Monday 1 March 2021

Kitchens.


I was recently looking at the online details of a rather nice big old Normandy Manor House that's for sale. It was a spectacular building with plenty of outbuildings and land, and of course a wonderful half-timbered exterior. Like all such homes, it was also very cheap.


However, the one thing that attracted my attention was the kitchen (that small yellowy corner above).

On rainy afternoons we often watch a TV house finding programme, where, almost without exception, the wife wants an EXTRA-LARGE KITCHEN-DINER in which to re-heat her Sainsbury's ready-meal.

So often this same wife (excuse my sexism) will visit vast kitchens and declare them FAR TOO SMALL; which I always see as a sign that she obviously doesn't cook.

The kitchen of the beautiful Normandy home (above) is like so many that one finds in France; very basic and tiny, but perfectly adequate to provide wonderful meals at the drop of a hat.

The kitchen in our village Chateau was even more basic, and my friend L who lived there was a wonderful cook; proving I suppose that it's not size that matters, but skill.

But you knew that; didn't you!

 

42 comments:

  1. I find it weird how uber large the kitchens have become. I spend more time on the couch and only an hour in the kitchen in a day to make 3 meals. As you so it is often the ones that can't cook who seem to need the status symbol large kitchen.

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    1. I too cook three meals a day in a small kitchen; I could do the same in an even smaller kitchen. These huge kitchens with the essential island, are probably just an excuse for inefficiency; and of course to show their friends!

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  2. I also cook in a very small kitchen and have no problem with it.

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    1. A lot of French kitchens have just a two ring bottled-gas cooker, and a wood fired oven. They manage perfectly.

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  3. Lol at a large kitchen to heat a Sainsbury meal.
    Larger may mean less skill is required. The larger the kitchen the more free and messy you can be.
    Our kitchen is compact and we've had a large kitchen in the past. There is a lot less walking in a small kitchen.

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    1. It's the fact that all these people's priorities are 'the huge kitchen'. It's almost as if nothing else is important. I suppose a kitchen doesn't require 'taste'; as long as it's big and shiny.

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  4. Have you ever watched The Little Paris Kitchen ? Restaurateur Rachel Khoo lives in a tiny flat in Paris and cooks the most amazing meals in the tiniest kitchen you ever did see ! XXXX

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    1. Yes, she's a classic example. Her type of kitchen is more common than you'd imagine.

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    2. That kitchen is a marvel!! What she can do with a toaster oven is a lesson to all the giant kitchen owners!

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    3. At least it's not down on the ground (like ours). she doesn't have to get on her knees. Luxury!

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  5. A big expensive kitchen is such a waste. I cook some pretty fabulous creations when away in my motorhome. Don’t need acres of worktop space if you put things away as you go. At home I like my small kitchen. . Easy to clean and tidy up. We should learn from the French.

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    1. Most of us can prepare a pretty good meal with just a charcoal BBQ, and somewhere to prepare a simple salad.

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  6. It's not te size that matters it's the storage available. With a walk in pantry/freezer/utility room a kitchen corner is fine. It's those huge double doored fridges that I dislike.

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    1. I agree about having a good sized pantry. I made sure there was one when designing the interior of our barn (my son's), but now it's no more than a dump for CLUTTER.

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  7. No fancy kitchen here either and I haven't had a working oven for over 20 years (we didn't bother to replace it when it stopped working) yet I have managed to produce perfectly acceptable meals for the two of us and our friends in that time.

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    1. I hardly ever use our electric oven. Maybe for a Sunday roast every so often. Our wood-fired oven has been used just 4 or 5 times this winter, but more as a heater than for cooking; although we always put a few spuds in it.

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  8. I live on a boat so not only is my kitchen small it sometimes lists badly!

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    1. I once spent a week on a narrow boat, so I know what you mean!!

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  9. My worktop area is also small, and it's fine.
    (Having great trouble leaving comments - google won't let me sign in for some reason.)

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    1. Perhaps you have a temperamental laptop. Mine refuses to do certain things occasionally. Sing to it!

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    2. It's something to do with Google. At the very top of all blogs, in the right hand corner, is a signed in/sign out function. I've not had to alter this in all the time I've been using it, until this week. If I try to leave a comment without signing in fresh each time, it doesn't work, and no matter what I do, it never says that I am actually signed in. Everything else on computer (desktop) is working perfectly. Any bright ideas?

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    3. It sounds as if you need to click a 'keep me signed in' button. I'd ask someone who knows about such things; they are usually about 11 years old.

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  10. My kitchen is small but bigger than the one my mum had. There was no room to use a proper rolling pin. She had to use a milk bottle. (I sound like a Monty Python sketch.)

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    1. My mother always had small kitchens in large houses; she was a wonderful cook.

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  11. If you are a good chef then size doesn't really matter does it? We knocked into the dining room so make my 'large' kitchen. I love it, especially sitting at my prized island with a glass of vino and watching Paul prepare my meals.

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    1. I'm not anti big smart kitchens, I just don't think they assist one's skills.

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  12. I have a small kitchen. The only thing I wish for is more countertop.

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    1. The only thing I wish for is more cupboard space.

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  13. I do not have a large kitchen but I wish I did. A kitchen is not only a place to cook, but also a place where people like to gather. When I have people over, it is the most crowded room in the house.

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    1. That's why I think people always want the huge kitchens; not to cook but to 'gather;.

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  14. I've lived in many homes, and for a time, did food writing and had published cookbooks. Some kitchens were tiny, some were big, most were somewhere between. Yes, you can cook a good meal in just about every circumstance. As we consider home plans for retirement, the kitchen is my #1 priority; it must be well laid out, efficient, have enough workable counterspace and cabinets for cookware/tool storage. As we'll be out on land in the country, a pantry would be nice. Tastes vary. That's a GOOD thing. Efficiency is important for most. --E.M. Griffith (Google dropped my name for some reason)

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    1. Most of our local farming families have an outbuilding where they do all their preserves, etc. This is NOT a smart tiled room, maybe just an old pigsty.

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  15. I don't know Cro, I always wanted a big old farmhouse kitchen (I don't have it) because I would like to put a huge sofa and chairs in there so I can chat while cooking. I love to cook and I love to chat so the two seem to go together!

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    1. I love to chat whilst cooking. Lady M hates it; she sends everyone away.

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  16. Any good cook knows that a small kitche nis the best. Everything at your finger tips. If youre any sort of a decent cook you can make marvellous meals with a hot plate and a sink.
    Maybe her caterer demands more bench space to spread out and show off the goodies

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    1. Quite right. In your case I expect your BBQ does the job far better than a huge glossy kitchen.

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  17. Couldn't agree more Cro - it always makes me smile. The other thing they always want is a log burner in the sitting room. We had one at the farm and I miss it more than anything but these townies moving out into the country would soon be complaining about the chopping and sawing of wood and the cleaning up in the morning I'll be bound.

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    1. We always laugh about that too. You buy a £500,000 house, and get excited about it having a £500 log burner. Bizarre.

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  18. I don't think the size of your kitchen is important, and I do like having everything at my fingertips... but counterspace is sometimes a problem if I'm cooking a big holiday meal. (That kitchen in the picture has NO counterspace)

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    1. I have too much junk in my kitchen, but that's my own fault. I still manage OK.

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  19. It's true about sulking people in those property shows. They always seem to want massive kitchens. I guess it's not the same when watching equivalent programmes in poor countries like Malawi or Burkina Faso. There they just want a water supply and if they are lucky - some electricity.

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    1. In Yemen, they just want some food to cook.

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