Outdoor kitchen ideas for your garden: upgrade your BBQ this summer — from pizza ovens to fire pits and eco-friendly fuel

Summer may be short but pizza ovens, pergolas — even charging points — are here to stay.
1/5
Alex Mitchell18 April 2019

Remember when cooking outside meant wheeling your old barbecue out from behind the shed, brushing the rust off and burning a few sausages in the rain?

Such sorry scenes don’t cut the burger mustard today for Brits, who start thnking about a barbecue after the first hour of weak spring sunshine. Fortunately there is plenty of fancy kit to help sprinkle glamour on alfresco dining.

Nowadays “outdoor kitchens” are all the rage for Londoners. With grills built into smart countertops, pizza ovens, fridges, a pergola to keep the rain off and even charging-points for mobile phones, these alfresco cooking stations include everything and the kitchen sink.

We may have three months of hot weather a year (and that’s being generous) but that doesn’t stop us dreaming of balmy nights by the grill.

The Wwoo Brainmaster is an all-in-one grill, barbeque and fireplace
Wwoo UK Outdoor Kitchens

A stylish built-in cooking and dining area appeals to “improve-don’t-move” Londoners who want to extend their living space as much as they can.

Instagram has probably helped the trend, with images of impeccably styled shelves of potted herbs, chopping boards and smoking grills.

Cornering the market in cool is the Wwoo outdoor kitchen, a Dutch concrete modular system in the very now colours of anthracite or light grey that can be customised with sinks, barbecues and pizza ovens.

Its rugged utility look works well in small outdoor city spaces, and it is loved by Heston Blumenthal and interior designer Abigail Ahern. Installation takes only a couple of hours and it is fully weatherproof.

Each section is 1.5m wide and comes in a choice of three heights so you can fit it to your space.

“Expect to pay around £1,500 for the basic setup,” says Wwoo’s Emily Hawkins.

This doesn’t include the kit, such as the popular ceramic Kamado-style Big Green Egg charcoal grill and sink, but, she says, if you’re on a budget you could use a grill you already have and the unit could be cut so it slots in. Otherwise you’re looking at at least £6,000 for a complete Wwoo kitchen.

For London garden designer Rosie Nottage, the push for outdoor kitchens is also driven by people’s love for growing their own food and eating it in situ. “People want to eat their own herbs and make a mojito, or cook lamb with rosemary.”

She has worked with leading outdoor kitchen supplier Firemagic on a Balham project, creating a smart kitchen area at the end of the garden with a slate countertop and gas grill with built-in storage.

There are smart off-the-peg options for those on a tighter budget. Check out Ikea for compact outdoor kitchen set-ups, and a charcoal or gas barbecue set into a wooden trolley with a weatherproof stainless steel surface and handy lower shelf (Applaro/Klasen Charcoal Barbecue with Trolley, ikea.com, £240).

For an extra £30 you can include a cabinet to hide your charcoal, bin and tools. It would be perfect for a balcony or small garden. If you want to create your own outdoor kitchen area, push any outdoor table against the fence and add a countertop grill or pizza oven.

Delivita’s Yorkshire-made pizza ovens weigh only 30kg and can be placed on any table, even glass ones (delivita.com, from £1,200).

A reclaimed slate or marble table (try lassco.co.uk reclamation yard) will add character, suggests Nottage, but any outdoor table is fine as long as it’s weatherproof and stain resistant.

Put up a shelf or two to hang tools from and display potted herbs and bottles. Paint the shelves and back fence the same dark colour to create an all-in-one kitchen look. String outdoor lanterns above it and place wooden crates underneath for cutlery, plates and barbecue prongs.

The Yanartas Fire Pit is best for small gardens
Arpestudio.co.uk

And if the “fitted” kitchen look is not for you? A great choice for small London gardens is a metal fire pit (such as the Yanartas Fire Pit from £210, arpestudio.co.uk) with a grill.

Cook on it and then warm yourself around it long into the night with a cold beer.

Charcoal, gas or electric? What's the eco-choice?

Friends of the Earth advises that natural-gas barbecues produce less smoke and polluting particulates than charcoal models.

On the other hand, natural gas is a fossil fuel while charcoal, especially if it is British-made, is carbon neutral.

To be truly eco, buy an electric outdoor grill and plug it into your mains electricity provided by a renewable supplier.

However, these appliances have no flame so may not satisfy barbecue enthusiasts. High-end charcoal grills pride themselves on their “clean” burning because of the very high temperatures they can create.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT