Don’t you just love summer days when you can get out onto the patio, set up the grill and invite some friends around and chill. Those smells, the flavors, the fun, that gorgeous food; surely it can’t be beat. Its little wonder that in most outdoor cooking equipment surveys its grilling that most people enjoy the most.

Now hold on a minute. This is absolutely true, but if you want a really successful and enjoyable outdoor cooking experience then you need a well thought through outdoor kitchen.

The scale of your outdoor kitchen will be down to available funds but ideally you should aim to have the big seven in your outdoor kitchen: a grill and a stove; a cabinet for storage; a work top, a sink; a refrigerator and a well positioned seating with table area.

With an outdoor kitchen come so many benefits. Think of it. There will be no more lugging things in and out every time you want to have a BBQ; you’ll get more time to spend with the family & friends who will be impressed and you’ll have everything to hand when you need it… that is of course, if you’ve planned things well.

What is the force that is driving the move towards ever bigger, ever more technical, ever more sophisticated outdoor cooking equipment?

Whilst its true that outdoor cooking requires slightly more effort and takes slightly more time than when you’re cooking indoors don’t you think there’s something magical about it? Don’t you think its well worth the extra effort given that nothing tastes better than food cooked outdoors?

We run the e-commerce Outdoor Cooking Equipment Store providing cooking equipment to people who enjoy outdoor cooking. The reason I’m writing is because I’m becoming evermore concerned about the technology, the scale and the gadgetry that comes with the latest outdoor cooking equipment. I have to ask whether its worth cooking outdoors given the fact that what they’re cooking on is a bigger scale and more technically sophisticated that that which they cook on indoors! What on earth is it that we are trying to create in our gardens?

The days of simple outdoor cooking are threatened by those who would have us believe that the next technology horizon is the patio! Even as a retailer of outdoor cooking equipment I have to ask, what is the point of cooking outdoors if technology has taken over? Where has the flair gone; where is the initiative; where has the creativity gone?