Don Silvers

Kitchen Design the way a Chef and Cooking Teacher sees it As a chef and cooking teacher, turned commercial and residential kitchen designer, I am often at odds with the kitchen design community. Not because I want to be, but because of the difference between my training and that of the kitchen design industry. Kitchen professionals who design without concern for the ergonomics of the kitchen excuse themselves with the argument that a functional kitchen cannot be beautiful. This myth is prevalent in the design industry and it is as false as the notion that people dont want to cook. Todays kitchens are more than just the cooks workshop. They can also be the place you entertain, or converse with a friend, or help your children with their homework or pay your bills, the list goes on and on. But designers who focus on these activities or the aesthetics of the kitchen to the exclusion of function limit their clients to the most ubiquitous of menus; a salad made in the sink, a roast in the oven, a vegetable made on top of the stove and dessert either bought or made in advance. Anything more requires so much time that you have to start Saturdays dinner on Tuesday. In a kitchen with the right space plan and the right appliances you can use standard cabinetry and achieve a workshop where you can do an hours work in an hours time. How does one begin designing the kitchen to perform the required tasks? From my point of view, the most important factor is recognizing that cooking is a process and the goal in creating the kitchen is to help that process run as smoothly as possible. Critical attention must be paid to selecting appliances that meet the demands of a variety of menus and the volume of food, or the number of people that are sitting at the dining room table A key concept as a cook I first learned in the world of commercial kitchen design is that the most frequently used ingredient (and tool) in the kitchen is water. Whenever possible, give yourself two different sink stations: one to be used for food preparation, the other for clean-up. The object is to separate the sinksnot just spatially but functionally, so that two jobs can be done at once and dirty dishes piling up do not prevent the cook from washing food or using the counter space around the sink. The clean up sink must be near the dishwasher and in line with the highest frequency eating area so that dirty dishes can go directly from table to clean up area without crossing the cooks path. If the distance between the prep sink and clean up sink is great, you may want a dishwasher in the prep area as well. When I begin to design for a client, I ask them what they dont like about their present kitchen. Every single one has said, Not enough counter space! In some cases, the problem is really that they dont have the counter space where they need itby the sink, but within a couple of steps of the cooktop and the refrigerator. By separating food preparation from clean up, you not only give yourself more sources of water, you prevent the counter space you need for food preparation from being overrun by dirty dishes. You also give someone helping you in the kitchen the ability to make the salad while you make the entrewithout the two of you fighting over access to the sink. Another key lesson from commercial kitchen design that needs to be applied to residential kitchens is the concept of point-of-use. A woman by the name of Georgie Boynton Child wrote a book called The Efficient Kitchen. She took architects to task for not understanding point of usein other words, store things near where you will need to use them and prioritize items by frequency of use. A huge walk-in pantry seems like a wonderful luxurybut if everything you need is stored there, then you will be taking twenty steps to get your pasta when it should only take you three or four. Kitchens designed without point of use in mind are pervasive because unless the kitchen designer cooks and understands intimately what works in kitchen, we will continue to build roller-skate kitchens. Interestingly enough the book was published in 1914. As a cook, I first learned my trade in the world of commercial kitchen design. Ive taken those lessons and experiences and applied them to residential design, only on a smaller scale. There are certain similarities and some differences between commercial and residential design. In creating a new kitchen for a restaurant, I would start by asking Whats the menu? Most restaurants are fairly focused so designing a kitchen is much easier than for a residential project because home cooks may want a variety of options in their menu. By understanding the menu and understanding how much of it is frozen versus canned or fresh I will know the kind of cold and dry storage I will need. The second question would be, How many people will a restaurant sit and how many turns does the restaurant want to have during lunch and dinner? Understanding those two thingswhat the menu is and what volume of food will be producedallows me to choose the appropriate appliances. Although the residential kitchen design industry doesnt acknowledge it, these same questions apply to the home cooks workshop. Can you make a meal in the average kitchen? Of course, but it will be an average meal. No matter how beautiful it may be, most kitchens wont allow you to steam, saut, grill, and bakebut a well planned kitchenwith the right applianceswill not only give you all those options, it will allow you to do them at the same time. When choosing an appliance the first question is how many people am I cooking for and how am I going to use it? The equipment used most frequently must be placed where it is easily accessible. For example, when selecting a refrigerator remember that you will use the refrigerator side much more often than the freezer. So unless you have special needs, models that have the freezer compartment on top are not great choices. Nor is a three-foot wide side-by-side refrigerator the best option because both sides are too narrow to be fully functional; the freezer is given too much space with the refrigerator having too little. When selecting your appliances, ask yourself, How much do I work on top of the stove versus how much do I use the ovens. Do I use a microwave or would I be better off with the new steam ovens on the marketplace? How many burners will I need? And if I do cook on top of the stove a great deal, will I have enough heat from the average burner? Heat is a critical factor in successful cooking. Chefs know thisthats why they use ranges with upwards of 35,000 BTUs (British Thermal Units). What a restaurant chef understands that gives them an advantage over the home cook is a little thing called heat recovery ratio. Youve probably never heard of it, but if youve ever tried to saut a chicken breast and ended up with something that was greasy and dry at the same time, youve seen it in action. You probably start with a little oil in the pan, letting it get nice and hot before putting in the chicken breast. When the breast goes in the pan, we all assume that the breast is getting hotbut at the same time the oil is getting cold. The amount of time it takes for the oil to get hot again is the heat recovery ratio. Doesnt sound important, does it? But the longer the recovery ratio is, the more oil the chicken breast will absorb and more juice it will loose because the low heat cant seal the outside of the chicken. BTUsthe amount of heat output a gas burner producesare what determine the recovery ratio. The average range (responsible for most of the greasy chicken breasts in the world) has anywhere from 9,000 to 12,000 BTUscompare this to what a chef in a restaurant uses (28,000 to 35,000 BTUs) and we begin to see how what can seem to be a lack of skill in the kitchen is really a lack of equipment. Many home appliance manufacturers are now producing wonderful ranges and cooktops with BTUs ranging from 12,000 to 20,000this is the right kind of heat range for a home cook. Look for models that put the high heat burners up front since thats where you saut. The key to a successful kitchen design is flow. For a kitchen to be fluid, every item in it must be carefully considered and placed. The right selection of major appliances is very, very important. My experience as a cook and cooking teacher has taught me that you must design for the maximum, not the minimum needs of your client. Most consumers wont cook a meal from scratch everyday but many of them want to cook for the pleasure of it on the weekends. They should be able to do so without spending all day in the kitchen. We have two key phases in my industry. The first is Don dont worry about it they dont cook anyway. (They, meaning you). Second, (If its functional it cant be beautiful.) These two statements by my industry have created millions of dysfunctional kitchens. Make sure yours works and be beautiful. Author: Don Silvers