Big Things from Small Kitchens

bittman easybake oven photo We do a regular series on TreeHugger about almost useless kitchen appliances that just take up space, or are what the Unclutterer calls "unitaskers"- devices that do only one thing that you need rarely.

The other side of the story is that many people, including most people in big cities or small apartments, have really small kitchens and just can't accommodate much of anything besides the basic stove, sink, fridge and a few pots and pans. New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman develops and tests his recipes for his cookbooks and articles in a kitchen that is seven feet long and six feet wide, tiny by any standards. He writes in the Times about what he thinks is essential in a kitchen:

bittman in kitchen photo
Mark Bittman in kitchen; Photo Kelly Doe

A young journalist called and asked what, after all, I considered essential in a modern kitchen? “A stove, a sink, a refrigerator, some pots and pans, a knife and some serving spoons,” I answered. “All else is optional.”

He writes that chefs, food writers, and grandmas know what counts in a kitchen:

When it comes to kitchens, size and equipment don’t count nearly as much as devotion, passion, common sense and, of course, experience. To pretend otherwise — to spend tens of thousands of dollars or more on a kitchen before learning how to cook, as is sadly common — is to fall into the same kind of silly consumerism that leads people to believe that an expensive gym membership will get them into shape or the right bed will improve their sex life. As runners run and writers write, cooks cook, under pretty much any circumstance.