Grumpy Old Lady Dumps on Her American Kitchen
A couple of years ago we bought a house with a kitchen that checks all the fashionable American home kitchen boxes. It’s open to the living room and dining room. It has acres of white ‘marble’ countertops above drawers, the microwave, and a lazy susan in an awkward corner. It has lots of sleek, white cabinets above. And the stove has a shiny glass induction top.
And here I am, grumpy old lady that I am, to dump on this kitchen.
It’s not all bad of course. I love the running water. Cold water that’s safe to drink, hot water for washing dishes. I love the heat and power at my command at the flick of the switch.
Sounds obvious, I know. These features were luxuries for my grandparents, often absent in my youth, and even as an adult I have spent years and years without one or more of them.
So let’s run down my list of complaints.
An open kitchen: one of the worst ideas ever
OK, I know the arguments. Open kitchens do not isolate the cook, they allow the cook to keep an eye on the children, and they allow friends and family to ‘gather’ in the kitchen.
Well, I like to cook solo, I don’t have small children, and since almost none of my friends and family are up to much in the kitchen, the idea of them gathering there when I am trying to concentrate gives me the willies.
I cook regularly and seriously, both meals for myself and my husband and historical kitchen experiments. I prefer that even smells that are pleasant at first–sautéing onion,s bacon frying, vinegar evaporating, marmalade simmering–don’t permeate the whole house.
I don’t want to have to make the kitchen pristine before sitting down in the living room or dining room, even though I’m a pretty tidy cook. Piles of saucepans and dirty dishes make me feel fidgety.
And I certainly don’t think a front seat view of even nice cabinets or a hulking great refrigerator is what I want in the rooms I relax in.
An inflexible one-size-fits-all design
All the surfaces are at a single height. Luckily this pretty much works for me but if I were taller or shorter, or a child, or say, on crutches or a wheel chair, this kitchen would not work well.
Moreover, like many people, there are certain kitchen tasks (preparing fruits and vegetables, for example) that I prefer to do seated. No hope of that here.
The uniformity of the surfaces also comes at the cost of a nice old-fashioned draining board. Not only are they useful for drip drying things that only need a quick rinse, not a spin in the dishwasher, but they are a handy place to put colanders of washed vegetables, salted cucumbers, or flowers that need to be rinsed off.
At least the countertops are white. The previously-fashionable slabs of black speckled granite always conjured up images of horizontal gravestones and concealed spots and spills magnificently, not ideal for kitchen cleanliness.
The drawers under the countertops are much more useful than cabinets. And it’s hard to imagine how to make the top cabinets more accessible so those are pluses.
That said, supposing I wanted to change this kitchen. I understand a low-cost kitchen remodel runs to about $27,000. Much as cooking is central to my life, there is so much else that I could do with $27,000.
Appliances that don’t do the job I want
My refrigerator keeps everything just above freezing. I dream of two sections, one for foods that really need to be this cold, the other in the 50s for butter, cheese, cold meats, jam, pickles. As an aside, not much thought is given in a kitchen like this to the different storage requirements of different foodstuffs, from bread to potatoes and onions. I assume people from other cooking traditions would have their own preferences about storage.
About a quarter of the freezer space is taken up by the ice maker. Since I use only about 4 ice cubes a day and never drink chilled water, I would love to able to remove this, especially as the freezer is an essential part of my cooking strategy.
The oven is ridiculously big for most households. I don’t want to spend the time or the electric power to heat it up. I now use a counter top convection oven (more of that later) and have relegated the large oven to storage.
Induction cooktops again fit the smooth and shiny model. I can’t use my soapstone pots from Brazil, my clay pots from Mexico, my copper cookware, a round bottomed wok or, the warranty says, my cast iron pots (I assume because of breakage). I ignore the latter but the rest are major annoyances. How much more so must they be for people from other cultures.
In short
The modern American kitchen is massively expensive. It’s almost impossible to adjust to different needs, both physical and cultural, both because of that cost, and because everything is so heavy and firmly attached to the walls. And it appears to be designed more for an ideology of family and social life that bears little resemblance to reality and for what consumers have been trained, via magazines and showrooms and television shows, to be the most desirable of appearance.
No, I don’t yearn for the farmhouse kitchen of my youth or the many other traditional kitchens. I like a convenient, easy to clean, modern kitchen with its efficient utilities. But might it not be possible to design ones that put cooking, not display first and that can be changed to fit different ages, sizes, abilities, and cultures without breaking the bank?
And ones that do not wipe out entirely the personality of those who spend hours or days working in them.
