A Professional Chef’s Kitchen
Laguna Beach, California
This kitchen is owned by two great cooks: one professional and one extremely talented amateur. What they wanted was to turn the space into the most functional two-person kitchen we could design.
They wanted a lighter and brighter kitchen, but also wanted one that functioned as much as possible like a professional kitchen; therefore, fabulous appliances, open shelving, two accessorized sinks, all-access base cabinets with storage accessories, lots of conveniently-placed countertop space, a pull-out pantry, and a large walk-in pantry. Anything that was regularly used needed to be within the kitchen, everything else was stored a few steps away.
They also requested cabinets and a countertop that would look beautiful even after years of hard usage.
The existing kitchen had frumpy face-frame cabinets, which waste space, don’t allow full-access, and don’t accept most pull-out accessories. The range lacked a safe landing space on its right-hand side, but because the regular-depth refrigerator was so deep there was no way to add the needed landing space while still keeping adequate doorway width. And although the clients liked their gas range, they felt that wall ovens would be better ergonomically in the future.
Our project started with a trip to KBIS, the annual Kitchen & Bath Industry Show, where I took the clients to view all of the new appliances, styles, and kitchen accessories. As soon as we saw the demonstration (and ate the food) of the TurboChef oven, the clients were sold.
The TurboChef (sold by Viking) is a souped-up convection oven that uses the equivalent of 60 mph wind to cook foods ultra-fast. That means that meats can stay juicy inside with crisp crusts (a perfect whole chicken cooks in 12 minutes!) and frozen pizzas can cook in just a few short minutes.
In order to make the new design functional and safe, we needed a shallower refrigerator. We selected a 48” wide, built-in refrigerator. This allowed us to move the doorway to the right and thereby provide a safe amount of counterspace to the right of the cooktops. The refrigerator was also moved to its right to allow a bar niche in the adjoining dining room.
The chef wanted mostly open shelving, which mimics what she was used to in her professional kitchen. We replaced the closet pantry with a pullout pantry for canned goods and grains, and also expanded a walk-in pantry a few steps away from the kitchen for the occasionally used pieces and appliances. We improved the lighting in the kitchen and expanded the window to allow more natural light into the space.
The couple had owned an induction cooktop in the past and were not happy with it. But at KBIS demonstrations, they found the new inductions were more responsive than gas, more efficient with energy use, and infinitely safer than either gas or electric. They decided to keep one gas element, just in case, but made their primary cooktop induction.
I have found that this decision, to keep a gas element in addition to the induction, is a fairly common decision when I have serious cooks with the space and money to do both. Aside from their existing love of gas cooking, they also note that they don’t want to have to get all new cookware (induction pots need to be magnetic to work, although with an induction ring—which costs $20—any pan can be used). Still, after a few months with induction, most of these cooks admit that they rarely use the gas and could have done without it.
The redesigned space has…
Two sinks (a near-necessity in a two-person kitchen) with on-demand heated water
Gas and induction cooktops
Fisher-Paykel dish drawers
A 48” SubZero built-in refrigerator/freezer
A TurboChef double oven
A large, powerful hood vent which mirrors the arch of the TurboChef
New Downsview Cabinetry with fitted accessory pullouts
Open shelving for easy access
A pull-out pantry
A walk-in pantry
Quartz countertops
It’s an an easy kitchen for multiple cooks preparing multiple dishes for multiple people.