Kitchen

In the house there is a living room and a dining room and a bathroom, but the room everyone seems to like to congregate is the kitchen.

This was my ‘mom’s room when I was growing up. She was always in there listening to Paul Harvey on the radio or washing dishes or burning things on the stove. The kitchen was her realm to sit and smoke cigarettes and drink coffee while wearing an apron. Each new appliance was a showcase for visitors. Once a television was put in, she never had to leave.

The kitchen is an important function of the household. That is where the food is kept and prepared.

The kitchen should be the first room at the entranceway. People come in and want to eat. Either that or move the refrigerator into the living room.

The first kitchens had iceboxes to try and keep meat from rotting before cooking, some hearth or metal box to be fueled by fire and a table with plates and utensils to devour the meal. Much of the time was preparation so the kitchen became a meeting place for all the family to participate. Recipes and techniques were passed on to generations to keep in the family ancestry.

Cookbooks of every type and description have been written but cannot be used except in the kitchen.

Every cupboard and drawers are filled with implements of cooking expertise. A multitude of appliances are purchased to make the food preparation an experience like no other.

My experience in the kitchen is minimal. I know how to use the appliances but don’t stay long. A kitchen is like a bathroom to me. I go in to do my business and then leave. There is no reason to hang around a room full of porcelain or metal or granite tops and wooden boxes. One smells good and the other doesn’t.

The kitchen is also a wonderful place for parties. Lots of plates and shuffling of food and drink make a party. It is also a place that your guest can explore. Opening a cabinet in the kitchen is a vision to your soul. What brand of corn flakes do you eat? Do you drink whole milk or soy? How sharp are your knives?

If the kitchen is boring for your guest, they will wander into the bathroom and bedroom until they have inspected every detail to your mundane life.

I’ve had my share of kitchens. My father’s chrome fiery kitchens with frantic guys in white coats stirring meat and veggies onto thick plates decorated as a gastronomic ecstasy.

The kitchen was just a place to dump the dirty plates in the sink until someone decided to scrap them off. Even the little kitchen in my 1^st house had just enough room to squeeze by the new all electric stove with self-clean function and the portable dishwasher. It was a closet for food.

This kitchen was the 50’s kitchen. Plywood cabinets on one wall and a small stove next to the door was not the best ergonomic design but it was what came with the house. The sink faced a window that looked out onto the brick wall of the house next door. There were three electrical sockets.

After a weekend conference I came home to find the kitchen empty. My wife had decided she didn’t like the 50’s look, so she tore all the cabinets out and threw them out into the backyard.

Since then the ‘kitchen’ has taken many different configurations with alternate appliances. More utensils and tools of manipulation of what is call “food” have been purchased and applied following the library of cookbooks.

The kitchen today has all the modern necessities to prepare and store substances to keep the body alive. The kitchen is functional but I don’t spend much time in there.

Yet to make a sandwich or heat up a pizza, you need a kitchen.