DIY Outdoor Fireplace
Printable PDF this way
If you build it, they will come.
To skip straight to the printable DIY guides, scroll all the way to the bottom of this post. Here’s the link to my 2024 Grilling Gear recommendations.
My outdoor fireplace was built in 2015. Before there was a fireplace, there was a treehouse. And before there was a treehouse, there was a tree. Specifically a giant, not that beautiful, spindly pine tree. Family legend has it that the previous owners were given a tabletop Christmas tree as a hostess gift one year—you know the ones that have decorative red foil wrapped around the base? After the holidays, they planted that tree in the backyard, and there it grew.
And grew, and grew. It eventually reached three or four stories high. I didn’t much care for the tree (memories of a dreadful boyfriend in the Pacific Northwest) or the rusty-colored needles it littered everywhere, but arboricide is mean so I just waited it out. Eventually, it died. I know, so sad.
Once the tree was gone, my (now ex-) husband made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. What if we put a hearth in the backyard? Brilliant. Not only did this ensure hundreds of fantastic meals cooked outside with friends, it was truly one of the greatest gifts a gal like me could receive.
I grill because my mother, Carole, grills. I grew up watching her at the Weber, grilling pizzas before that was a “thing” and expertly turning lamb chops dripping with fat. She grilled the Easter lamb and the summer corn and she made it look as normal as cooking inside. From her, I learned the magic formula: grilling = time + heat. Same for cooking, but when you’re over charcoal or wood, you get to play with fire. The heat part of the equation is constantly changing, surging, waning, keeping you guessing, and needing tending. Active cooking at its core.
My hearth is inspired more by fireplace cooking than anything else. It has a large opening, which means it’s not a pizza oven (that requires a domed lid, small mouth). The wide and deep real estate provides lots of play. Logs can be fed in a back corner, which creates a very hot zone deep in the hearth and many other temperatures across and above the floor. Drag coals forward to create a focused direct heat zone. Make a mound in the middle for burying eggplant, carrots, or cabbage. Use the hot firebricks as radiant heat for a cast iron skillet filled with almonds, olive oil, and rosemary, which will slowly toast and pick up woodsmoke aromas. Hang a leg of lamb from the top of the arch.
I write about it now as though I know what I’m doing. I love to cook over live fire more than any other medium because it reminds me that I know very little. A person could cook over live fire for a lifetime and still know basically nothing. I’m in this for the long haul. I believe in racking up hours experimenting and trying new things and improving, and always knowing that I’m still a novice. This thrills me. I have a habit of throwing myself to the bottom of the learning curve over and over in my life. It’s how I push myself and it’s been key to staying motivated and curious about cooking.
Over the years, many of you have asked for more information on the outdoor oven. Lots of you have wanted to build your own. Until now, I didn’t have anything to give you. Today, though, I am finally releasing a simple pamphlet with the details you need to DIY. It details the dimensions, materials, and finishings that went into constructing my hearth, and I’d be flattered if you replicate it. You can use it as a template and add your own details and features, which would thrill me even more!
Unless you know how to dig a foundation and lay bricks, you’ll need to hire someone to do that! I don’t know how to construct an arch out of bricks, but your bricklayer should. I don’t know what the rules are about having an outdoor fireplace where you live; build at your own risk! Never cook outside without a fire extinguisher. Never leave a lit fire alone.
I have been at fancy houses with amazing outdoor kitchen setups. The kind with plumbing and stainless-fronted refrigerators and gas grills that have actual countertops on either side of them. This is not that. My hearth starts with the belief that in order to cook over live fire, all you need is a fireproof surface and some logs. I was inspired by Argentinian-style grills, as well as restaurants like Al Forno in Providence, R.I., Ox in Portland, O.R., and Camino in San Francisco, C.A. (Russell Moore and Allison Hopelain from Camino very generously answered my questions when I was outfitting my grill.)
I’m also indebted to a far distant memory of a trip to Paris I took before either of my children had been born. In other words, 100 years ago. This was before smart phones or Google maps. The way I chose a restaurant was by wandering around until there was a place with a good vibe or a line outside. We stumbled into one of these, a rustic little bistro I couldn’t find today even if you paid me one million Euro. It had a small dining room and an even smaller fireplace where the head chef, a little old lady, was cooking proteins.
We ordered a steak out of that grill, and from my seat in the dining room, I could watch her work (along with every one else seated there that night). Cooking a steak to order like that in a restaurant setting is not slick or efficient; it takes as long as it takes. It’s romantic and low tech. It’s timeless. It connects us to thousands of years of cooks that came before us. It’s for people who love the act of cooking as much as they love to eat. You could spend the rest of your life doing it and still feel like there is so much you don’t know. It’s a major turn on.
IT’S THE BEST.
I’m overjoyed to share this booklet with you, and I can’t wait to see your creations.
