Me and My Kitchen

To get a feeling for Tom N-D's style of writing I thought it would be an excellent idea to read the introduction to CL. Tom is not shy about saying that his readers should use the best quality ingredients, but also not so militant as to say that those who don't should not even bother using his book... He says that "this is a book about building a new relationship with your kitchen; about turning it into a place that makes you want to cook." Well that's all I need to be hooked!
I have to be honest and say that at times my kitchen is a place that makes me want to run away! I guess it has to do with the fact that it is slightly bigger than a shoe closet, there is never any room to prepare and do things, and it is never clean enough (well that might have to do with my hardly cleaning it, ha!).

Tom introduces us to his kitchen:

"I live in a small flat in southeast London. I'm only saying that because I
don't want you to think that I have acres of kitchen space, an enormous
larder and a walk-in fridge at my disposal. My kitchen is fairly basically
equipped. I have a four-burner gas hob and an electric oven with a grill
function built in. I have two smallish store cupboards available for food,
as well as a fridge-freezer. I have two large saucepans and three small
ones. The lid of at least one has gone AWOL."

Now my turn:

"I live in a small apartment in south Brooklyn. I'm only saying that because not everyone in New York City has Charlotte York's (SATC) kitchen on Park Avenue. My kitchen is fairly basically equipped (now that's an understatement if there ever was one). I have a four-burner gas hob (very very dirty!) and an oven that should be investigated by the government as is quite clearly a nuclear reactor disguising itself as an oven in a small one-bedroom apartment in south Brooklyn. There is a broiler/grill function but not exactly sure after three years of living here how it works. I have one small store cupboard (pantry for us Yanks) available for food and ironically a huge fridge-freezer that never seems to be big enough. I have the 8-piece KitchenAid pot/pan set so can't exactly tell you what constitutes as a saucepan or a frying pan."

To prove to you that I could not possibly be making this stuff up here's a pic of my kitchen, at its cleanest!

Top -- nuclear reactor oven next to sink

Right-- that is my total counter space