Boiling down to the details

Homeowner and mason team up to render the ultimate outdoor dream kitchen

Photography by Dominic Casserly

It is said that too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth, but when building a dream outdoor kitchen, it takes many hands to create a culinary masterpiece, as was the case with this spacious outdoor kitchen in Falmouth.

Situated under a large pergola, this multi-station, three-season kitchen features a fireplace and a pizza oven (each with its own wood storage bin), two high-powered burners with a gooseneck hose handy for filling lobster and corn pots, a large grill, a sauté station, two refrigerators (all of the appliances are heavy-duty Lynx), and a wet bar with a small countertop gas fire pit, a liquor cabinet, and a kegerator. Built into the cabinetry are various storage drawers, trash bins, and plate shelves. Just a few steps away is a large circular fire pit surrounded by granite seating. This is a kitchen ready to host large fundraising celebrations, block party guests, and intimate dinners for family and friends.

A former executive chef, the project’s mastermind plotted his kitchen very thoughtfully, if unconventionally. “I designed it using a business card and the top of a baking soda can,” he explains. “I drew it to scale using tick marks.” He also prepared a PowerPoint with images to help potential contractors understand his vision. Being a former military man who had served on submarines, he was clear on the mission and how he wanted it executed.

There is another saying that three times is a charm, and in the case of this project, that proved to be true. It was the third masonry contractor, Greg Myette, owner of Barnstable-based Myette Masonry and Design, who proved to be as fastidious and as much of a perfectionist as his client, and who understood the vision and the timeline for the kitchen’s realization. “The homeowner had done the layout and had chosen the appliances. We took it to final design and engineered it,” Myette says. He and his crew were responsible for the painstaking placement of all of the Vineyard Granite ledgestone, a native New England stone chosen by the homeowner’s wife after a diligent search. Her overarching concern was that the kitchen blend into its natural context. They constructed the chimneys, all of the cabinetry, the walls, and laid the Phoenician Buff patio floor, a stone chosen for its color. “It is imported from India,” Myette explains, “and has a unique look in the granite realm. You can only get that sort of color out of the eastern region of the world. And it’s more durable than bluestone or limestone.”