You are singing my song, dear Rachel!
I ***HATE*** hatehatehate open kitchens. Walls, they need walls, walls so wonderful for storage and walls for paintings and walls for shielding eyes from that metal box otherwise known as the refrigerator and the clatter and piles of dishes and glasses and pots and pans. Oh, and the smells.
PS Delighted to see the pix of your Mexican pots and mecate.
Saludos!
Thank you, Rachel. This is very timely for me–I am about to buy an apartment in which the kitchen needs a modest amount of work, including replacing the counters; one of the things that troubles me is the island’s induction cooktop (although it is plumbed for gas). My ecology-minded self says “keep it; induction is good for the environment,” while my cheffy self says “ain’t nothing like gas.” The idea of a lower counter for veg prep is a good one, and the built-in drainboard is brilliant. Yes, dirty dishes on view while enjoying the fruits of one’s labors is a drag, but at least a motivation never to let dishes sit until morning.
Cathy, good to hear from you. You never had a built in drainboard? Goodness. Induction is doable but chilly.
I love my kitchen. It has everything I want – an open fireplace, a 5-burner gas stove with double electric ovens that I use almost daily, except in summer. I have paintings and photos all over the walls, a doorway opens on to the dining room. The kitchen has has a single, deep sink, tiled drainboard, an oak table that can seat four to eight people. I have a tall restaurant rack for pots and pans, an island made from a butcher block rescued from a butcher, a couple of cabinets underneath it and some some shelves for books and spices. And I have a refrigerator with a freezer on the bottom. Is everything kitchenware-wise in the kitchen? No. I have a basement and a hall closet where lots of once a year use items get stored, and a standalone freezer in an outbuilding. A reporter who wanted to write about a cookbook author’s kitchen came to interview me a few years ago. She came into my kitchen and looked around. Then she looked at me. “I’ve been in kitchens that are as large as your house. How do you manage?”
How did you pull this off? I need the whole story!
Not only did I fall in love with my second husband (35 years ago), I fell in love with an old farmhouse that was falling apart. He bought it and we gutted it down to the stud walls. I wanted a fireplace in the kitchen like my house in France, and so we had one built, which meant there was no room for cupboards, hence the restaurant rack. We got to choose all the things we wanted, and happily we wanted the same things. Since then we’ve painted a couple of times, and we are on our third stove. The hall closet houses such items as the waffle iron, food processor, blender, Kitchen Aid and assorted baking dishes. The basement has the big pots and roasting pans, various sets of dishes and assorted bottles. Not ideal, but the fireplace was worth it!
I’m going to need time to take in all these details. Your kitchen sounds wonderful (though my mother who hauled more wood than anyone should have to) would had balked at the open fire. She wouldn’t even have an AGA for that reason.
I agree completely. I hate open kitchens, and kitchens that sprawl over hundreds of square feet.
I don’t want my cooking grease and my cooking odors to permeate the house (the hood captures most but not all), and I don’t want my guests to see the mess in the kitchen. And it is a mess after I’ve prepared dinner for 4 or 6 or 12; I am not a tidy cook like you.
I do want bright light in my kitchen so I can see what I’m doing, but I don’t want the same bright light in my dining room.
I don’t want my countertops at American standard height, which is far too low for me to chop comfortably.
I want my cabinet doors to be flat (no moldings or raised panels to catch dirt) and I want European hardware: no face frames wasting space.
So when I specified my kitchen 30 years ago, it was very compact, and had high counters and enameled flat doors. Swinging door to the dining room. Counters are good-quality laminate, which has help up very well, though I might replace them with natural or artificial stone at some point. All in all, I’ve been very happy with this kitchen.
I recently had to replace my refrigerator, and was surprised to find that not only does it not have a “cool” zone for cheese, it doesn’t have a “meat” zone either. It does have an ice maker, which isn’t much use to me, and one of these days I’ll remove it. The cold water dispenser (inside the fridge) is handy, though.
My oven is huge (full sheet size), which is very handy for many things, but it’s true that it’s wasteful for small quantities. I used to have Panasonic countertop convection-microwave which did a creditable job, but when it failed, I replaced it with a Toshiba, which is fine as a microwave, but useless as a convection oven. Panasonic has a combo microwave, broiler, convection, and steam oven (NN-DS58HB), but it is not sold in the US….
