Brian Bevan, president of In & Out Cabinetry, Inc., in Oneco, FL, explains, “You don’t just have a big box out there with a gas tank under it. [We’re doing] cabinets, shelves and drawer banks. We even do tilt-outs on our sinks now, just like you would have in an indoor kitchen.”

Bob Woods, v.p./sales for Viking Range Corp., in Greenwood, MS, stresses, “The whole built-in outdoor area is starting to take root in all the markets now. The trend is getting more and more toward permanent outdoor kitchens and away from the carts, even in colder climates.”

A Burning Desire
In addition to the convenience of outdoor cooking and all of the new technologies that make cooking outdoors more functional, many manufacturers point to the focus on backyard living as a natural extension of post-Sept. 11 nesting.

Toni Ouellette, product manager for DCS by Fisher & Paykel, in Huntington Beach, CA, explains, “The money [consumers] would have previously used to take family vacations is now going toward making their homes a place they can use frequently to entertain those they love. Indoor kitchens saw the first big swing on this, and outdoor kitchens are seeing the second.”

“Anything that brings the family together seems to be the big thing right now,” adds Bevan. “And what do we do when we get together?” he asks. “We eat.”

Combining family and friends with an outdoor experience is a recipe for relaxation at any table, but manufacturers caution that outdoor kitchen design should sustain the focus on functionality because, as Rottinghaus says, “In order to fully enjoy the experience, consumers need to have the proper set-up to make outdoor cooking as convenient and conducive to entertaining [guests] as possible.”

Straszewski goes on to add, “A satellite kitchen allows [the consumer] to spend time with guests rather than running back and forth to the house to prepare and serve the food and drinks.” That means the space should be designed with everything needed to prepare and serve a complete meal, from refrigerator to utensil storage, so the primary chef can remain with guests throughout the meal. After all, what good is a top-quality grill if the chef ends up spending half the time running back inside to get plates, utensils, condiments, cold beverages and ice?

‘Insperience’
For years, those who touted outdoor entertaining claimed it was about “the experience” – the sun in your eyes, the breeze in your hair, the savory cooking smells wafting through the air. But, as counterintuitive as it may sound, according to Rottinghaus, the vigorous interest in outdoor kitchens isn’t just about experiencing the outdoors with friends and family, or even enjoying a char-grilled steak with a glass of wine under the setting sun. Rather, it’s a facet of what she calls “insperience.”

“Insperience,” she explains, illustrates consumers’ desires to bring whatever positive experiences they might have had away from their home into the safety and security of their home environment. The boom in professional-grade appliances for indoor kitchens is an aspect of this idea, she notes, as the consumer seeks to reproduce at home the experience of dining out at a gourmet restaurant. Cooking outdoors is just one more example of this.

Rottinghaus points out, “There’s a lot happening in terms of lifestyle changes. [Outdoor kitchens] are an ‘insperience’ kind of thing to do in the sense of, ‘I don’t have to pack up the entire family and the dog and head to the park in order to have the experience of being at the park.’”