The kitchen is the heart and soul of the family and the house. Whether
small or large, the kitchen is the hub of a modern home. It is where
nourishment begins. While life may be created in the bedroom, it is certainly
lived in the kitchen. Some tend to agree while others not so much. Where do you
stand on this?
Irrespective of our views, it is undeniable that the kitchen
feeds the family's physical and emotional needs. Coming into a house with
delicious aromas is comforting. It says someone is home and caring for me.
Kitchens are where families gather for hunger, for conversations, for debates,
for arguments and for hugs! It is the most important room in the home. How you
stock your kitchen, how you keep it organized and clean can say a lot about you.
Much of the importance of this room seems to depend on the size
of the kitchen, the family, and on lifestyle. In older homes, kitchens were
smaller, separated and removed from the rest of the home. It was a contained
space used almost exclusively for cooking that could be closed off to conceal
the mess. Family and friends would eat and congregate in the dining spaces and
living rooms that were situated nearby. Kitchens were utilitarian and that was
about it.
We all have memories of our mothers (in some cases the father or
both parents) and grandmothers (in larger families) slaving over a stove, working
tirelessly to prepare delicious, filling and nutritious meals that the family
enjoyed and savored together. In some cases children were told to keep out of
the kitchen – mother’s workspace – so that mother could prep and cook. In many
families, children especially the older ones were encouraged to join and learn
the art of cooking. The joy of preparing a family or holiday meal together
created true memories of a lifetime. Kitchens are not sedate and quiet rooms.
They are rooms filled with energy, aroma and texture. They were created with a
purpose, one purpose in mind. They were created to be utilitarian spaces.
In medium sized and larger homes of the western world, kitchens
were often spacious enough to seat a family for breakfast, a snack or a light
meal, with the important meals still meant to be served in the dining room
where the family congregated at the end of the day. The family meal had much more importance and
significance in past generations than it does now – much of this, again, due to
busier lifestyles of modern times.
Over the course of the past twenty years or so, kitchens started
to become living spaces. Families are spending significant part of the day in
these spaces and where more is being done than just cooking. Newer homes are now designed with kitchens as
living spaces in mind and so these rooms became larger to better accommodate
family and friends as an additional space for entertaining.
In many homes, kitchens have begun to open up to other rooms,
yet some remained separate spaces. These newer, larger, more accommodating
kitchens now have the space for large tables and islands are planned in to
create a natural flow for those coming and going. Much more thought is being
given to kitchen design and functionality. The idea of the kitchen as a living
space is becoming more and more popular and those with smaller kitchens in
older homes have started to take notice. Homeowners are remodeling kitchens to
enlarge the spaces, both for lifestyle and resale purposes.
Today the importance of a good sized, productive kitchen is
vastly important. In the eyes of realtors it certainly is. A house’s resale
depends greatly on its kitchen. Its location and functionality are the key.
Older kitchens are being made to look newer, more streamlined and more modern.
As our lives become more casual, our homes are as well and the walls are
literally coming down all around us.
With much less importance being paid to separate living and
dining areas in today’s modern times, the importance seems to be almost solely
concentrated on the kitchen space. Much attention is being paid to the room’s
layout, design and functionality. There are still those who will argue and tell
you that their living and dining room areas do matter greatly, even if they are
only used a couple of times a year. Again, much of this is reflective on
lifestyle.
Newer kitchens, while called kitchens, are really so much more.
These large rooms comprise several areas within. There is the kitchen area –
the designated cooking space – thoughtfully, carefully planned and laid out.
Then there’s the dining area within the kitchen, usually large enough to hold a
table that comfortably seats six or more, and finally, in many of these larger
kitchens, is the sitting area, so that in effect, the whole family can hang out
together while cooking, working or relaxing. Many new homes embracing the more
casual lifestyle are being built without a dining room or formal living area.
For those who enjoy entertaining and do so often, even the homes with formal
dining and living areas find that the crowd usually gathers in the kitchen.
So clearly size does matter. When asked whether the kitchen was
the most important room of the home, the result was pretty evenly divided.
Those with smaller kitchens tended not to think that these rooms were the most
important – necessary but not most important. Those with larger ones absolutely
believed them to be the most important space in their home. Lifestyle was a large influence as well.
Those who enjoy cooking and entertaining view the kitchen as an important and
integral space – contributing greatly to family life, even if the space was not
large enough to be “lived in.” For these
people kitchen efficiency is very important. For families where cooking and
eating is very much a part of their lifestyle and tradition, cooking, teaching,
sharing recipes, and passing them down from generation to generation was
important to many – and this is done in the kitchen, regardless of size, with
the belief that cooking with a child, or as a family, is an important moment in
family life and not to be dismissed or taken lightly.
The kitchen is ever evolving. Builders, architects, designers
and realtors all recognize this, as do kitchen manufacturers. Kitchen
functionality and design is ever evolving based on today’s busy and varied
lifestyle, with much thought given to where we are headed in the future.
Kitchen appliances, from refrigerators to dishwashers and ovens are constantly
changing as well. New products, concepts and designs emerge into the
marketplace every year.
Kitchens are also becoming more environmentally friendly, using
recycled materials, environmentally friendly products and incorporating
“greener” lifestyles that cut down on our footprint. For example, in the UK
garbage disposals have been banned and composting is a must in every home.
Modern kitchens are being designed with this in mind.
The current trend of remodeling kitchens and filling them with
gadgets and gizmos is our attempt to reconnect with times past, when the
kitchen was the heart of the home. We all yearn to reclaim the comfort and joy
of eating and cooking in the kitchens of our mothers and grandmothers. The
kitchen is the new living room, the social area of the home, the primary
entertainment venue for the home. It is the place where family, holiday and
religious rituals are celebrated. Intimate conversations are carried deep into
the night with the hearts and souls of those gathered there inextricably woven
together.
Technology has blessed us with convenience, but we must be
cautious that this does not drive us further and further away from our
grounding in the earth. The core of the human experience, the foundation of our
drive to do productive work, is the transformation of raw ingredients into
mental, physical, emotional and spiritual nourishment and sustenance. It is
time to reclaim this basic connection. The kitchen in a modern family can be a space
where the societal rediscovery may happen.
[SUBHODEV DAS]
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