A fridge, a hob, an oven. Cupboards, drawers, a wipe-clean work surface. A sink, perhaps a microwave, less often a dining table and chairs. Why are our kitchens – more so than living rooms or bedrooms – so alike, when our needs and tastes are so different? This is the central question of Kitchens, a thought provoking six-part mini-series by Lucy Dearlove, which forms part of her delightfully named food podcast Lecker (“delicious” in German). Kitchens fills a gap in a media that is obsessed with recipe books and viral cooking trends but rarely addresses how, as our cooking routines change, our habitats must too.
Until the middle of the 20th century, it was deemed unbecoming for a guest at a respectable household to be able to smell or hear someone cooking; kitchens were ideally kept separate from living areas. Today, cooking is often a social activity, and an open-plan kitchen-diner is desirable. But is that still the ideal if you live in a flat-share, and what happens if you have a disability that means you can’t stand up to cook for a long time – can a fitted kitchen offer what you need?
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