ᐅ Open Plan Kitchen: Regretted Choice or the Ultimate Solution?

Vegans do not eat yogurt.

Cookies, stollen, bread, and canning work perfectly fine in the open kitchen.
The kitchen is directly adjacent to the terrace.
Drafts in a passive house?

@BauFamily
I would choose neither option 1 nor option 2.

Durran schrieb:

I’m against an open kitchen. If someone is vegan and eats yogurt followed by a rocket salad in the evening, sure, they can have an open kitchen. But when mom is cooking hearty meals, the Christmas baker is busy, and traditionally everything happens in the kitchen, then the kitchen area should be kept separate.

The grease and moisture spread throughout the whole house. And no Bora extractor can fully prevent that! It always depends on the size.
But nowadays, people cook much less. Delivery services are more common.

We have about 30 sqm (320 sq ft) of closed kitchen space, with a large table in the middle where we also eat. The terrace is connected via two doors. In summer, we all sit outside anyway. Carrying everything through the living room is inconvenient too.

You want it to be warm sometimes. In the middle of winter, it can reach 25°C (77°F) in our kitchen. I wouldn’t want to miss that.
And keep in mind: you get older. The older you are, the more sensitive you become to drafts and cold in general. At 30, you don’t notice it.
Heating the entire house to 25°C (77°F) is not technically feasible today.

I know people with open kitchens who actually have the main cooking kitchen in the basement, connected to the upstairs kitchen by a small lift. That way there are never pots left out or dirty stoves in sight.

I don’t understand the idea of 25 degrees (Celsius). And what drafts?
The basement kitchen is nonsense. The lift too.
I don’t like Christmas pastries (or sweets in general), but I love being able to watch the little one while they bake. I still like the smell throughout the house—I’m a Christmas person.
But I also don’t get why a vegan would need an open kitchen. Real Wiener schnitzel in a 5 cm (2 inch) pan with fat also smells good.
Again, if we don’t like the smell, we simply don’t eat it.

So, anyone who has a kitchen like this in the basement will occasionally get visits from a private chef. While the guests are seated upstairs in the living and dining area, the chef works in the basement. Then everything is brought up by a lift. This is common practice in upscale households and not unusual.

Doctors or business executives used to build houses worth 1 million DM with such features. Today, any assembly line worker at VW or Porsche can afford to build a house for that amount. However, that usually isn’t enough to hire a chef anymore. But oh well.

Durran schrieb:

Anyone who has a kitchen like that in their basement will always have a private chef visiting.

Anyone with a kitchen like that in their basement isn’t active here in the forum and doesn’t have to worry about money, architects, interior designers, au pairs, and so on. They come home after working until 9 p.m. in their own company or in an executive position and don’t bother with cooking anymore. Their partner was at the tennis club and then out dining with friends while the nanny looked after the child.

Most people here in the forum can’t even afford a basement, let alone have a private chef prepare meals in a second kitchen down there.

What kind of world are you living in, @Durran? The "high society" you are talking about would be the top 5,000 households. I know plenty of building projects where this "high society" lives just as normally as the rest of us. Although my definition of "high society" means a net income of €10 million per year or more plus additional earnings. Which high society are you referring to?

haydee schrieb:

Vegans don’t eat yogurt.

Cookies, stollen, bread, and preserving work well in the open kitchen.
The kitchen is directly connected to the terrace.
Drafts in a passive house?

@BauFamily
I wouldn’t choose either option 1 or option 2.

What would your proposed solution be?

Durran schrieb:

So, anyone who has a kitchen in the basement often ends up with a hired cook visiting. While the guests are seated upstairs in the living and dining area, the cook works downstairs in the basement. Then everything is brought up by elevator. This is common in high society and not unusual at all.

Doctors or business executives used to build homes with such features for around 1 million DM. Today, any assembly line worker at VW or Porsche can afford to build a house for that amount. But that’s no longer enough to hire a cook. But so be it.

Common? If that really is the case, then I find it rather dreadful…
On Monday, I made my first-ever homemade moussaka (I love Greek food).
Afterwards, the kitchen looked like a battlefield. Admittedly, the recipe was good but the process was messy.
Still, we are doing well. We live well. Very well.
A hired cook would never be within our budget anyway. But even if it were, what nonsense is that?
I enjoy cooking. Cooking myself. Cooking properly. If it didn’t turn out well, I try to improve it next time.
And I like being able to do that while my family is around.
The smell in the house of rosemary, lamb fat, onions, garlic, roux, potatoes, and so on lingers for a while.
But it’s a good smell.
Better than any car freshener.