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The Design Team
Marie-Anne - our chief designer
Coco - the kitchen designer
Robert - the contractor's designer
Chef Randy - the how to make the kitchen work designer
Kris - the how to keep Chef Randy in reality designer
Albert - Our finance guy, who made this possible
If you think this crew is going to spoil the broth, you haven't met us. Kris
and I are both management consultants in our day jobs, and if we can't pull this
off, a career change is in order.
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January 11th picture of Kris and
Marie-Anne. Coco ran out before I could snap a picture of him. There's a picture
of me floating around, but trust me, you don't want to see it. |
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February 1st picture of Coco, Kris, and
Robert. Note the coat on Coco. He was trying to escape before I could snap a
picture of him. |
The Reason
Have you ever gone into a kitchen and said, 'I could work here?" Have you
ever had every appliance and cabinet door go dysfunctional on you after a few
months? The Heck's Kitchen renovation isn't something we wanted to do, it's
something we did expect, and something we needed to do from the day we walked
into this place. The good part is that we set aside money for this, not enough,
as is almost always the case with kitchen jobs, but a good chunk.
The Design Goals
A key part of the design process for the kitchen was getting answers to
important questions. Kris and I didn't always agree on which was most important
or urgent, but we got there eventually. She was about form, I was about
function. So we went about asking ourselves some questions:
- What did we want the kitchen to look like?
Ok, this question came from
Kris? For me, I wanted a restaurant kitchen, with stainless steel
everywhere. You know, something I could steam clean and scrape clean when it
gets nasty. For her, Victorian Country. What's Victorian Country? Anyone?
- How many cooks were going to be in the kitchen at one time?
This was
the hardest question to answer, and has driven virtually every other
physical design decision. In our kitchen, most of the time, Chef Randy runs
the show with Kris being sous chef. I'm happy do defer that to her as often as
I can. But when the kids get going, we have two to three cooks and one to
two helpers. This can make everything pretty chaotic. The layout of the
existing kitchen had too few work areas - can you say clutter - with no
space for preparation anywhere. We deliberately came up with zones. Sound
like a familiar solution? It should.
- What appliances were we going to have?
This may have been the longest
part of the design process with changes happening daily or weekly. I
insisted on flexibility and utility instead of hype. Anything that was only
going to be used two to three times a year? Cut! I think the appliance
retailers didn't really like that part. So much for warming drawers, steam
ovens, built-in fryers. It did, however, lead us to a high-end stove, which
we'll talk about elsewhere.
- What criteria are we going to use to pick kitchen elements?
Other than
the obvious stove-fridge-sink type stuff, how are we going to pick items to
be part of Heck's Kitchen? In order to make the cut, items have to be useful
on an ongoing basis. While I'd love to have a Mongolian grill centered on
the island or an authentic Louisiana Turkey Fryer, I can't see using them
more than a couple of times a year. So, much as I hate to relent, shred
those designs.
- What essential principles will guide our design decisions and equipment
selection?
- Quality: We're probably spent a bit more on equipment and
components, but quality is essential to us. Our expectations about the
performance of every aspect of the kitchen are high, and don't want to be
disappointed.
- Flow: The kitchen must allow us to move around without bumping
into each other (unless we want to, but that's for adults only). There are
three basic areas: preparation; cooking; and cleanup. Each can be
separated from the other, and can actually support four cooks in the
kitchen. Pretty awesome considering we currently struggle with two.
- Flexibility: With the need of being able to have the kitchen
function for one to four cooks at the same time, we need a design that
allows everyone to be in the kitchen working efficiently. This actually
helped position the island and its prep-sink. It also guided our decision
on the type of stove. Each element is the same size, supporting a full
range of heat: from the gentlest of simmer, to the highest sear. The oven,
integral with the stove, has two sections, a smaller electric and a larger
gas-convection. This really opens up what we can do.
An over-the-stove heat rack with warming lights in the hood was chosen
instead of a warming drawer because it doubles as a pre-plating area.
- Clutter: The kitchen must absolutely not gather junk. We've
removed all the non-functional horizontal surfaces in the kitchen. These
are piling up with things we just forget about and have ignored for a
year. If anyone is interested, there will be a Heck's Kitchen Garage Sale
as soon as the weather is warm enough.
- Cleanliness: The equipment and surfaces in the kitchen cannot
collect dirt. They must be easy to clean, and must be cleanable daily.
That's a key reason for the choice of stove (zero clearance type), and the
stainless apron front under mount sink. After looking at all the options
for sinks, it really looks like that type of sink will allow every bit of
dirty to be visible, and cleanable quickly. The vent hood is also
stainless, and the filters are heavy gauge and dishwasher safe. It also
meant that contact points with the counter tops are kept to a minimum.
Facets, for example, are on single stalks, rather than three.
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