Loving all these details
I have two kitchens on two continents. The one in Tuscany sports a woodburning cookstove with smallish oven (which also heats in cold weather) and a 5-burner gas cooker with larger oven. A double sink (very useful for keeping dishes and vegetable prep apart), a crackerjack dish washer for when we have lots of guests, a small under-counter refrigerator and in the pantry, a much larger refrigerator that I bought in beirut, Lebanon, in 1970 (I am so proud of being able to keep that going–it’s my very best eco-credit). That pantry (la dispensa) is also where we keep all the staples (oil, tomatoes, tins of tuna, and the like) and the kinds of once-in-a-while tools you mentioned. It is indispensable, I could say.
The kitchen in Maine is more recent–constructed from scratch in around 1995 and it suits me in a small Maine in-town farmhouse. Yes, it is open and I do like to seat guests at the table while I finish up a meal or other prep and I find most are as enthusiastic in discussing a risotto as they are in talking through local politics. Woodburner to keep us warm in winter but otherwise, a 6-burner gas stove with large electric oven–large enough to accommodate two loaves of bread at the same time, a requisite for me. Also adjacent is a pantry with all the Stuff that’s in the Tuscan dispensa plus the Asian ingredients that we use more often here.
And that’s it. Which do I prefer? I’m not sure. both have lovely views of the garden on the one hand and the grape arbor on the other, and that too is a requisite for any kitchen I work in. And I’ve worked in loads of kitchens around the world that don’t come close to these two.
Rachel, you might well be able to make a few adjustments in your kitchen for a good deal less than $25 grand and they might make you feel happier therein. I do get your complaints–too many American kitchens are soulless and without personality to boot. Work on it! A woman of imagination should be able to solve the problem.
Nancy, both your kitchens sound lovely. I especially like pantries and views. If I taught cooking I can imagine wanting an open kitchen. Thanks for the encouragement to work on my kitchen. I’ve done a few things. And I can live with it although I’ve had less posh but much nicer kitchens in various places. It just infuriates me that with the fancy kitchen being one of (many) things that pushes up house prices, they are not better designed.
It reminds me of a place where I used to take an occasional cooking lesson. It was in a kitchen design store — started because most people bought the posh, magazine-perfect designs and then realized they had no idea how to cook. Hence, the cooking classes were started and eventually opened to the public. So your comment about it being designed for display is spot on.
And I agree that the open kitchen is worse than useless — because if the smell is spread throughout the house, so is the grease. I’m really not looking for ways to make more house cleaning necessary.
As for different heights of counters, that reminds me of cooking school in Mexico — dramatically different heights, depending on tasks. Granted, there is equipment used in the cooking of Oaxaca that is probably not going to appear in most other kitchens — but having at least one surface adjustable would be great.
So excellent points. Thanks.
Thanks Cynthia. Yes, Mexican kitchens work from the floor up!
HATE open kitchens. I have a traditionally placed kitchen, but it didn’t have a door. Happily, I had two 200-year-old carved wooden screens that I bought 30 years ago in China (when the dollar was strong, shipping was cheap, and China was desperate for money), and never knew what to do with: I have had them hung “barn door” style, so they act as a sliding door.
I will never again have black countertops: Everything disappears on them, drives me crazy. I like to entertain and I like to entertain Big, so when and if I ever get more space and some money to kit it out, I’m going to have a second fridge/freezer, and I don’t care how much people point and laugh.
So many insights, so much to agree with. The popularity of the open-plan home came about, I seem to remember reading in an article over thirty years ago, in a British magazine, to cater to middle class families who were now ‘okay’ with the idea of cooking themselves and spending more quality time with their kids. There was less formality now, and more at-ease behaviour overall. A separate dining room (formal) was no longer a requirement. My kitchen was previously a long, skinny bathroom. I have room for a 90cm cooker with 50cm counters either side as well as a very large custom-built deep sink, and a dishwasher. People wonder how I manage to cook there – but these are people who do not know how to cook or, perhaps, cook very simple dishes or reheat bought food in the microwave. My tiny kitchen is a pleasure to cook in because everything is to hand and easily accessible – but it’s a nightmare when it comes to washing up – simply no room for dirty dishes etc. For lack of space, I very often have to resort to trays – stuff plonked on trays that then sit waiting for me in another room – so my kitchen ‘surfaces’ are moveable, as it were. It’s like cooking on a boat I suppose. And yes, I often dream of a much larger kitchen, indeed I do!!! But, like you and the commentators above, I am not keen on the idea of an open kitchen that would require constant tidying up as well as an invasion of well-meaning guests who want to help with the cooking but who, let’s face it, are sometimes more often more of a hindrance when cooking. The one thing about a tiny kitchen: it really does teach you how to be organised, there is no room for error. And because of that, I tend to be quite ‘quick’ with the cooking part. With greater space, I reckon I would linger and faff about more? Also, I think two medium-sized fridges are more helpful than one gigantic one. What I would like is two dish washers – and one of them the drawer-kind. A fireplace in the kitchen? Oh that would be fantastic indeed !
