If we were building our dream outdoor kitchen, this is what we'd put in it: a Somerset Grill for the fire (an Asado or a Grande), a Gozney for pizza, and a Kamado Joe or Big Green Egg for long, low cooks. Between them they cover almost everything you'd want to cook outside. This is how to plan a kitchen around them, and what else you need.
The Grill Is the Centrepiece
Start here, because this is where people stand. Your Somerset Grill is the theatre.
It's the one you cook on with your hands. You build the fire and read it, move the Grill Frame and turn the food. You're part of it, and so is everyone standing round with a drink. It's the thing that pulls friends and family outside, whatever the month.
Put it where the prevailing wind carries smoke away from the seating.
If you're building your grill in, give it a 50 mm gap on every side, a non-combustible base and 1.5 m clearance from fences and the house. Our guide, Building Your Asado Grill Into an Outdoor Kitchen, has the rules in full.
The Pizza Oven: Speed
A gas-fired Gozney is the quick option. It's hot in about 20 minutes, which makes it the answer for a Tuesday night when nobody wants to build a fire. Pizza, or a whole fish at 450°C, or a tray of vegetables while the grill gets going.
Put it near the grill so the two can share a worktop, but not so close that you can't open the Door with the oven running. Allow a metre of landing space beside it for peels and boards.
If you cook pizza a few times a year, the Pizza Oven Plates turn your Asado or Grande into a pizza oven for the evening. A dedicated oven is for people who bake most weeks or want dinner in half an hour.
The Kamado: Low and Slow
A Kamado Joe or Big Green Egg does the long, closed cooking the open grill doesn't. A brisket, or an overnight smoke. It lives in a Kamado Joe Unit or Big Green Egg Unit at counter height, so you're not bending to the lid. Put it at the end of the run. It needs the least attention, and it's the one you'll leave alone for 12 hours.
Somerset Grill and Kamado Joe: Which Suits How You Cook? goes into what each does best.
Worktop
More than you think. Boards and trays, and the tongs you put down and can't find. A Worktop Unit either side of the grill is the minimum. If you host often, a Corner Unit turns the run and gives you a second prep zone away from the heat.
Our Worktop Units come with or without Doors. Doors hide the gas bottle, the charcoal and the bin. They also give you somewhere dry for the oil spray and the gloves.
Do You Need a Sink?
Not always. If the kitchen sits beside your back door, a tap on the house wall and a large bowl cover most of it.
A sink earns its keep when the kitchen is a fair walk from the house, or when you host often enough that carrying pans back and forth becomes the job. Our Belfast Sink Unit is built for that. The layouts guide covers where to put it.
Do You Need a Cover?
The grill and the kamado are built to live outside. Most pizza ovens are too. What benefits from a Cover is the worktop and anything with a door or a hinge.
A roof over the whole kitchen is a different question, and the building guide has the rules. In short: open-sided, non-combustible, at least 1.5 m above the Ember Maker, and never timber over a wood fire.
Lighting and Power
One outdoor socket near the grill runs the Rotisserie motor and a light. Keep the light on the worktop, not on the fire. The fire lights itself.
Modular or Built?
You can build all of this in block and render. Or you can put the same 3 appliances in our Worktop Units. We deliver the units assembled, and they roll onto a van when you move. No planning application, and nobody on site for 6 weeks.
Related: Building Your Asado Grill Into an Outdoor Kitchen · The Modular Outdoor Kitchen: Layouts, Units and How to Plan Yours · Somerset Grill and Kamado Joe: Which Suits How You Cook?
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