Building a Dream Kitchen
Renovating a kitchen is a lot like giving birth to a baby. It seems agonizingly slow, you encounter various setbacks, but when it’s over, you forget the pain and take joy in the result.
The kitchen featured on my Web site is my own, and was born after years of dreaming, more than a year of planning and another year of construction. The kitchen serves as my work test kitchen as well as a home kitchen, so it has some features specific to a professional kitchen, but also a number of features that make a consumer kitchen more functional.
If you’re building or remodeling a kitchen, consider these tips:
- Extra-large refrigerator. My refrigerator is a full 35 inches wide, with no freezer. With this capacity, I am able to store client products for testing and food photography. It’s also great for a dinner party or a cocktail party, enabling me to store all the ingredients I need for cooking and to plate large platters in advance.
- Small under-the-counter freezer. If you cook the way I do, you use mostly fresh ingredients anyway. So why do you need a big freezer? We have a full-size freezer in the garage for long-term storage; for day-to-day needs, the small freezer provides ice, a place to pop a tart crust to firm up before baking and serves as a convenient repository for a few leftovers.
- Large and deep sink. This is important for food prep work and to be able to “hide” pots and pans in a big kitchen production. The idea comes from Jan Weimer, whose 1997 book, Kitchen Redoes, Revamps, Remodels & Replacements still is a must-read for anyone considering a kitchen project. A former executive food editor of Bon Appetit, Jan is a restaurant consultant and former chef. She understands what it takes for a kitchen to be truly functional. Her advice is timeless. (If you’d like to work directly with Jan, she was telling me that she does kitchen design consulting in person in Southern California, or by fax or e-mail outside the region. Just send me an e-mail to get in touch with her.)
- Deep drawers instead of cabinets. It’s much easier to reach down into a drawer than to open cabinet doors and search for that pot, pan or rolling pin.
- Floor-to-ceiling spice rack. This very shallow closet enables all the spices to sit in nice, alphabetical rows. When the door is closed, the spices are kept in the dark, the better to prolong their color and potency.
- Small pullout pantry. Built to the side of the range, this pull-out drawer has two wire racks to hold a selection of oils, vinegars, salt and all the other seasonings used in daily cooking, keeping the counter next to the range free of clutter.
INSIGHT My kitchen is the heart of my business and the heart of my home. Whether holding a focus group of chefs, judging a recipe contest for a client or just kicking back to have a party with friends, the right space and the right tools ensure the best results.
