Tulsa Pools : Outdoor Kitchen

Cody: Hello, Tulsa Pools welcome to the dive time show. I’m your host Cody Albright and with me, as always, is my lovely beautiful wife Rachel Albright and together we’re the owners of Sierra Pools&Spas of Tulsa and you can find us online at sierrapoolsandspas.com, or give us a phone call at nine-one-eight-eight-eight-four-eight-four-two-seven. Again, that’s sierrapoolsandspas.com, or you can give us a phone call at nine-one-eight-eight-eight-four-eight-four-two-seven. And also you can find us on the web on Facebook and we’re on there, just send us a message there if you want to communicate in that direction. Today we’re gonna be talking about the primary work station for your outdoor kitchen. So it’s all about outdoor kitchens today and so if you have an in ground swimming pool, a great addition to that, to your back yard dream, is an outdoor kitchen and it’s just the ultimate place for relaxation and gathering point for relationships. So today we’re gonna be talking about primary work station for your outdoor kitchen and first we want to … What is a workstation, what does that mean a primary workstation for your outdoor kitchen.

We have three designation of common stations in every kitchen, so if you’re looking at any kitchen to be called definition of a kitchen would have to have these three common stations. Or we’re just saying that, so first you need a cooking station, a food prep and clean up station and a food storage and refrigeration station. So of course you can these three inside, but if you have the budget and you will save time, because who wouldn’t like an outdoor kitchen and you don’t have to go in and do all your kitchen inside, when you can do it outside right next to your beautiful Tulsa [inaudible 00:02:05] pool. Let’s talk about the cooking station. A cooking station is one of the three common stations in every kitchen, so a cooking station is …  Tulsa Pools What’s included in a cooking station is any cooking appliances, whether that’s a grill or a side burners or maybe you have an oven outside that could be cooking station or a stove top, again or like side burners. Also your storage, you have storing necessities, whether it’s, anything that you need to store, be called a storage.

Also your counter space is a cooking station, is it heavy like a grill that is built in a mastering, is that right, mastering …

Rachel: If you have a cooking station that’s really heavy, like a grill that’s built into a masonry island-

Cody: Masonry, that’s it. Masonry-

Rachel: You’ll have to pour a concrete fiber footing,  Tulsa Pools so just keep that in mind, if you have something really heavy you’re gonna have to pour concrete-

Cody: Yeah, you don’t want it to sink it into the ground. If, hopefully you have got some sort of flooring anyway, you wouldn’t just be straight on the grass but, yeah just that in mind, when something that’s super heavy weight or something that weighs a lot, you want to make sure you reinforce that with a good slab of concrete. Moving on to your food prep and clean up station, that can include your counter space, your sink, which is real lovely, real nice to have in your outdoor kitchen or your trash [inaudible 00:03:47], these cool little … I always find it really cool, when you can just have like a little hole and it’s your little trash, you just throw that in and the trash is hidden underneath the counter or something.

Rachel: Yeah, you probably wouldn’t want an open hope outside though, you’ll get a lot of bugs in there and bees-

Cody: That’s true. Well-

Rachel: So probably something that’s a drawer built into the cabinet or something with a lid.

Cody: Yeah, so counter space should be big enough for any large meats or anything that you plan on cooking outside, just think about what … Who you are and what you’re gonna do out there. So you want to make sure that you have … Everyone has their own preference and so you want to make sure your counter space is big enough for whatever. Whatever you’re doing or how much space you want, I like lots of space, some people aren’t so picky about how much space they have. And it’s always best to have a large sink, if you ever try to do dishes in a small sink it’s never fun. Or the clean up afterwards, after you eat, just have a large sink, just so you can do it all, so you don’t have to worry about going inside and just … You want to love your sink. You don’t want to have a small sink and not use it because it’s not what you want or not good enough like your inside kitchen-

Rachel: Also if you’re cooking outside on the grill, a lot of time we you’ll use big cast iron skillets,  Tulsa Pools so if you have a little tiny sink, you’re not going to be able to clean off your big skillet. So you just want to make sure you have a big enough space where you can clean up anything that you’ve used to cook outside.

Cody: Right and I had just noted, like Rachel said earlier, the trash is best stored under the counter, because bugs and the stench, pest and the smell. It’s best when that the containers are stored tightly. Food storage and refrigeration station include counter space, cabinets, refrigerator. Of course, consider your counter space near your fridge for easy transfer. If you want to pull something out of the fridge, maybe you got a bug platter of meat or something that you got marinating in the fridge, you want to think about that and your counter space next to it for easy transferring. You also want to think about insect and pest free resistant counter spaces and cabinets. Those are always best, because who likes insects or pests. I can’t think of anyone. Also a great feature to add to your cabinets, because it’s outdoor, there is weather and so you want to water proof … And also if you’re next to a swimming pool your whatever, there is a lot of water around your back yard or your outdoor kitchen.

