The Kitchen Moves Outside: Introducing Our Outdoor Kitchens

At most gatherings, the person doing the cooking misses half of it. They are indoors at the hob while everyone else is in the garden, appearing now and then with a tray and vanishing again. An outdoor kitchen fixes that. The cook is at the centre of things, and the meal becomes part of the afternoon instead of an interruption to it.

We now offer complete outdoor kitchens from Grillandia, and they are a natural partner to the structures we build.

Built From Modules

The useful thing about this range is that it is modular. Each unit does one job, and you combine them to suit how you cook. There is a grill unit, a kamado unit for slow cooking over charcoal, a pizza unit, a cooler and gas unit, a bar unit, and cabinets for storage.

You can begin with a single unit and add to it over time, or start with one of the complete layouts. The Grillandia Rare is the most compact of these, a full working kitchen in a modest footprint, and the layouts grow from there for those who cook for a crowd.

What an Outdoor Kitchen Needs

A grill on its own is a barbecue. What turns it into a kitchen is everything around it: a worktop to prepare on, somewhere cold for drinks and raw food, storage for tools and plates so you are not walking back to the house every five minutes, and a place for guests to lean and talk while you cook.

Before you choose units, think through a meal from start to finish. Where does the food come out of the fridge, where is it prepared, where is it cooked, and where is it served? If those four things happen in a sensible line, the kitchen will be a pleasure to use.

Why It Belongs Under Cover

The units are built from weather-resistant materials and are made to live outside all year. But a kitchen you can only use on a dry day is a kitchen you will use a dozen times a summer. Put it under a veranda or a louvred pergola and it becomes usable in every season, which in this country is the difference between a novelty and a habit.

Ventilation matters, so cooking appliances want an open side or a roof that opens above them. A louvred pergola such as the Pinela Tilt is ideal for this, because you can open the roof over the grill while you cook and close it again when you sit down to eat.

A Shelter of Its Own

If you do not have a covered space and do not want to build one against the house, there is another route. The Grill Cabana is a sheltered cooking structure in its own right, so the kitchen arrives with its own roof and can stand wherever in the garden suits you.

Planning It Together

The best results come when the kitchen and the structure are designed at the same time. It lets us place the posts so they do not land where the worktop wants to be, and plan for lighting over the preparation area and power where it is needed.

If outdoor cooking is part of what you have in mind, say so at the first conversation. It costs nothing to plan for and is awkward to retrofit.