Small Kitchens

Mark Bittman had a great column in The New York Times last week about small kitchens. Apparently, when Bittman posted a photo of his kitchen (above) to his blog, dozens and dozens of people wrote in astonished that he has such a tiny kitchen. Of course, New Yorkers weren’t at all surprised.

What I liked best about the piece though was Bittman’s assertion that a good cook can cook anywhere. Having spent a few years as a catering chef, I agree: a decent cook can prepare a nice meal just about anywhere. I’ve cooked in the fanciest Greenwich kitchens that have all the latest appliances, but not a single spatula or a paring knife. I’ve also cooked on propane ring burners just about everywhere: in a back yard, on the deck of a boat, in a parking lot, you name it, I may have cooked there. Here's a quote from the article that sums up Bittman's point:

To pretend otherwise — to spend tens of thousands of dollars or more on a kitchen before learning how to cook, as is sadly common — is to fall into the same kind of silly consumerism that leads people to believe that an expensive gym membership will get them into shape or the right bed will improve their sex life. As runners run and writers write, cooks cook, under pretty much any circumstance.

My own small kitchen is below. It makes Mark Bittman's look like a palace, but it's always been enough for me. (That said, I've never cooked a sit down dinner for more than 10.)