An outdoor kitchen is the room a house on Ibiza gets used in. From May to October nobody cooks inside if there is an alternative. On a week with eight people in the house, the difference between a barbecue next to a worktop and a real summer kitchen is the difference between one person cooking and everybody in the same place.
The island has been building them for a long time, which is why the good ones follow the same handful of rules. Here is what to look at when you are choosing a house.
Shade over the cook, not just the table
From noon until four the sun is overhead, and a pergola that covers the dining table but leaves the grill in the open gets abandoned by July. The traditional roof here is sabina branches laid across beams, which throws broken shade and lets the heat out. For the square metre you are standing in, it still beats a canvas sail.
A wall against the wind
On most summer days the thermal wind gets up in the afternoon, particularly on the west and south coasts, and an open kitchen on an exposed terrace spends August chasing napkins and relighting things. The ones that work sit against a wall or in a courtyard, with the view on one side rather than all four.
Fire, not only gas
The island's own cooking is wood-fired, and a summer kitchen with a proper grill over embers does things a gas hob cannot. A wood oven is better still and is worth asking about, because it turns the kitchen into the reason for the evening rather than the means to it.
Gas alongside it is still worth having for the morning coffee and everything that is not a production.
Water and cold storage
The thing people forget. A sink outside and a fridge within reach are what stop the outdoor kitchen becoming a trip back into the house every four minutes, and their absence is the most common reason a handsome outdoor kitchen goes unused.
Distance from the pool, and from the bedrooms
Close enough to the pool that the cook is part of the afternoon. Far enough from the bedroom wing that a long dinner does not end at eleven because somebody has children asleep upstairs. In a house for a large group, this is worth more than the specification of the grill.
Eating it in
Once you have the kitchen, the island makes the rest easy. The farmers' produce is sold direct at the markets and at the farm shops inland, and the fish comes off boats at Santa Eulalia and Ibiza Town. Most of the island's own traditional dishes are cooked over fire anyway.
Our advisors can arrange a chef for a night or two if you would rather someone else did it.
Quick answers
What is a summer kitchen? A second kitchen built outside, used from May to October.
Do most villas have one? Many do. The quality varies more than the photographs suggest.
What should I ask about? Shade over the cooking area, a sink, a fridge, and whether the grill takes wood.
Is a wood oven common? Less common, and worth asking for if it matters to you.
Can we get a chef? Yes, for a night or for the week. Our team arranges it.