Claustrophobia Sets In

I was working in the kitchen this morning, it always seems to need cleaning for some reason, and I had a thought - rare for me (the thought not the cleaning). It would be interesting to do a study of kitchens over time, because I believe they reflect society in general.

In a movie called “The Little Shop Around the Corner” Kralik, the lead character asks Mr. Pirovitch about rent on a three room apartment, with a kitchen, bedroom and a room for entertaining. Pirovitch responds with something along the lines of “a separate room for entertaining? What are you an ambassador? You entertain in the kitchen… a real friend comes after dinner.” Though just a story, I do think it reflects the attitudes of times gone by where most entertaining was done in the kitchen. Even after the evolution of the living room folks tended to gravitate to the kitchen. All right, that is usually where the beer and food was, so there may have been an ulterior motive, but sufficed to say the kitchen seems to still hold the potential for a gathering place provided it is large enough. Mine is about the size of a galley on a relatively small boat.

While this is very efficient, it doesn’t lend itself to entertaining. I have seen an attempt on the part of the kitchen industry to to revitalize the kitchen as a gathering place. They have doent is by creating more open space, islands where you can cook and visit at the same time, and built in wine chillers.

My kitchen, however, must be one of the “for worse” parts the priest was babbling about during the wedding. With Ms. Phos, two helper huskies (can’t cook without them), and me in there at the same time it is hard to tell what is happening - a wrestling match, a small circus, or someone trying to prepare a meal. Add to that the kitchen table is considered an alternate storage location and the kitchen is out of there as any kind of social area. It is my own fault, I picked the house, but had to make some compromises and the kitchen was one of them. The City the house is in is a calamity that overshadows the diminutive kitchen.

It would be nice, in some ways to see a return to the simpler days were the kitchen was as much for socialization as it is for eating, and perhaps there is a trend to go back to that, just not here.