WildKitchens by Guy Ritchie: movie director serves up ultimate BBQ fine dining experience

Movie director Guy Ritchie stands at the head of the table, flame cooking a hunk of steak. There’s a clear blue sky overhead.

“Nothing better, is there?” he asks, as he serves me slivers of perfectly seared meat, kissed with salt. 

We’re in Guy’s WildKitchen, an al fresco dining experience par excellence. 

Combining a luxurious canvas and hardwood dining space, the WildTent, with a multifunctional BBQ oven and dining table, dubbed the WildTable, the WildKitchen turns the idea of outdoor entertaining on its head, and it’s a passion project for the director.

Ritchie is in his element, sharpening knives. “Actually, I prefer cooking fish,” he confides. “Meat is easier to cook, because it’s not as delicate. It doesn’t stick, but I prefer cooking fish. Grilling fish has a whole skill to it. It’s tricky.” 

The WildKitchen turns the idea of outdoor entertaining on its head, and it’s a passion project for movie director Guy Ritchie…

Best known for film classics like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Sherlock Holmes, and more recently streaming blockbusters Operation Fortune: Rue De Guerre and The Covenant, Guy Ritchie is also the founder of the Cashmere Caveman Company, stoked by his love of the outdoor life.

Designed for those that want to socialise outdoors all year round, the WildKitchen takes the ethos of outdoor dining, fire pits and BBQs and reimagines them from a luxury ‘cashmere’ point of view.

“I became obsessed with the idea eight years ago, and I would say I work 30 hours a week tinkering on it,” says the director. 

“I reckon I now use it 300 days of the year. So it’s quite well tried and tested. There’s a certain football star – David Beckham – and he uses his about as much as I use mine.”

Whatever style of cuisine, the WildKitchen can do it – flame grilling, steam, teppanyaki, you name it.

WildKitchens (The Cashmere Caveman Company) review

To try the WildKitchen for ourselves, The Luxe Review has been invited down to Guy Ritchie’s Ashgrove Estate, where the WildKitchen overlooks a lake on Ritchie’s picturesque property.

A tasting menu that shows off the versatility of the concept, has been prepared by estate partner chef Steve Horrel.

There’s potato flatbreads, with Montgomery’s Ogleshield cheese, honey and spring onion; Wood roasted beetroot and carrots; Sherry roasted grapes and burrata; Hay smoked mackerel fillet, with horseradish and pickled garden cucumbers; scallops in the half shell with samphire; spatchcock chicken with Salmoriglio; hanging leg of lamb with chilli mint dressing and potatoes roasted in the oven, with wet garlic and rosemary

All of which was washed down by Angel’s Lore lager and Session Lore IPA from the Gritchie Brewing Company.

For dessert, we’re served raspberry and strawberry Crostata from the oven, with charcoal charred meringue and creme fraiche. It’s a feast, and then some.

The WildKitchen is already a star. An early iteration appears in Ritchie’s 2019 London gangster movie, The Gentlemen. 

“That was a very early prototype. It was sort of cobbled together.”

It’s evolved multiple times since then, the director tells me. “This is probably the 10th incarnation of that tent.”

Richie is currently working on a spin-off The Gentlemen TV show, for Netflix, and yes, the WildKitchen is once again down for a cameo. 

“You’ll see it pop up in that as well. I directed two episodes. We’re editing it now and I wrote most of it.”

The WildTent is like nothing I’ve quite eaten in before, a fully-retractable canvas and hardwood design that’s as usable in a downpour as a heatwave. Ritchie demonstrates how quickly it can transform, by simply lowering the ropes, canvas walls unfurl in little more than a minute. 

If you want to buy one, the WildKitchen comes in three sizes. The Double includes a chef’s table, while the Commercial version includes a Chef’s table and two dining tables.

Alternatively, you could just splurge on a WildTable, with fully integrated flue. It’s available in four sizes, and can accommodate up to 12 people. 

The WildKitchen look is refined, but organic, beautifully executed and styled.

“We wanted to have a certain aesthetic. We wanted the wood, we wanted real canvas. We didn’t want anything plastic. Yes, so it’s a bit safari…” says Ritchie.

Has Ritchie always been an enthusiastic cook? 

“Only grilling,” he says. “I became obsessed with pizza ovens. I seldom cook pizza in a pizza oven, but they’re just brilliant. That allowed me to develop a love of wood, and then from that, barbecue. I’ve always barbecued in a rather amateur fashion until about 10 years ago, and then I became quite serious about it.”

So what’s his favourite type of meat? 

“Ribeye beef,” he replies without hesitation.

The Wild Kitchen has been in development for some seven years. The concept originated around the BBQ table, but quickly evolved, I’m told. 

“I found that there’s no point in having it unless you can control the environment. Your biggest enemy in a barbecue is the wind. It will just gnaw at you until you’ve had enough and recede into the safety of the house. 

“So if you can get rid of wind, which this can, you can remain outdoors, even during the coldest winters.”

Rain is almost the least of your troubles, he notes. “It doesn’t rain as much in England as everyone thinks it does. I think the sun is more of a nuisance than rain, because no one wants to sit in the sun.” 

The idea of the WildKitchen is that you really can control the environment, he says. “But it’s very rare that the entire tent is retracted. That’s really what I’m after, to be immersed in nature.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ritchie now takes a WildKitchen on location. “We actually take a small one, a four seater. On The Covenant we cooked on it every day.”

For a few days, it was even used at sea, I’m told.

“We take cooking quite seriously on set!” laughs Ritchie.

Available from the Cashmere Caveman Company, WildKitchens are available in three sizes: A single WildKitchen retails for £75,000. A Double WildKitchen, with dining table and chef’s table, sells for £140,000. 

The Commercial WildKitchen, with chef’s table and two dining tables, seats 25 covers, and is priced at £160,000.

The WildTable is available separately, in four sizes: 1.2 (long) x 1m (wide);  1.4 x 1.2m;  1.8 x 1.2m and 2.5m x 1.2m wide. They are priced at £2,500, £5, 545, £6890 and £9,695 respectively.

For more visit WildKitchens online here.