Do you love to cook outside? Are you dreaming of a wonderful new outdoor kitchen? Are you considering making it part of your new landscaped garden?

Over the past 30+ years, we've designed and built a lot of gardens. Today it seems like every garden we create includes an outdoor kitchen. 

In this article, we'd like to share some of the most popular features everyone is dreaming of for their ideal outdoor kitchen. With some tips on what additional features you might want to consider to make yours perfect for you and your family.

Deciding what goes into your outdoor kitchen starts with asking yourself how you like to cook and what you like to cook. Answering that first question will help you choose whether your dream outdoor kitchen should include:

• a traditional BBQ with grill (without or without a wok burner)
• a smoker
• a rotisserie
• a wood-fired pizza oven

Of course, you could have it all, but space restrictions might mean you have to choose only 1 or 2 from the above list. 

Additional features you may want to consider, which can often be determined by your budget and available space, are:

• Outdoor fridge/fridges (integrated or free-standing)
• Wok burner (separate from the BBQ)
• Sink with hot and cold water

The final consideration is how much bench space you want or can fit in your outdoor kitchen.

Why people love cooking in an outdoor kitchen

The motivation for most people choosing an outdoor kitchen is simple. Cooking and eating outside are part of the great Australian lifestyle. Being blessed with such a wonderful climate means we enjoy many months of the year when we can fire up the BBQ, grab a drink and enjoy alfresco dining.

For some people, the motivation can be more practical, like wives who think their husbands make too much mess in the kitchen and would prefer them cooking outside!

For others, it's just the simple joy of being outside, in the garden on a warm summer's evening. Whether it's a Tuesday night with the kids for lamb chops and a salad. Or a Saturday night with your best friends popping over for something a little bit fancier. 

In conversations with our clients over the past few years, the top 3 reasons why people most want an outdoor kitchen are:

• Cooking meat can be smokey and messy, so it's often better done outside
• Cooking outside is far more interactive, allowing you to entertain others as you cook rather than inviting everyone into your kitchen
• It's just a very good reason to be outside and enjoy the space you've created especially if you've done a big garden makeover that includes a deck or pool

What will you be cooking outdoors?

Thinking about what you like to cook and how you like to cook it, will help determine what type of BBQ or other cooking unit/s to select for your outdoor kitchen.

Traditional grilling - If you're a traditionalist who likes to keep things simple by grilling steak, chicken, chops, sausages and the like you will find most BBQs feature a grill. Giving you the widest possible range to choose from, at all price points and styles.

Smokers - The art of smoking food has exploded in popularity over the past few years. If you're a keen "smoker" then this might lead to an entirely different kind of setup for your outdoor kitchen. 

A popular type of smoker now in vogue is what is called an 'egg smoker' (so-called for its shape not because you smoke eggs in it!). We recently installed one of these for a client and you can see it was integrated into the cooking bench alongside the more traditional BBQ.

Rotisserie - A lovely way to cook food, rotisseries are often used for large cuts of meat. A lot of BBQs come with this as an optional attachment if this takes your fancy. You can hardwire the motor to drive them into your outdoor kitchen design.

Pizza Oven - Wood-fired pizza ovens are another popular trend our clients have been requesting. It's a lovely way to share the cooking. While many people think wood-fired ovens are only for pizza the truth is all kinds of meat, fish and vegetables can be cooked this way. Here you can see a wood-fired oven with a traditional BBQ all integrated into the one design.

Deciding what you will cook your food on or in, helps you choose the key features of your outdoor kitchen. These will become the centrepiece with everything else designed around them. It will also help determine how much bench space you might need and how the rest of the kitchen will flow around it. 

Making your outdoor kitchen flow

Once you've decided how you will be cooking and on what, there are some other key features to consider. These not only determine what additional features you might need to include but also how the "flow" of your kitchen will work.

When we move from cooking indoors to cooking outdoors there are many things we take for granted which are already in our kitchens such as a fridge, sink and other cooking devices.

Given you will not want to be making endless trips back inside the house to get things, it always helps to consider installing some of these popular features in your outdoor kitchen.

