Love Island and good weather credited with outdoor kitchen enquiry surge

Preston-based Italian wood-fired oven supplier and outdoor kitchen specialist Orchard Ovens is reporting a significant uplift in requests for outdoor kitchens, putting this down to the combination of Love Island 2022’s influence and a good month for the UK weather.

The month of July saw enquiries for outdoor kitchens increase by 67 per cent.  Interestingly, enquirers want something better than the Love Island kitchen and are not content to just rustle up carbonara like reality TV star and keen chef, Davide Sanclimenti.  The majority of enquirers do not just want Orchard Ovens to use its skills and supply cabinetry, worktops and appliances but also want to include a wood-fired oven in their grand kitchen design. 

The rise in requests for information about outdoor kitchens inclusive of wood-fired oven has coincided with the UK recording its highest ever temperatures and having a very dry July.  

“We have been supplying artisan-built Tuscan ovens to the UK for over 20 years,” says Orchard Ovens’ director, Andrew Manciocchi, “but we have always come up against the issue of homeowners believing that the British weather was not good enough to support an outdoor-living-focused lifestyle.  

"As climate change is bringing warmer weather to our shores, that attitude has changed dramatically, even in the north.  We are no longer seeing the north-south divide that was evident with regard to outdoor living previously.  The demand for our top quality, traditional Italian pizza ovens is evident UK-wide.”

Orchard Ovens is benefiting greatly from the fact that many homeowners now want to incorporate a wood-fired oven into a greater outdoor kitchen scheme. For the first time, in many cases, purchasers are asking the ‘what if?’ question with regard to early oven failure, recognising that this could have a major impact on the rest of the kitchen and huge cost implications.

“We have struggled, in the past, to make homeowners examine oven longevity and realise that many of the ‘popular’ pizza ovens brands are just not made to last more than one or two summers and simply cannot withstand the temperatures generated within them, because the materials used in their construction are so poor.  

"Now that purchasers are having to consider what oven failure would mean for the rest of their outdoor kitchen build, they are actually appreciating that our Valoriani ovens have a proven longevity of 10-20 years or more.  The majority of those that we fitted in 2003 are still happily operating in 2022.  Other ovens are failing within 18 months,” says Manciocchi.  

“It’s always been a case of buyer beware and you get what you pay for with a wood-fired oven.  Homeowners are finally realising that.”

Orchard Ovens says it would be delighted to one day fit an outdoor kitchen for a Love Islander and let them not only relive their island experience by cooking in their garden but go one better and do it the wood-fired way.   

“Perhaps Davide Sanclimenti will be our first Love Islander customer, given his Italian heritage and love of cooking,” says Andrew Manciocchi.  “He should certainly appreciate the qualities that a wood-fired oven should possess and we’re sure that Ekin-Su would be impressed by his culinary prowess, if he started cooking with wood.”

Despite not having yet built any outdoor kitchens for Love Islanders, Orchard Ovens does have a long list of celebrity clients, including the Beckhams, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, Guy Ritchie and Madonna, Jamie Oliver, James Martin, Gary Barlow and Formula 1 former Ferrari team boss, Ross Brawn.

Anyone wishing to find out more about its outdoor kitchens – to as grand or a more affordable scale – should call 01772 250000.                                                          =