Space is more than the final frontier -- it's the first prerequisite when creating a kitchen for more than one cook.
Of course, in the 23rd and 24th centuries, most food preparation probably won't involve actual cooking -- meals will emerge fully prepared, out of replicators.
But back here in the 21st century, when a designer is envisioning a kitchen in which two cooks will be cooking, "The biggest thing is just space. You have to have it," says Bill Wrape, owner of Distinctive Kitchens & Baths on Rebsamen Park Road in Little Rock's Riverdale neighborhood.
"The recommended space [for] walkways is 42 inches for one cook; for two cooks, it's 48 inches," he says. "Typically, when I'm designing around two cooks, [the idea is to] have enough room to walk between and around each other, without having to watch out for a knife swinging this way or that way."
And, "The ideal kitchen for a cooking duo makes efficient use of the space and is designed with separate work spaces," suggests HGTV, the TV network rife with home renovation and design shows (tinyurl.com/gr7go6n). "Good design [dictates] that two cooks will cooperate on the menu and not compete for space."
Plenty of counter space and separate cleanup areas are a necessity, the article says, and "clearance between counters should be wider than usual, to allow two people to pass each other easily."
A big word in the kitchen-design lexicon is "triangle" -- the cook's pattern of movement from sink to range to refrigerator.
Until such time as cooks can just beam from one part of the kitchen to another, designers at Starmark Cabinetry (tinyurl.com/z56mdh6) stress for the sake of mobility that duo-cook triangles shouldn't in any way interfere with one another. "Each leg of the triangle should be a minimum of 4 feet" -- echoing the 48 inches Wrape mentioned -- "and a maximum of 9 feet."
"Ideally, your design will require two sinks, one of them on the island, positioned so the cooks aren't back-to-back and so they can easily converse. You won't want to be cooking cheek-to-cheek either, so make sure you leave 48 to 60 inches of space between your counter tops and island."
Cooking and prepping
"Usually the way cooking works when there's two people is that there's a cook and a prep [person]," Wrape says. "We usually try to do an extra sink, so you have a sink that's always open to do the prep work.
"You can even do a separate [cooking] area and a cleaning area. We've also done it so there's different cooking areas, too. We've put in a gas cooktop
in [one] area and an induction cooktop in another area.
No cook is an island, perhaps, but "Islands are good for two cooks -- one person could be working at the island while the other person is working at the sink. Island design depends on the house and the cooking situation; I've [put in] cooktops and prep sinks if it's big enough."
The size of the island, he says, is "driven by how tall the ceilings are or how you're going to vent your cooktop, whether or not you have a nice window in your kitchen where you want your sink, and how many people you want to seat at your island -- 2 feet per chair is kind of the rule of thumb.
"And it's driven by how big the piece of material that you're going to use for the island, because some people don't want to see seams in the granite or quartz or whatever, ... and, frankly, about getting to the middle of the island to clean it. We used to do everything really big; we're more sensible now."
HGTV and Livspace, an online shopping and design site (tinyurl.com/h3qlosw), recommend choosing durable and easy-to-maintain surfaces that will hold up to the extra wear and tear two cooks can inflict, and that will ease cleaning and scrubbing. Livspace suggests granite or Corian counter tops, tiled back splashes and vitrified flooring tiles.
HGTV suggests having two sinks and two dishwashers "will create two separate work areas; access to the stove for each cook from different directions eliminates traffic jams." Moreover, "Two cooks require more cooking space -- for example, a cooktop with six burners and a griddle, and three ovens (two convection ovens and a proofing oven), a warming drawer and a microwave."
And, as "a thoughtful design detail," consider clipping the corners of any island "for ease of passage."
"There's all different ways of doing it," Wrape says. "It depends on the size of the kitchen. Everything is form and function. The cooking area could have a garbage disposal in the prep sink so you could use it for [cutting] vegetables and things like that. And it would be close enough to the refrigerator that you can get into the storage areas easily enough."
