Whether you’re professionally trained as a chef or simply love entertaining and experimenting with new dishes, a chef’s kitchen is one of top luxury features that many homeowners want. Here are some of the top features of these kitchens that you can implement in your own remodel, ranging from affordable additions to luxurious extravagances, from our cash for houses real estate team in Dallas and Fort Worth.
Wall-Mounted Racks for Kitchen Tools
Anyone who loves working in the kitchen knows that you need all your tools on hand and within easy reach. While canisters and ceramic pots do an alright job of making your kitchen tools readily available, chef’s take this one step further and install wall-mounted racks. Not only do these racks organize your tools properly, they also ensure that your counter space is maximized. Magnetic racks for knives and wooden shelves for spices keep everything within easy reach and look eye-catchingly professional.
A Chef’s Triangle
This is a basic feature of functional kitchen design and it’s an essential consideration for anyone remodeling their kitchen. When you’re cooking, you’ll spend the majority of your time moving between the sink, refrigerator and cooktop. It’s easiest to do this if you design your kitchen around this triangle, keeping each feature within easy reach of the other and ensuring that traffic moves around this space rather than through it, so you’re never tripping over anyone else in the kitchen.
Stainless Steel Countertops
Nothing says “chef’s kitchen” quite as much as stainless steel countertops – and there are good reasons why they’re in every professional kitchen around the world. They’re easy to clean and keep hygienic, as they are completely resistant to bacteria. You can put the hottest dishes and pans on a stainless steel surface directly from the stove or oven without marking them, and they don’t stain at all. They do scratch and dent, however, but that’s part of their charm!
Multiple Cooking Applications
A chef’s kitchen is all about experimenting and exploring different ingredients and cooking methods, so a basic oven and cooktop is going to be very limited. In general, chef’s prefer cooking on gas because heat can be adjusted rapidly, so a powerful gas cook top with multiple plates is a must-have. In addition, chef’s often have more than one oven, including a convection and steam oven – and a warming drawer to keep items hot.
Open Shelving
Open shelving is a big trend in modern kitchens and it’s directly inspired by chef’s working kitchens. By staking your plates and serving dishes on open shelves, they’re within easy reach at all times to making plating a breeze. It also gives your kitchen that elegant, simple and industrial look.
Prep Areas
All great kitchens need plenty of preparation space, and a chef’s kitchen needs more than most. Try to have at least one large section of counterspace clear and ready for all your prep work – especially if there will be more than one person in the kitchen. A good idea is to have a small sink and bin installed into this countertop so that you can clean vegetables easily and discard peelings and packaging easily without having to haul it across the kitchen. Your refrigerator should be located within easy reach of this space, preferably without having to cross through the chef’s triangle.
Plenty of Seating
Chef’s kitchens and entertaining go hand-in-hand, so it’s a good idea to combine these two spaces. A beautiful, large kitchen bar means that you can chat to friends and family while you cook and can double-up as an eating space – ideal if you are doing a tasting menu! Having a large dining space – indoor, outdoor or both – close to your kitchen is another must-have. This is idea for more formal events like Thanksgiving and birthdays as well as family dinners. Make sure you have a wide table that can fit serving dishes as well as place settings so that you can serve family-style, and that you have enough space around the table and chairs for people to move in and out with ease.
A Drinks Bar
No meal is truly complete without a paired beverage, and having a wine fridge and drinks bar close by makes storage, pairing and serving a breeze. It also makes it easy to store wine that you want to use as a cooking ingredient. Many high-quality wine fridges have different temperature-controlled zones for different drinks, so you can store red wine at its recommended 55-65 degrees and white wine at 40-50 degrees in the same space.
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