To fuck or to cook?

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
It's no longer about the frig but instead about the cabinetry. Get any old built-in for $6 or $7K and have a cabinet maker do a custom Indian rosewood and brazilwood inlay on mahogony, and your guests will know they are in the presence of a big leaguer when you bring them into the kitchen. Just make sure the staff keeps that wood buffed and oiled.

Please.

Eurocucina starts in Milan next week.

You fly to Milan, go to the fair (and the other design fairs going on next week), and see what places like Berloni, Schueller, Santos, and especially Poliform, etc. are doing. Then you cry a lot because you're severely breaking the 9th commandment with all the coveting.

I am unwilling to risk my immortal soul in this way, so I'm sending an emissary instead.

No, I'm not at all bitter that my brother gets to go.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
Please.

Eurocucina starts in Milan next week.

You fly to Milan, go to the fair (and the other design fairs going on next week), and see what places like Berloni, Schueller, Santos, and especially Poliform, etc. are doing. Then you cry a lot because you're severely breaking the 9th commandment with all the coveting.

I am unwilling to risk my immortal soul in this way, so I'm sending an emissary instead.

No, I'm not at all bitter that my brother gets to go.

Cool.

I love a good kitchen. The best things we did with ours was to put the kitchen opening into a big family room, so we can have 25 or 30 people virtually in the kitchen if we want to, and build the gas stove into an island, so I can face the room while cooking. If I could do one thing differently, I'd put a higher countertop in on the side with the sink - I have to bend over to do dishes and chop, because the counters are built to the right height for someone who is about 5' 5" or so.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
I love a good kitchen. The best things we did with ours was to put the kitchen opening into a big family room, so we can have 25 or 30 people virtually in the kitchen if we want to, and build the gas stove into an island, so I can face the room while cooking. If I could do one thing differently, I'd put a higher countertop in on the side with the sink - I have to bend over to do dishes and chop, because the counters are built to the right height for someone who is about 5' 5" or so.

When my parents built their dream house, they made the kitchen the center focus of the house. There's a sitting area with a small settee, two large comfortable chairs and a coffee table off to the side of the massive island, and six stools opposite the cooking area on the island itself. There's a six burner range, and they refurbished an old refrigerator from the 40s or 50s that a neighbor gave them. The counterops are bright red tile and the cabinets are plain white with no ornamentation, and they have about five or six separate areas for food preparation, if you don't count people sitting at the island snapping peas or asparagus (and that's not counting at all the outside areas). They have two large sinks: one next to the dishwasher and one about two feet from the range on the island. I think probably four or five cooks can comfortably work without too much bumping into each other, though there is a little bit of a bottleneck by the refrigerator.

I think the only thing that they'd change is that they'd skip the electric griddle that's built in next to the range. I think they foresaw more pancakes than were ever made. In the 18 years that they've been there, I think I've seen them use the the griddle twice. They'd also probably put in more bookshelf space, but then that's a chronic problem for every household I've ever lived in.

I've seen as many as 40 people in that room at one time, though that's pretty crowded (and admittedly usually those people are in there to stand in a food line for a party). It can do 15 with no problem at all, and two or three almost feels empty.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
I think the only thing that they'd change is that they'd skip the electric griddle that's built in next to the range. I think they foresaw more pancakes than were ever made. In the 18 years that they've been there, I think I've seen them use the the griddle twice.

This just means they need more grandkids. We do pancakes every Saturday (with all the mixing done by small hands) - OR ELSE.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
This just means they need more grandkids. We do pancakes every Saturday (with all the mixing done by small hands) - OR ELSE.

Someone gave my dad a bread machine in the mid 90s, and he's been working on perfecting his bread since then. (He graduated from bread machine to mixer to cuisinart pretty quickly.)

The South Beach diet almost did him in a few years ago, but the ciabatta perservered, and as a result most of the carb intensive homemade breakfast foods are some combination of flour, starter, salt and water that are left to rise and are later baked.

