Tailgate: Pam Anderson, Author
This cookbook writer and food blogger knows how to make everything from a sabayon to a soufflé. But when she and her husband built a new house, she got the chance to develop the perfect recipe for a new kitchen.
You recently got to help create your new kitchen. How did that come about?
We lived in Bucks County, Pa., for 11 years, and we loved it there. When it came time to relocate to a new state, we sold our house and bought land in Bucks County knowing that some day we would build a home there. After we got our two daughters through college, we built a cool house in upper Bucks County.
And you got to have some input on the kitchen design.
I did. An architect helped us design it. Since he knew of my profession and love for and interest in food, he took that into consideration, plus just what the kitchen symbolizes in our home. The whole house is very open, and the kitchen is seen and accessible to everything on the first floor. It’s literally and figuratively the focal point of our house.
In the course of the project, what went right with the kitchen?
One thing that went right was the vent hood. I cook at high heat, with a lot of searing and sautéing. But because vent fans are so noisy, I almost would rather put up with the smoke-alarm noise than the vent noise, so my smoke alarm would go off a lot. We invested in a vent whose motor is outside the house, so it stays very quiet in the kitchen.
Second, I needed good freezer space. I have never had a standard refrigerator/ freezer that I really liked. I need a freezer wide enough to fit a sheet pan, so I wanted a refrigerator and a full freezer in my kitchen. I did some research and found that Frigidaire makes a full refrigerator and full freezer side-by-side. It looks massive and looks like it cost a fortune, but I got it for around $1800, which is not much more than a standard refrigerator. That was another really good but not supercostly decision.
We made a huge section of the kitchen butcher-block countertop. We decided that we were just going to cut on the butcher block. You can pay $50 or $75 for a really good cutting board, and this whole piece we bought and had custom-cut was $300.If I screw this up and want to replace it in a few years, it’s only $300. I will occasionally pull out a cutting board for garlic, but other than that, I’m happy to chop anything on it. The rest of the countertops are quartz.
We bought a pebble floor. When we were doing the house, pebble wasn’t widely available, but I had seen these floors in the Pacific Northwest. It comes in sheets and is grouted like tile. I love it because it’s attractive, earthy, and beautiful. It does not show dirt or spills. It’s also not hard on my feet. It’s a little bit like poor-man’s reflexology because it’s like you’re walking on big pebbles or small stones.
What would you have done differently?
I wish I had put some butcher-block counter near my cooktop so that I had prep space near the stove. The quartz there isn’t conducive to chopping and cutting. It’s better for resting your spoon or having a little extra bit of counter space, but it’s not exactly functional.
We have a curved bar that faces the kitchen. I love that. I can sit at a barstool and do most of my work there. But it’s raised, so it blocks the view of the kitchen. It would have been nice to have the kitchen truly accessible to the rest of the house in terms of visuals and being able to watch someone cook.
The only other negative I can think of is that to accommodate the curve of the butcher-block bar and counter, I lost two drawers. It’s always good to have drawers holding utensils that will be used in your workspace.
I suppose that maybe it would have been helpful to have hired a high-tech kitchen designer to think the space through more, but the fact is that I take pride in working in a kitchen that is like the average cook because that’s my audience and that’s who I relate to. Too many bells and whistles and too many advantages over the average person, and I think I lose touch with the problems and issues that most people face. It’s through cooking in a real kitchen that I can solve cooking problems.
