The Inside Scoop on Outdoor Kitchens
By Lisa Readie Mayer
Many owners of upscale homes are including a kitchen in their backyard renovation plans, creating an outdoor great room with areas for relaxation, entertainment, recreation, cooking and dining. Much more than just a cooking grill, a backyard kitchen can offer most of the conveniences and appliances that are found in an indoor kitchen.
Not only does an outdoor kitchen have a trendy look, but it also has a practical side. If you've ever run back and forth between the grill and your indoor kitchen, you can imagine how convenient it would be to have everything that you need to grill and serve a meal right at your fingertips.
Creating Your Own Kitchen
What goes into a backyard kitchen depends on your budget and space constraints. Before you start the design process, ask yourself a few questions:
• How do you plan to use the outdoor kitchen? Strictly for making dinner or for full-scale entertaining?
• Do you entertain large groups or host more intimate gatherings?
• What foods do you usually cook on your existing grill? Would you try grilling other foods or using other grilling techniques if your grill allowed you to experiment?
• Based on your area's climate, how many months of use can you expect?
With these thoughts in mind, you can start planning your outdoor kitchen design. Some grill and grilling island manufacturers offer design plans, or you may work with a contractor to come up with something that best fits your needs. Magazines, barbecue, pool and patio retailers and home centers are other great sources for collecting layout ideas.
The cooking grill is at the center of the outdoor kitchen. Today's high-end grills are typically hard-working units with a host of well-engineered features to make cooking on them as consistent and convenient as cooking on an indoor range or in an oven.
Extra-large grilling surfaces offer tremendous cooking capabilities and multi-zoned burners that allow the simultaneous cooking of foods at different temperatures. Other features to look for include grilling grids that can be set at different heights from the heat source, built-in wood chip trays to provide more authentic smoky barbecued flavor and heavy-duty motorized rotisseries for hands-free grilling of whole chickens, turkeys or roasts.
Convenient sideburners positioned next to the grilling grid enable you to heat sauces, boil corn or sauté onions to complement your steak. The newest grills have the added ability to switch between gas and charcoal-style cooking.
The Pros Weigh In
"Just as premium indoor appliances continue to grow, Americans want quality outdoors as well," says David Becker, vice president, product management, of Viking Range Corporation in Greenwood, Miss. "They're not just buying a grill; they're building an outdoor kitchen. We're looking at every one of our indoor products to see if they have outdoor applications."
Tom Caulfield, vice president of sales and marketing for Dynamic Cooking Systems (DCS) in Huntington Beach, Calif., agrees, "There is a growing outdoor living trend that's leading consumers to plan and build outdoor kitchens."
Additional island built-ins to consider are electrical outlets, lighting for nighttime grilling, refrigerators or insulated cooling cabinets and sinks that attach to a garden hose. Range hoods to vent smoke are available if an overhang covers your patio kitchen.
"There is no shortage of people spending money on pools, decks and grills in the New England area," notes Tom Meyer, owner of Vermont Islands, located in Putney, Vt. The company manufactures rich-looking mahogany and granite grilling islands. "Because our season is shorter, we play harder and enjoy our outdoor time more."
Kitchens for All Climates
David Blaine, sales and marketing manager of Canadian-based Napoleon Appliance Corporation, says that a short season is hardly an issue. He notes that in the Northeast and Midwest, much disposable income is spent on boats, lake cottages and beach homes. An outdoor kitchen is another way to make the most of limited leisure time.
However you decide to design your outdoor kitchen and grilling system, it will team perfectly with and complement your pool and spa area, providing an inviting retreat for families with discriminating taste.