Written by Carly Freestone | 4th May 2018

Lifestyle

The MasterChef effect: Kitchens for budding professionals

For most of us, food is one of life’s greatest pleasures, and for some of us finding inventive ways to cook, prepare and serve food is a passion. As a nation we’re obsessed with MasterChef. Recently. presenter John Torode made headlines with his tears of joy over a seemingly not so humble apple crumble.

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At Michael Graham we have our fair share of MasterChef wannabees, but if you dream of reaching the top of the culinary world, what sort of kitchen would you most like if you got there?

For people looking to move to a new house, an open-plan kitchen usually features on their wish list. In that kitchen, the current trend is for cabinets that resemble pieces of freestanding furniture. Crafted from relatively plain timber, they’re painted with statement colours like dark green or navy for an impactful look. Mixing up colours and materials like this makes the kitchen look less clinical and more like one featured in a celebrity cookbook or television series. Kitchen islands are still very much centre stage, but people don’t just want to perch anymore. They want comfortable, upholstered bar stools at the very least, ideally with plug sockets to charge their tablets while they work.

State of the art appliances are vital tools of the trade for any chef, so you’ll need a tall, glazed unit with open shelving and fold-back doors to keep your Magimix on display and yet out of the way. Another unit will have a countertop where the toaster and coffee machine can sit. Don’t worry about the kettle, you won’t have one in this kitchen, it’ll have a boiling water tap instead.

Finally, the food itself. Clean eating and interest in the provenance and quality of ingredients means that the quality of ingredients is a priority. In the past, the pantry or cellar naturally provided the right conditions for storing food. Today, top of the range fridges come with customisable temperatures for each compartment. Smeg has a Luxury range, while Lanserring’s new Tradescant range includes a charcuterie rail, a temperature and humidity-controlled cheese drawer and terracotta-lined pastry storage.  Whoever said less is more?

Are you an aspiring chef? We’d love to see your creations.

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