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I’m really thrilled with this book. Quite apart from the
fact that it’s so beautiful to look at thanks to the fantastic team at the
publishers, Kyle Cathie Ltd, and to the designer, Kitchen Living is new
and different. It’s new and different because it is so much more than simply a
decorating book (wonderful though these are). It is a book for a way of life. It
embraces not only the way you want to arrange and decorate your kitchen, for
many people the most important room in the home, but also the way you live your
life here. Kitchen Living has a
chapter of recipes, for example, each dish packed with flavour and colour as
well as being very quick and easy to prepare. There’s also a chapter on
small-scale gardening, because the ideal living kitchen has French windows
opening onto a terrace or small garden with room for table and chairs in summer.
This concept – a full-colour book of this quality that celebrates the whole
lifestyle – is new, but I think that this is the start of something
exciting… Homes & Gardens have already chosen Kitchen Living as one
of the books you should read if you want to rethink your kitchen. The chapters in Kitchen Living are:
At one point in the book’s development there was a much
larger chapter on food and drink, including a section on cocktails (into which I
and some friends poured many hours of research and invention). The publisher,
however, felt that this chapter was simply taking up too much of the book which
is, primarily a decorating book. I had to agree, but I’m sorry not to have
been able to offer my readers more flavour-packed, quick-prepare dishes. Perhaps
another time…
It was extremely difficult choosing a single spread to
represent the content of Kitchen Living because the book covers so many
different aspects of the kitchen and life lived there. There is a spread on The
Natural Kitchen that I could have used, for example, and one on The Futuristic
Kitchen. There are fabulous kitchens to dream about and budget kitchens packed
with style. There are pages about appliances, flooring, work surfaces, lighting
and wiring. Pages about kitchens large, medium and small. Pages about styles and
colours, others about quickly changing the atmosphere from family study to
dinner party sophistication in Quick Changes. Pages about Troubleshooting, about
making the table beautiful for a party, about looking after real linen and
crystal or stainless steel. Just about everything you could possibly want to
know is, I hope, touched on in one place or another. I’ve drawn on my own
experience of kitchen living as well as my aspirations. I want this to be a
really useful book. In the end I chose this spread because the subject sums up
one of the joys of today’s living kitchen – it can be as formal or as
informal as you want, depending on your mood and the occasion. The living
kitchen is versatile. It’s in tune with our modern lives. Whether or not you
have a seating plan is up to you and the occasion. A plan or placement
can be useful, however. It will help you ensure that your guests or a special
person like an elderly relative sit where they will be most comfortable and have
the best view of the table or the room, and that people sit next to neighbours
that will suit them. If you decide to have a placement, this spread in Kitchen
Living will help you get it right so that everyone is happy. |
