Alice Waters:

“The kitchen is way too small! In terms of space, it needs to be almost as big as the dining room. It has a fireplace —about four feet tall and five feet wide—that is like a regular open fire with just a chimney and a large opening where the grills and turning spits are. There is also a long table that the dishwashers have access to on the left side; the cooks are on the cooking line to the right. And of course there’s a table up front where we display some of the food we’re serving, like fruits and vegetables—whatever we have on the menu we put out on the table. The making of pastries should really be all in its own little room, but we’ve never had that luxury, so it’s kind of at the end of the kitchen. We also have a special room where we make ice cream, and we have another room that’s only for rolling out dough.”

Grant Achatz:

“I wanted to be able to put down ten, twenty, thirty plates at one time and have cooks surrounding them on all sides, working on them in groups. That told me I needed long islands to allow cooks to be on each side; so you see the two twenty-two-foot-long islands that run down each side.” 

Dan Barber:

“A lot of what we cook here is in sous-vide [ vacuum-sealed] bags. And then we steam it in combination ovens at a very low temperature. We’re cooking at 132 degrees Fahrenheit—it’s like a bathtub. This is highly technologically advanced; it’s the future of cooking. And ultimately what we’re doing is trying to create this dichotomy between the old-world agrarian ideals of growing your own food—and growing it sustainably, organically, locally, all of that—but then coming into a kitchen where there’s modern technology, and using techniques that are innovative and technologically advanced. Some people would view that as contradictory, but I see it as one and the same. “ 

Wylie Dufresne:

“Our kitchen is extremely functional. At first glance it doesn’t seem that different from a lot of others because it is laid out in the same way as a European-style kitchen: it’s broken down into multiple stations. The hot line is designed so that the four stations are identical in terms of the equipment that stands in front of the cook. Each cook has his or her own flattop, oven door, reach-in refrigerator, three doors of refrigeration, and two bays of countertop refrigeration. The idea is that regardless of the station, the mise en place [ingredient selection] changes but the layout stays the same, so you can move from station to station with a certain familiarity. That’s a very practical way of thinking about it. “ 

The article is a must read and includes some great photos. And check out Metropolis- they are leaders in journalism about Green building practices which will be a driving force in kitchen design and technology.

If you’re interested send us a note at sammy at supernaturalagency dot com. Tell us a little bit about your project, where it stands, your design approach, budget range, etc. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

*There’s a movement afoot to turn the word ‘dyson’ into a replacement for the word ‘cool’, as in Dyson (vacuum cleaner) sucks- opposite of which is doesn’t suck= cool. Whatever.

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Here’s how to do this design exercise (be forewarned, this a project but it will pay off!):

• Cupboard by cupboard and drawer by drawer, take everything out and lay it on a towel in front of the cabinet. You can do one cabinet at a time.
• Photograph the stuff laid out on the towel or counter. This will be useful later when you’re determining your storage requirements.
• Go through the stuff and separate out anything you have not used in the last 18 months (this saves those things you only use on once-a-year occasions like holidays). Set these things aside.
• Note the storage things that bug you- having to remove stacks of bowls to get a particular one, digging in the back for hard to reach items, heavy items down low that they painful require bending and lifting, etc. Keep notes. This is where you start to plan your ideal storage requirements like using big drawers for bowels, vertical tray cabinets for baking trays and cutting boards, hanging storage for pots and pans and utensils, etc.
• Do the same for food storage. Organize the dry goods you remove by type (starches like rice and pasta, herbs and spices, canned goods, baking materials, etc.). You’ll want to plan storage that consolidates these items in logical work groups. Then you can specify pantry cabinets for these groups, in locations where you work with them.
• Untangle junk drawers. Everyone has at least one and they are a functional part of any kitchen- a catch-all for odd items or rarely used tools and gadgets. Clean them out and look for patterns in what you actually use and what is simply stuffed in there ‘just in case you need it’.
• Think about cookbooks, knives, visibility, wines and liquors, small appliance storage, etc., and apply this approach to determining how you will store them.

This will be a full weekend project depending on how much stuff you have. The end result should be a wishlist of storage needs that your kitchen designer can use when specifying cabinets and locations for various items. It is also a great time to get rid of stuff that is no longer useful to you, old, out of date, etc. Throw out and donate now.

Finally, this inventory may alert you to things you’re going to want that you were not planning on. Getting a nice high end range? You can’t use those old Revere pans on a big flame- better budget for an upgrade. You may also discover that your lifestyle has changed, a critical thing to know when designing a new kitchen. Maybe you entertain more- or less, cook different foods, go out more, have kids or the kids are gone, etc. This is going to mean a different approach to your new kitchen, one that will help you get everything you need without breaking the budget.