[tmdiva]

I actually bought a new refrigerator and stove just last weekend. I was limited to working within my existing configuration (mostly), because I'm not planning on a complete remodel for another 5-7 years. I've just been limping along with marginally functional appliances since we bought the house six years ago, so when bonus time rolled around (and I wasn't working on another major issue like fertility treatment or pregnancy, like for the last few bonus seasons), I just went out and did it.

I ended up with a counter-depth KitchenAid side-by-side with ice/water in the door. I got white because my current configuration exposes a good deal of the appliance's side, and I wasn't going to pay lots of extra $$ for a full stainless wrap for a fridge I'm only going to use for a few years (most stainless models only have stainless doors and the rest is painted black or, in some newer models, dark gray).

If I could get any fridge, of course I'd be getting the Sub-Zero Pro 48 with the glass doors.

For the stove, again, I was limited by my current configuration to a slide-in downdraft range, which are only being made by Jenn-Air (I'm currently using a 20-year-old Jenn-Air drop-in range).

I'm torn about what stove I'd get if I weren't so limited. There's the high-end Viking/Wolf/Dacor route, or there's the Aga route, or there's the fabulous vintage route:


tm

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by tmdiva
I'd be getting the Sub-Zero Pro 48 with the glass doors.

why would you want everyone to be able to see what's in your refrigerator?

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
why would you want everyone to be able to see what's in your refrigerator?

Save energy because you aren't holding the door open while you ponder each and every item in the refrigerator?

Not that there is much in my refrigerator, but other people's experiences may vary.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by tmdiva


tm

That is so hot.

[bold_n_brazen]

Originally posted by taxwonk
That is so hot.

My thoughts, exactly.

I need a cigarette.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by tmdiva
For the stove, again, I was limited by my current configuration to a slide-in downdraft range, which are only being made by Jenn-Air (I'm currently using a 20-year-old Jenn-Air drop-in range).

I'm torn about what stove I'd get if I weren't so limited. There's the high-end Viking/Wolf/Dacor route, or there's the Aga route, or there's the fabulous vintage route:


tm

This doesn't work for me. I imagine getting very annoyed by the presence of a wall right next to two of the burners -- and a wall that may be burning hot to the touch, at that.

At my last home, I had a Viking 6-burner range and a Thermador double oven. I cry sometimes when I think about that.

[SlaveNoMore]

bold_n_brazen
My thoughts, exactly.

I need a cigarette.

For some reason, this saddens me.

As for this thread, I'm going with "fuck" and then dining out, as usual.

[Fugee]

Originally posted by bold_n_brazen
I have no idea. I'm actually a cook. I am all about function over form.

I'm more about baking than cooking, so my kitchen covetousness is for a double oven. I'd have to completely gut and reconfigure my kitchen to accomplish a double wall oven, but at the latest home show in Minneapolis, I saw a GE that has two ovens in a normal sized stove. They put the broiler on top and made it an oven/broiler (for baking smaller things) and then the regular oven on the bottom.

Burger, don't forget that if you get one of those monster Viking stoves or cooktops, you usually need special ventilation -- usually an equally monstrous hood.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by Fugee
Burger, don't forget that if you get one of those monster Viking stoves or cooktops, you usually need special ventilation -- usually an equally monstrous hood.

And do NOT let them sell you the pop-up ventilator -- it rises up from behind the burners and ostensibly sucks in the fumes, etc.

It doesn't work. It sucks out the flame. If the salesman tells you otherwise, he is lying.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
And do NOT let them sell you the pop-up ventilator -- it rises up from behind the burners and ostensibly sucks in the fumes, etc.

It doesn't work. It sucks out the flame. If the salesman tells you otherwise, he is lying.

Yours is badly installed - We've had 2 and my inlaws have them at both of their houses, and they all work, even for Cajun food.