I rarely cooked when I was young. My first kitchen when I moved to Houston, so many moons ago, was an adorable, tiny space with a black and white tiled floor and a gas stove that reminded me of the one my grandmother had with a pop up broiler on top. I adored it.

Unfortunately, it had a leak in the gas line and the utility company (wisely) refused to hook it up.

It made a lovely planter and a nice storage place for sweaters.

Fast forward many years and I now have a functioning kitchen that I use with gusto. I also, because of my writing, am able to tour commercial kitchens. I am often amazed at the incredible dishes that tiny kitchens — from gourmet food truck galleys to the miniscule food cooking area at Mockingbird Bistro — can turn out. Apparently, you don’t need much space to create delicious dishes.

Which I was reminded of again this past weekend at a fundraising chili cook off at Blanco’s for Casa De Esperanza de los Niños, a wonderful nonprofit for children in crisis.

Most of the teams had pre-cooked their chili and were serving them in crock pots (who knew they were still so popular?), but it got me to wonder, what makes for a great outdoor kitchen? Luckily, one of the judges was David Cordúa, son of James Beard-nominated Michael Cordúa, and, in his own right, executive chef of América’s River Oaks.

“I just got back from Argentina,” said the young Cordúa (one of the youngest-looking chefs in town). “Outdoor cooking is huge there. And our family grills outdoors every Sunday. I’d have to say that what you need for a great outdoor kitchen is plumbing and a gas line.”

So, cooking outdoors, wood or charcoal?

“Wood has a nice flavor,” Cordúa said, “but you have more control with charcoal.”

Outdoor kitchens are huge now, full-scale kitchens with all the amenities imaginable. Far removed from dad’s old backyard burger grill, they now come equipped with grills, ovens, sinks and serving space. Everything a chef needs for a gourmet meal.

And then there’s the indoor kitchen at Philippe Restaurant + Lounge. By now, if you haven’t eaten there, you’ve at least read about the stellar architecture by Shafik Rifaat and the fabulous food by chef Philippe Schmit. But what you may not know is that the kitchen (actually, kitchens) here is the envy of many.

In the downstairs lounge there is small (very, very small) kitchen that turns out the bar menu, which includes a fab burger. But upstairs, there is a kitchen fit for a king. Or at least a French Cowboy.

Schmit designed the kitchen himself, based on his years working in other people’s kitchens.

“It’s not even finished yet,” he enthused on a recent tour. “This will be the best kitchen I’ve ever worked in!”

Schmit was like a kid in a candy store, or a nerd in an Apple store, or, well, a chef in a kitchen made to order.

“We have two lines,” he explains excitedly. “One for the regular menu and one just for the tasting menu so you’re not interrupting the dinner rush.”

Wow.

“And I had sinks put in at the end of each line so there’s no running back and forth.”

And racks along the backside for hanging his copper and carbon pots and pans. Everything is within easy reach, designed for über efficiency. Oh, and for good taste as well.

“Here we have the plancha,” the chef points out like a proud papa. The plancha, a Spanish, thick aluminum plate, is used in the Philippe kitchen instead of a griddle.

“It’s much better and produces less fat for grilled meats,” he says.

But that’s not all.

There’s also the pastry kitchen where they turn out deserts and their own bread and rolls and even a butcher shop, next to its own delivery door and walk in meat locker. Slabs of beef, whole fish and about a zillion lobsters were being attacked by knife wielding chefs at alarming speeds when I visited.

“So, how many folks work back here?” I asked, amazed at the white-frocked folks running around the huge kitchen.

“Oh, 12 or 15,” Schmit says. “But that’s just the cooks.” As in, that doesn’t include the dishwashers and clean up staff.

It is a kitchen to inspire kitchen envy.

And get this.

There’s even a closed circuit TV hookup that beams shots of every plate headed out to the dining room to flat screen monitors in the lounge downstairs. Just a little TV viewing to whet the appetites of the bar flies and entice them upstairs.

That would be so cool in your home kitchen.

Err, maybe not. I don’t want my guests to see me picking up the dropped pot roast and putting it back on the platter. What? You’ve never heard of the five-second rule?