Ghosts of Kitchens Past & Present

Hello there!

I've been busy working and unable to get to blogging lately.

But I ran across an article on kitchens and kitchen design on Economist.com that I just HAD to share.
It's quite a read, but kitchen aficionados won't mind.

The article, Downstairs Upstairs, by ??? (whoever it is, they are English and did a lot of good research), is a lengthy history of kitchens from the days of Henry XIII to the present; as well as a look at kitchens around the world today.

Some excerpts:

"Royalty ran them on an industrial scale. Henry VIII extended the Tudor kitchens at Hampton Court Palace into 55 rooms, covering over 3,000 square feet (280 square metres). These included the great kitchen, privy kitchen, cellar, larder, pantry, buttery, ewery, saucery, chaundry, spicery, poultery and victualling house."

"No corner of the kitchen escaped Catharine Beecher's critical eye, nor the precision of her advice. She recommended the construction of cupboards, shelves and drawers adapted to each sort of utensil. She favoured a work-table with built-in drawers, in order “to save many steps”."

"Many contemporary ideas about kitchen design can be traced back to another American, Christine Frederick, who set about enhancing the efficiency of the housewife. Her 1919 work, “Household Engineering: Scientific Management in the Home”, and her articles for the Ladies Home Journal on radical notions such as “Suppose our servants didn't live with us?”, were based on detailed observation of a housewife's daily routine."


Enjoy!
And Happy Holidays to ALL!

Peggy