Outdoor fridge 

The easiest solution for an outdoor fridge is simply to choose a free-standing small bar-type fridge. But this can often mean very limited space to keep food and drinks cold and handy. A much smarter solution is an integrated fridge or fridges, which can be built in under the bench, giving you more space to keep cool things handy. They also look so much smarter being integrated into the design than a free-standing bar fridge.

Kitchen sink

No kitchen is complete without a sink. And if you don't have one outside you will find yourself regretting it. Preparing and cooking food is a messy business. Having hot and cold running water on tap and a sink to rinse things in is a must-have for any decent outdoor kitchen. We find this is at the top of the list for most clients in their outdoor kitchens.

Wok burner

If you like cooking Asian-style meals in a wok, then a wok burner is another 'must-have' for an outdoor kitchen. Many BBQs have built-in wok burners but they are often not as good as a dedicated wok burner. So if you're a serious wok cooker you might want to consider a proper, stand-alone, integrated wok burner that can be installed with its own dedicated gas supply.

Benchtops

Having chosen all the features you want included in your outdoor kitchen, your next decision is the benchtops. The key decision here is what sort of material you want your benchtop made from. One of the most popular is of course granite. 

But the best move is to give whoever is designing your outdoor kitchen, the dimensions of the space they have to work with and what inclusions you want. They will help advise you on the best materials for your benchtop and the best design layout for your outdoor kitchen, depending on your budget.

Additional outdoor kitchen elements to consider

There are several other practical elements to consider when installing an outdoor kitchen. Some of them are determined by your choices made earlier. 

For example, if you do decide to install an outdoor kitchen sink, you will need not only to plumb in the hot and cold water but also a drain for taking the waste away like your indoor sinks.

For all your cooking devices such as BBQ, smoker, wok etc you will need to decide whether you will fuel these with refillable gas bottles or install a dedicated gas line to the outdoor kitchen.

If you've chosen a wood-fired pizza oven you will of course need to locate somewhere to store the wood that is handy and accessible.

Finally, there are all the electrical installations for the fridge, lighting and other items.

Factoring Melbourne weather into your outdoor kitchen plans

While we are blessed with many gorgeous long summer days in Melbourne, we all know it can also turn quite fickle.

So perhaps the most important additional feature for your outdoor kitchen can be whether or not you will roof it in or leave it open. 

Some people opt for partial cover by simply having the cooking and food preparation area covered, often with the existing roof overhang or by extending it somewhat. They then leave the alfresco dining area with table and chairs open.

Others prefer to have the entire outdoor kitchen area roofed over. If you are indecisive as to whether to make this cover permanent or not, the great news is that these days there are many roofing options, including louvre designs and even retractable roofing.

Louvre designs are probably the most popular, giving you the option to open or close the louvres at the touch of a button. This lets you not only close them fully to keep out the rain but also open them partially to reduce sun glare. 

If you want total control and a clear unhindered view of the sky on a glorious summer day, a retractable roof is the ideal option. More expensive than louvres this choice normally includes louvres as well so you can enjoy all the benefits and flexibility of them, while also being able to fully retract the roof at the touch of a button.

You can of course also make your outdoor kitchen permanently roofed as below.

Wind protection

As well as the rain from above, another factor in Melbourne's weather that can affect your enjoyment of your outdoor kitchen is the wind. Depending on where you are located and how open or exposed your outdoor kitchen is to the elements can affect whether or not you need to consider some sort of screen or blind to reduce the wind.

Some of our recent projects for clients on the Mornington Peninsula have had to allow for the wind and salt spray that can come up from the bay. In these cases, we've installed retractable blind systems to help maintain not just the intimacy of the alfresco space but also you and your family's comfort on windy days.

We hope this article has helped you with some key decisions around what you might like to include in your outdoor kitchen. Of all the features we install when we landscape a client's new garden, this is often the most desired after a new pool.

If you have more questions about outdoor kitchens, need some advice or even want to discuss your landscaping needs with us, please feel free to reach out to us. If we can't answer your questions we will always try to point you in the right direction.

And if you'd like to have a more detailed consultation with one of our designs to workshop some ideas and plans without any obligation, feel free to click the link below

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