There’s no shortage of beautiful kitchens that only reach their full potential at the end of the year, when holiday parties and other festive gatherings push the limits and countertops to their limits. But the owners of a Virginia property had a special vision: a light-filled entertaining pavilion, separate from their main house, that would come alive on weekends, bringing chefs face-to-face to serve their family and friends.
“The idea was that they did those events every Sunday evening,” says Charles Owen, owner of Owen Design Concepts. “It’s called ‘ending the Sunday blues,'” he added with a chuckle.
The oven in the kitchen is the heart of an entertaining pavilion written by Design Concepts.
Wenjamin Rais
The resulting 6,000-square-foot structure, which evokes images of conservatories and greenhouses one of the owners found online, has a distinctly old-world sensibility. The growing space is made of stone, steel and glass. Some of its design details refer to the Beaux-Arts Musée d’Orsay, a former train station in Paris that now houses Impressionist works by Monet, Van Gogh and Caison. This meant that the kitchen itself had to stand with the sense of unity and grandeur of the building.
Fortunately, clients also turned to Offensive Gallo’s work for inspiration. The Florentine company, which builds complete kitchens from scratch in its Italian factories, struck the owners as the right partner — and not just because its historic aesthetic fit with the rest of the building. . “They literally fabricate the sinks. They custom-make the doors for the Gaggenau refrigerators, the coffee machine… they even made a custom wine rack for us.”
Virginia’s kitchen is detailed by Offensive Gallo.
Wenjamin Rais
These bespoke details unify the look and feel of the kitchen and frame the Italian operation’s calling card: fully integrated cooktops and ovens that sit in bespoke all-metal cabinetry. In the heart of space, two such boundaries lie back to back under the massive hood. This arrangement gives both dueling chefs access to built-in pasta cookers, as well as coupe de feu hobs that you’d normally only find in a commercial kitchen. These large cast iron eyes are heated in the center and cool as you move the pan outwards and pan outwards, producing professional-level fines with the slightest movement. The chef working on the left side of the kitchen, it should be noted, is near the built-in refrigerators and pizza oven, but the one on the right is near a large, hangar-style window that gives outside dining a breeze.
A butcher block countertop, sized to seat 14, serves as a place to watch the kitchen at work.
Wenjamin Rais
To give the owners’ guests a chance to see the chefs and the kitchen in action, Owen installed a 14-seat island just beyond the range complex, crowned by a butcher’s block made in Italy. The glass cabinet below is lit from within and houses the pair’s collection of wine detectors when they’re not in use.
Although the project involved an international coalition of artisans and other professionals (the flooring is from Malta, sourced through antique surfaces, for example, and the fireplace was hand-built from limestone in the south of France), Owen says he was impressed by how easy the Office Gallo team made things. Not every kitchen manufacturer will send their experts overseas to ensure that the cabinets are positioned correctly. “It was a very smooth operation,” he said, adding that it was his first time working with the firm. “From concept to delivery and installation, absolutely flawless. Never seen anything like it.”
From the left: Officine Gallo suggested a black and bronze color scheme for a traditional look. The company specializes in integrating equipment behind custom paneling.
Wenjamin Rais
For Owen’s part, though, the real work may just be beginning. Asked if he’ll have the chance to double in the kitchen yet, he says, “Actually, we’re going to. This Sunday, we’re going to break it.” As for the food? “We’re going to have it in Italian. This is going to be our debut.”