No knocking elbows
"As a rule, the more counter space each of you has, the better," says William Green, principal of William Green & Associates, a six-person New York City design firm specializing in environmentally responsible architecture, writing for the website for PBS renovation show This Old House (tinyurl.com/hlur49b). "You don't want to be knocking elbows as you work.
"Designate different areas of the counter for different functions. Allocating a portion as butcher block, for example, provides a dedicated prep area for slicing and dicing and leaves the remaining surfaces available for other cooking activities.
"Provide ample space on either side of each appliance, so that the two of you can work unimpeded and keep the cooking utensils and ingredients you need at the ready. It's also helpful to separate the cooking and preparation areas. When you're tossing a salad, you don't want to be in the way of someone taking a casserole out of a 400-degree oven.
"I like to design kitchens with an additional prep station within the pantry area, complete with a sink if space allows. This kind of 'bonus' area is a convenient staging spot for putting away groceries or assembling ingredients.
"Similarly, a butler's pantry between the kitchen and dining room is an excellent transitional area, where you can put the finishing touches on a dish before it's served. Include a sink, and you now have a place to stack dishes between courses, keeping your primary sink clear for cookware."
Livspace also recommends:
• Choosing layouts that give both cooks enough space. "U-shape and L-shape counters are among the best kitchen layouts for two cooks. For parallel kitchens, the space between the two counters should be more than 3 feet for comfortable movement so that you don't bump into each other.
• "Keep things in easy reach. Place wall shelves and cabinets at a height that can be conveniently accessed by both of you.
• "Plan for separate equipment and multiple appliances to minimize wait time. You can get two types of ovens -- one microwave and one convection. Similarly, double bowl sinks are a good choice for two-cook kitchens. So are air fryers, frying pans, knife sets etc. Customize your kitchen floor plan so each person has his own cooking area."
However, where you place the sink could make a big difference, Wrape says.
"I moved from a house where we had a single bowl sink. It was in a corner, but it was parallel, it wasn't in a diagonal corner.
"I moved into a house that has a diagonal sink that is a double bowl and I absolutely hate it. It's on a diagonal, so everything is right in your way; there's not a big sink so I have no way to clean big pots and pans without water going everywhere."
'Who yells the most?'
Author and kitchen and bath designer Kelly Morisseau (tinyurl.com/gnbsfo2) recently designed a dual kitchen for a cook (a culinary school student) and a baker.
By way of setting priorities, her first question was, "Who does the most yelling for the other to get out of the way?" (They both do.)
So, "We need to get both parties out from underneath each other. I've created a 'his' and 'hers' split. This isn't to say that they can't use each other's areas, but for the majority of their work, they'll be efficient."
Among her design recommendations:
• "Keep the refrigerator in an area where no one crosses into another's path to get to it. To prevent collision hazards from the cook heading to the ovens and the baker heading toward the refrigerator, relocate the fridge, which is used almost more than any other appliance.
• "Avoiding sink collision. A new prep sink for the cook that could also act as bar area. (On the left because a right-handed cook will usually prep left to right -- chop veggies, toss on range. If he was left-handed, we'd discuss placing it to the right of the range.)
• "Look at where the entry doors swing and what they might obstruct or strike in the room.
• "Back the cabinets and appliances off from the entryways. Always think of doors open and people standing. Encroaching into a walkway is an excellent way to bruise a hip coming around the corner.
"I've always been taught to mentally cook my favorite dish in a new design to see where I'd end up fetching items," she says. "If it seems intuitive and easy, then the design is working."
Wrape says if you're remodeling an existing kitchen and want to save a little money, it's possible to keep some appliances where they already are and add around them.
"I've walked into many houses where there wasn't anything wrong with the footprint of the kitchen -- the problem was the way the cabinets are set up, or some very basic things where the functionality of this area could be changed," he says. "There was a microwave on the counter top instead of in a base cabinet or a microwave up [above] that would make more space on the counter top."
Wrape has a century or two to figure out where to put that replicator.
HomeStyle on 01/28/2017