Cooking under the stars - An interview with Erzsébet Ács

More and more people decide to move out of the busy metropolitan area into the more relaxed and rewarding countryside. For real kitchen enthusiasts this can prove to be the perfect moment to come out of the four walls of their homes, and settle down in the open world of the garden. Come to the Budapest Arena between February 28 and March 1, 2020 and find your inspiration for the perfect outdoor kitchen at the 11th annual Kitchen Show! Organizers of the event asked the National Association of Interior Decorators (or NAID) to bring their signature touch to the event, along with a spectacular outdoor kitchen concept and a number of surprises! Read on and find out everything you need to know about outdoor kitchens from our interview with Erzsébet Ács, president of NAID!

Cooking and dining under the sky is a tradition as old as humankind, but what exactly motivated designers to bring kitchens into the gardens?

It’s a well-observed trend people with flexible working hours or working from home have a tendency to move out of the busy environment of big cities into the much more relaxing countryside. A number of these households feature spacious yards and gardens, which is the perfect platform for expanding your home outwards. Once again, it is a trend of recent years that patios and terraces slowly became a second living room in countryside homes and family houses. It has almost become a must for country living to be able to spend time in the garden with the same comfort as you would inside.

In what ways is an outdoor kitchen different from a professional outdoor grill?

An outdoor kitchen is a fully furnished and equipped kitchen that just happens to be in your garden - complete with refrigerator, taps and sinks, induction cooker and a spacious worktop. It’s as if your Sunday lunch was prepared and cooked under the clear sky, each step of the process taking place outside in your garden. If your family is keen on spending time outdoors, an outdoor kitchen is ideal for your home, because this way the “cook” doesn’t get separated from the rest of your family. Because an outdoor kitchen needs proper electricity and water, the kitchen itself should be situated close to the house, so that it can be easily connected to the energy supplies of your home without any extraneous construction work or wiring.

What are the most ideal materials for building an outdoor kitchen?

If the refrigerator can be placed in a corner shielded from the weather (such as close to the house wall), any regular refrigerator can do, but for the sink and oven, try stainless steel or ceramic. Have a dishwasher only if you can take it under shelter when winter arrives. But whether there’s a cover over your kitchen or not, you have to take the weather into consideration in any way. Because of this, think of durable, resistant materials: brick, glass, stone, concrete, natural stone, basalt or clinker brick. Go for wood only if there’s a roof or cover over your outdoor kitchen. For worktops, go for resistant and easy-to-clean materials (such as granite), and for flooring you should have non-slip materials in mind.

For this year’s Kitchen Show, NAID is building an interior in the Arena, so that anyone who hasn’t seen an outdoor kitchen before will have the opportunity to walk through one in person. Can you tell us about it?

We’d like to keep everything under wraps until the event, but I can tell you that we would really love to make everyone excited about the concept of an outdoor kitchen, even if they never thought about having one themselves.

Following last year’s resounding success, NAID kitchen planning consultancy is making a comeback at stand number 11d, at Kiskegyed Otthona Magazine. Will NAID professionals be available there?

There was an immense demand for the consultancy programme last year, so this year we’re bringing out even more experts and professionals. It is no surprise that people are looking for expert advice when it comes to the planning of their bathrooms and kitchens, as these locations in your home are especially costly. Also, these are the areas where professional knowledge is a must in the planning and construction phases. Most people have their own ideas in mind when they come for advice, but they always welcome the vision and perspective of professionals. They are open for exciting innovations, useful tips and tricks.

Step into the astonishing world of the most beautiful indoor and outdoor kitchens between February 28 and March 1 at the 11th annual Kitchen Show!