THE DESIGNERS
Over the past five years, Chelsea medal-winning garden designers Harriet Farlam and Ben Chandler have frequently been asked to include kitchens in their designs, incorporating an outdoor dining and cooking terrace within the vegetable and herb garden.
“Some clients ask for the whole hog: fridges, sinks, gas grills and pizza ovens,” Harriet tells me, “and they can fairly easily end up spending more than on their main kitchen.”
Looking around, we agreed that the reason outdoor kitchens sometimes fail to look good is that people follow their interior design aesthetic, rather than their garden’s criteria. Look to Swedish company Roshults (shop.roshults.com) for luxury, or a handcrafted oak kitchen from Gaze Burvill, who push the boundaries of kitchen design – and take Sir Henry Royce’s tenet: “Take the best that exists and make it better” as your watchwords.
If I were buying, I’d go for Dutch company Wwoo’s off-the-peg modular concrete kitchens (available through designers like farlamandchandler.com or gardenhousedesign.co.uk); or a fabulous outdoor kitchen on wheels by Nico Moretti, from conranshop.co.uk. For those with DIY ambitions, scour the cara- van-fitting suppliers for tiny sinks, fridges and ovens and fit them into scaffold-board counters. tells me. “You can make really interesting shapes and forms, including spaces for sinks or waste disposal.” The kitchen has simple lapped pine cupboards with handles made from collected seashells drilled by Deacon (“They’re much harder than they look”), with spaces to house logs for the oven. If you stick to a carport footprint with no more than two sides, no planning permission is needed, and if close to the house, water and electricity supplies are not a problem to install.
German company Cubic Outdoor Living makes an ingenious pantry that opens out with space for a couple of units, possibly a sink and fridge with plenty of extra storage. Made of sustainable lightweight plant-based material, it has a 10-year warranty against winter weather and comes in a range of colours. Just add an oven and you have a complete space-saving package, perfect for the roof terrace or small urban garden (see cubicoutdoorliving.com).
SUMMER KITCHENS
by Olia Hercules (Bloomsbury). Appetising recipes for fresh, preserved and fermented garden-grown produce.
THE KINFOLK GARDEN – HOW TO LIVE WITH NATURE
by John Burns (Workman Publishing). Known for their minimalist aesthetic, the Kinfolk team turn their eye to outdoor spaces. Out in October.
SUMMER’S LEASE – HOW TO COOK WITHOUT HEAT
by Thom Eagle (Quadrille). For those who don’t like slaving over a hot stove, you can salt, age, or sour your ingredients.