I am loving the stories about these different kitchens.
Be careful not to drop anything on that glass cooktop. I dropped a coffee mug on mine, and the glass cracked. I had to replace it to the tune of $300 plus. And I gave away my wonderful cast iron pan because I was afraid to use it on glass. Whoever thought glass was a good idea. Not me.
I love having an open kitchen. We don’t usually cook when guests come over, but we always offer them tea. With an open kitchen, we can continue talking comfortably while making the tea. If the kitchen were closed-off, either we would have to pause the conversation for a few minutes, or the conversation would continue without whoever is making the tea.
In my experience, our guests don’t spontaneously try to help with the cooking. Some of them ask if we need help. Others wait for us to ask for help. (The latter are not being rude; they simply trust us to ask for help if we need it, rather than suffering quietly.)
Our house is small enough that, with an open kitchen, we can carry on a conversation pretty comfortably from the living room to the kitchen. If the house were as large as most American houses, this would not be true. I think that is a key thing: open kitchens and standard American houses don’t fit well together, in my opinion.
There’s seating at the island, and that’s usually where people sit when someone’s in the kitchen. This way, a conversation can take place at a normal volume. Talking from the living room really isn’t much hassle, though.
I don’t feel a pressure to keep the kitchen spotless, even when we have people over. For a party or for when a plumber comes, we do make everything spotless. But if we cook during a party, we don’t worry about *keeping* the kitchen spotless. That would be a nightmare!
My parents are slowly losing their hearing, so trying to talk through a doorway (or worse, a closed door) is not really an option. For us, an open kitchen is the only way to keep the conversation going. For people with better hearing, I don’t think this would be such a problem.
There’s just one problem: smells. Usually it’s fine…but my dad likes to cook a soup with lots and lots of garlic and cumin. It’s a very strong smell. With other dishes, smells are promises of what’s to come. With that one dish, though, it can be overwhelming to me. So depending on what you like to cook, I can definitely see that as a con.
For context, I’m an American who’s somewhere on the border between Millennial and Generation Z. Being disabled, I live with my parents, who are Generation X. (Luckily, we get along very well.)
That’s a very interesting analysis. I can really see why an open kitchen works well for you.
In the interest of domestic tranquility, I’m going to keep this entry secret from my wife, who several years ago converted our small closed kitchen into a big open kitchen.
In her defense, our prior kitchen design was basically of the “I wonder if we can covert this closet into a kitchen” in terms of design. It was tiny.
Far be it from me to disturb domestic tranquility.
Your first impressions of this kitchen a couple of years ago intrigue me. When you bought and first moved into the house did you like it? Did you expect to like it more than you do? Or is there a housing crunch so that you had to take what you could buy?
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
For various reasons we had to buy a house in a hurry. This one had most of the other features we needed. And my point is less that I hate it than that if one is to have a very expensive kitchen, as middle class Americans increasingly do, then it could be so much better designed than this style of kitchen. I can cook in it perfectly well. I just sigh and think if only someone had thought what a cook actually needed rather than copy home decorating magazines.
What do you think about this? I have a friend who started life as a physicist and treated learning to cook as a course in chemistry and physics, so it interested me to see how a Nobel prizewinning physicist approached it.
https://theprint.in/pageturner/excerpt/many-say-they-cant-cook-to-save-their-lives-i-dont-believe-them-abhijit-banerjee/766435/?fbclid=IwAR0icyeIXF6al4cV6VtXNeHSkcdvO-cP7ELcY0ScsXlzG28BtffURW1l4R8
I’d missed this book completely. Absolutely I agree that cookbooks are (a) necessary in the modern world and (b) can never specify all the possible variables. I want to follow up on this.
We will shortly be moving country and I think that you have pretty much nailed all of my concerns about the new kitchen. Present 19th century tenement kitchen suits us very well. After restoring a walk in larder storage space was not an issue; so one thing I took great delight in was removing all the overhead cupboards. Always hated these.
I also have a huge amount of historical/regional cookware that will not work on an induction stove. Current plan is to create a ‘primitive’ cooking area undercover outdoors. Spit roasting is something of a family tradition, so looking forward to reviving these skills.
How wonderful to see you pop up in my email. And glad we are of one mind about modern American kitchens. Your plan for your new country sounds right up your street.