where is the waste water going to be drained? If it’s just handwashing, then letting it soak away is fine, but you can’t wash up as you’d need a mains water waste connection for that.
- Do you need hot and cold water? Running a cold water supply is easy, you can do it simply with a food grade hose from an outside tap. Hot water, on the other hand, will be more tricky. You could plumb it in, but this will be expensive. You could also pop a boiler in a cupboard by the sink, again not cheap. Whatever you choose to do, don’t forget to drain it down when it gets cold to avoid damage.
- How are you going to dry your hands? We’ve installed a paper towel dispenser by our sink. It’s the most hygienic way for people attending our classes to dry their hands. It’s right by the sink and the bin.
A fridge
We’ve built in a drinks fridge and wouldn’t be without it. We don’t use it for food storage. Ideally, you need an outdoor-rated fridge, and these aren’t cheap. We have a Blastcool XP1, which is around £2000.
A bin
Cooking is a messy business, so consider putting in a bin. You may want this hidden in a cupboard, or free standing.
Heating
If you’re entertaining and it cools down, it’s nice to be able to provide some heating to make your guests more comfortable. Typically people do this with a firepit or stove. Make sure you get the right one though, as you want it to be smokeless and ideally have a chimney that should anything smoke, the smoke is away from your guests.
We love the RB 73 stoves and have the XL 4 window version on casters, again so we can move it to where it is needed (upwind of our guests so they benefit from the heat). They do a bigger version, but it’s too high to sit around and have a conversation over the top.
Other options are infrared electric heaters, and these can be built into a pergola, but they do require wiring and this could be expensive if you need a new power supply.
The old patio gas heaters with the aluminium cap have become incredibly expensive to run with the current price of gas refills.
Furniture
Our favourite unit is our VLAZE Adapt bar unit. Its overhang with the three stools allows us to entertain while cooking. It’s not super comfortable though, so we have our table and chairs. When selecting these ,look for something that suits how you’ll use your outdoor kitchen. As we host a lot of classes, our main table is quite practical and the chairs fixed. If we ran fewer classes, I think we would go for reclining chairs and a round table that would be more suited to entertaining.
Your outdoor space
It’s all about creating a space that works for you, whether it’s a simple shack, a complete outdoor kitchen or somewhere in between. Take some time to plan the space, the look and feel, required features and your priorities; this will help you achieve your perfect spot to cook and entertain outdoors.
Get it right and you can be outside cooking all year round, as well as the most popular person in your crowd when it comes to entertaining outside.