TOO MANY KITCHENS, NO CHEFS

We once thought it was smart to have lots of bathrooms, now kitchens are the status symbols, groans the Countess du Ruel. Not just one, not just two, houses are now equipped with three kitchens. One wonders who dreamed up this absurd innovation. I’m told it’s normal in posh neighbourhoods like Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Belgravia, where residents probably cook less and eat out more than most of us, to have multiple kitchens.

These kitchens vary in usefulness. Below stairs there’s a catering kitchen, with commercial fridges and ovens, which can cater for 100 guests. These are built to the standard you would expect to see in a hotel. Upstairs there are live-in family kitchens/breakfast rooms with the de rigour granite work surfaces, sofas, and show off appliances, and most important of all, white shiny surfaces, completely bare.

White shiny surfaces dominate “show home” type upstairs kitchens, which are rarely used. Food comes up from downstairs via a dumb waiter. Even in the country the guests see the white, wooden kitchen with Aga and central islands, but there’s never any mess. The mess happens away from dining rooms and living area. God forbid, that kitchens should look like a place where you actually cook.

Long gone are the days when kitchens were the heart beat of the home, cluttered with interesting looking bottles of olive oil and herbs and maybe even a Parma ham hanging…or wilder still, a vinegar mother bubbling away. Now surfaces must be meticulously clean and empty of any paraphernalia that speaks of food or cooking, making them sterile and uninviting. This concept has spread like a virus throughout the land.

Are the architects to blame for this nonsense or the lifestyle people? And why does contemporary culture conform to silly notions? Boring!

— Countess du Ruel

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