Waterproof your cabinets with corrosion proof hardware, you cannot go wrong with that.  Tulsa Pools You don’t want to rot out or rust your hardware. You don’t want to rot your cabinets, so think about that, surely … You think that’s a given, that’s some common sense, but you never know. Some people might not think about that. And also you can think about … Consider a cabinet under your fridge … Consider a refrigerator under your cabinet, just … You know saves on space and it’s just, I mean again this is preference, so if you have a lot of stuff you want to store outside, maybe a bigger refrigerator is what you want but most of the time you can get away with a cabinet or a refrigerator under the cabinet so. What about arranging a work station, Rachel, how should we arrange our work station.

Rachel: Well you’re gonna want to make sure that your work station is set up where you have a good flow when you’re cooking so just like any in home kitchen, you want to think about, like we talked about, you probably want to have counter space next to your fridge, so that you can easily transfer the meat to the counter space and then the meat from the counter space to the grill. So you want to make sure all that flows really nicely and in that same vein you want to make sure it’s large enough to give you the desired counter space that you’re looking for. Then you’re also gonna want to figure out, when you’re thinking about where you’re gonna put it in your yard, there are some things that you want to consider.  Tulsa Pools Such as the wind, where is the wind coming from and is it gonna blow smoke near your house, if your kitchen is opening up towards your house, is it gonna blow smoke that way. Also, do you have anything hanging overhead of your kitchen, like trees or branches that are gonna … If you have an open flame that could catch fire-

Cody: Any over head combustibles like trees, branches, [inaudible 00:08:39], pergolas, anything that could potentially fire, you don’t want to be growing next to things that are combustible. Also you want to think about natural ventilation, if you’re underneath a roofed area, a outdoor kitchen, think about the smoke that is going to be caused by grilling or whatever you’re doing in your work station in your outdoor kitchen. Think about that. Sometimes you might want to have a air circulation or a … Insert a vent or something, so that you’re not … So you can get that smoke outside, if your outdoor kitchen or in the spaces that you’re in. Also you want to think about the direction your outdoor kitchen faces, or the either primary work station, you know you don’t wanna be cutting up the tomatoes or the potatoes or whatever your fixins are for your hamburgers are gonna be, you don’t want it to … You don’t need looking directly into the sun or …

Think about those things, or maybe you want to keep your eye on the kids when they’re swimming,  you want to do everything in the kitchen and watch your kids swim or watch them play soccer in the grass. Think about that if that’s something that you want to potentially … If that’s something that you can do with your spacing,  Tulsa Pools also you can … The seating with like tables and chairs, where you guys are gonna be dining, maybe you want to converse as you’re preparing. Think about that as well, as the direction for your permanent kitchen … For your primary work station. Also you want to take note of your electrical and gas lines. If you’re with us and we’re helping you put this together, we’ll have that taken … Well, you’ll have to do that for us, but we’ll … No, we can do that?

Rachel: We call okiloke, before we do any construction on any pool or anything to make sure we know where utility lines and electric lines, any easements or anything like that, we’ll make sure we know where all of that stuff is and what the easements are. But if you’re doing it yourself, you’ll definitely want to figure that out, so either look at a surveyors map or you’ll have to call okiloke and figure out your easements and everything to make sure you’re not building within those easements.

Cody: Also you want to think about lighting, for cooking in the evening. Is the existing lighting good,  Tulsa Pools is the sun gonna look good or do you already have some outdoor … If your outdoor kitchen is on your back porch, is there some lighting already on your back porch, is it gonna take care of your lighting, or you’re gonna have to install new lighting fixtures, just think about that. Also you want to think about fuel storage, where you’re gonna keep your charcoal or your wood, make sure that you have a designated spot for that as well. Continuing on, work triangles there’s different shapes, like just some generic shapes like “L” shapes, that are the shape of an “L” or “G” shape or “U” shape. There’s this quote from Aquamagazine.com I’d like to share.

“The idea of a second kitchen is not a modern before the days of air conditioning and even electrical fans having a second kitchen wasn’t indulgence. It was practical a necessity. The summer might have been a stand alone out building that leans to the side of the house or an addition connected by the walk way to the main residence, but its purpose was to keep the heat of cooking, [inaudible 00:12:18] and laundry out of the main living areas during the warmest days of the summer. Even the most elaborate summer kitchens of the 19th and the 20th century were intended for neither leisure nor pleasure.”

So think about that. There might have been outdoor kitchens back in the day, but it wasn’t really for the Tulsa Pools  pleasure that we have for today’s outdoor kitchens. But no one likes a oven in a hundred degree weather on in their house and so when you’re cooking inside it can get your electric bill running up, trying to cool down the house. So that’s another positive ting about an outdoor kitchen, that you don’t have to cook inside and the heat is not inside your house. So, I think that’s all the time we have for today, what do you think?

Rachel: Yup.

Cody: Okay. Cool. Hey, thanks for joining us, this time, the dive time show, for all you divers out there, I’m Cody-

Rachel: I’m Rachel-

Cody: And we’ll talk to you next time. Bye.