By Amy Souza
Examiner Correspondent 11/6/08
Chef Diane Bukatman today has more than 700 square feet of teaching kitchens in which to spread out. But the kitchen in her first solo apartment was a different beast. The room had a tiny oven, four small burners and just two cabinets above the sink.
“You couldn’t even open the refrigerator and oven at the same time,” Bukatman said. Yet for years, she cooked Thanksgiving dinner for 40 people there. The lessons learned are ones she passes on to students at her Reisterstown cooking school, For the Love of Food. Planning counts: “You have to think, ‘What are the things I can prep that don’t have to go in the oven?’ ” Bukatman said. “Then make a list, and time the things that do have to go into the oven and work backwards. Whatever takes the longest, that’s what you do first.” Buy the right tools: Sure, it would be great to own every pot and pan imaginable, but Bukatman said it’s easier than you think to work with less. She recommends having on hand 8-inch and 10-inch sauté pans and a 6-quart soup pot, and if you have the room, 2-quart and 3-quart sauce pots. “You can never have too many mixing bowls,” she added. “But you need at least a couple.” She recommends purchasing glass bowls that can go into the microwave instead of stainless steel. In addition, a well-equipped kitchen needs two good cutting boards and three high-quality knives — a chef’s knife, a paring knife and a bread knife. Ban countertop clutter: Back in the small kitchen days, Bukatman worked with a hand mixer. Today, she said, “if I had to live in a tent I would bring my food processor and stand mixer.” Some kitchens have enough storage for such big tools, but don’t waste counter space on them (unless, like Bukatman, you simply can’t live without them). Also, banish the knife block. It simply takes up too much room. “And,” Bukatman said, “no one ever uses all those knives anyway.”
Organization is key: Keep those items you use often within reach, and give everything — tools, spices and key ingredients — a place so you know where to find what you need. In Bukatman’s first kitchen, she brought in a butcher block-topped cabinet and installed shelving directly above it. She stored everything on those shelves, including dry staples like pasta and rice and her wide array of spices, which she kept in small bottles and arranged alphabetically.
For the Love of Food's First Kitchen - Lots of Cooking toys to Play with!
For the Love of Food's 2nd Kitchen - Every Appliance Imaginable!
