Outdoor kitchen design ideas

Project #372...starting to put my mind to building an outdoor kitchen, and hoping all you creative geniuses can help!

Anyone have design ideas for an outside kitchen?  Pictures of what you have done, sketches of what you are currently daydreaming, pictures of what you wish you had, etc...?  Am thinking of a good size outdoor kitchen, under roof, preferably round wood structure, three sides maybe?  Liberal use of stone or brick where it makes sense, just cuz it’s gorgeous.  

In the outdoor kitchen some prep tables, a rocket oven for baking bread/pizza, a rocket stove for various stovetop concoctions, maybe a prep area for butchering - deer, chickens, or whatever (or should this be away from a food prep area?). Running water via rainwater catchment. No electricity, of course.

What would be your must-haves, wants, desires?  It’s like a contest, only no prizes (other than my undying gratitude, of course).

Won’t be building it right away, what with the other 371 projects in the queue ahead of it, but one can never start planning too soon!  

Share your great ideas and spark an outdoor kitchen building trend!

I have been working on building a outdoor kitchen for a few months now. Here is a link to my project: https://permies.com/t/116516/permaculture-projects/Building-outdoor-living-area-kitchen

I am still working on it and waiting for good weather.

While considering relocating to the Yucatan Peninsula, I noticed many of the real estate advertisements featured outdoor kitchens.  If you google images for outdoor kitchens in the Yucatan, you will find a lot of ideas that might serve as a springboard.

Attached here is an image that inspired me to consider using cob brick with a Roman masonry design to create a lattice wall with an overhead shelter.  So far I want an outdoor kitchen to have an open fire for grilling, possibly aside a sandstone cook top.  A place to warm or simmer.  An area to bake.  And an area to clean.  Possibly a fire pit to hang out around on cool nights.

I've read that a rocket Lorena stove might be a solution.  Preferably a single fire will work for the entire build, though a cob oven may need to be separate... these ideas are on the long reading / study / experimentation list.

Probably about 10'-12' long and 5'-6' deep cooking areas.  Lattice wall around.  A cob brick table and bench seating, or maybe roundwood, included beneath the cooking shelter.  An area to dry and stack wood that won't invite nature's gremlins to make a home.  Still, I suspect I'll need to take a broom to it now and then to clear attempted nests :.)

Because unwanted fires can be a thing:  I want to build a 3-sided lattice wall about 1.5' thick, wider at the base than the top.  Possibly with an arched stone or cob brick roof shelter against wind and rain/snow, and so ash and sparks are less likely to be a concern.  Small cubbies built in to store outdoor cookware and all things outdoor kitchen.  I have no intention of carrying common items back and forth o.O :.)

Planting something that can tolerate regular outdoor cooking heat and help trap ash that might escape, several feet away and wrapping around the lattice wall.  Maybe a native evergreen vine, if there is one in this area, winding through the lattice.

Thinking a standalone wall could be supported with functional and decorative buttresses, or perhaps designed with curving the sides into a 1/4 arc of a circle... or a tildy ~ shape.  Still pondering those potentials.

I've also considered an outdoor kitchen will need to be kept meticulously clean to avoid attracting critters.  If edibles cannot yet be stored inside, I will probably burn some of those and add to compost.  Non-meat leftovers might be scattered where it can be beneficial to growie areas.  Hopefully I'll be able to minimize that by learning to assess how much to cook without having left overs.  If this is on a slope, there might be a compost / small burn pit area about 100' away; downwind.

I've not yet thought beyond these considerations.  A fun digression, though :.)

How to keep roundwood from catching fire?  Is there an inexpensive chemically-UN-treated wood that doesn't burn easily, is locally available and obtainable?  I need to learn more about woods ...

If you've ever lived in the south, you'd understand summer kitchens. That might be a place to start a search. They can be simple or elaborate, and cooking outdoors in summer, with friends and family, in the shade, with a breeze, preferably by a lake, and a cool beverage is heaven.

I found some great links right here on Permies.




And some others . . .

Rebuilding mexican kitchens
https://permaculturenews.org/2019/01/18/cooking-against-capitalism-oaxacas-traditional-kitchens/

Thoughts on a permaculture kitchen
https://permaculturenews.org/2017/12/13/thoughts-permaculture-kitchen/

And this site looked interesting. A kitchen design tool with free downloadable templates. I have not tried them, endorse them, or know them.
Download free kitchen design templates

And some pictures to dream about . . .  .

I am not sure about eating food from the blue A frame tent. Don't skulls usually mean poison?

Eta to add the pictures. Still haven't figured out how to upload multiple pictures at once.
And what constitures "a media"? I'm trying to find 3 different ones.