In an article detailing her rules for cooking and eating, British food writer Rachel Cooke mentions the idea of kitchen envy, as in being jealous when people have a better kitchen than yours. She also says that people who have the best kitchens are often the worst cooks. You don't need to have a vast, restaurant-style kitchen to produce great food, but it surely helps, especially if you cook for a large family or regularly host dinner parties that allow you to demonstrate your culinary prowess (or you can just call it showing off). Your love of cooking might be so great that you're considering renovating your kitchen to make it more efficient. What are some of the things that your new kitchen should include?
You're Not Building a Restaurant
Firstly, forget about trying to directly replicate a professional kitchen. These generally include multiple workstations—one for food prep, one for sautéeing, one for grilling and so on. These multiple workstations require multiple chefs, and in a professional kitchen, there is one person at each station. In a residential kitchen with one person doing all the work, this is going to be counterproductive, but your renovations should create a space that allows for an efficient (and easy) workflow.
Simplifying by Centralising
A centralised surface is going to make your cooking far more pleasurable, so you can simply move around it, as opposed to going from one workbench to another. A floating island in the centre of your kitchen is ideal, and if your budget permits, you could even think about removing a wall to accommodate the floating island. Even load-bearing walls can be removed if the weight is then compensated for, such as with an archway constructed from ultra-strong parallel strand lumber. A floating island also creates a significant amount of storage space beneath its surface.
Within Easy Reach
When it comes to storage, accessibility is key. Cookware can be hung on a rack, suspended from the ceiling. Having this installed as part of your renovations is wise so that it can be reinforced. This also creates fast and easy access to what you'll need. The rack could be positioned above the floating island since this space will be free of overhead shelves.
Cooking with Gas
Again, if your budget allows it, there's one aspect of a restaurant kitchen that your home kitchen will benefit from. Professional chefs tend to prefer gas cooktops over electric elements since they reach their desired heat almost instantly, as well as giving you more precise control over their temperature. So if your budget can stretch to the routing of gas into your kitchen, along with the equipment itself, it's certainly something to consider.
Your new kitchen isn't going to replicate a restaurant kitchen, but it will help you to make restaurant-quality food. And who wouldn't want to show that off? Reach out to a renovation contractor to learn more.
