A kitchen just for show??

[DancingLions]

Browsing FB and a post comes up. Family looking for a cat sitter. Pretty regular home. But the person then goes on to say they've had a new kitchen extension built but no ones allowed to use it! Even them!

Apparently they use the old kitchen to do all their food prep and cooking, which they now call the utility and the new kitchen is literally just for show. What madness is this? Spending thousands on an extension to house a show kitchen?

Has anyone else done this? What is the logic? I mean yes I can see they want to keep it looking nice but a full kitchen unused is an expensive ornament!

My sister has a "working kitchen" and a "show kitchen"
She's a pretentious fool.

What is the point of having a lovely kitchen you don't use? If it's for show who are they showing it to if they don't do anything in it! Very confusing!

Maybe they’re planning on selling and have done it to add value to their home.

‘Pretentious fool’ is now my new favourite insult 😆

My colleague has this, a kitchen in her garage (but her reason is because she makes lots of smelly food). I guess it's not too different from a scullery which is something I've always dreamed of!

oooh this is a thing some rich people have here in the USA! (Needless to say, not me.) There's a main kitchen and a prep kitchen. Rich people learnt that the problem with open plan is that your guests can see all the work and the smell gets into the living area, so they started putting in prep kitchens to keep all the dirty things out of sight. That said supposedly people do use the main one, just not with anything that actually causes a mess, or something? I'll admit I'd love somewhere to put all the dirty dishes out of sight and I suppose if you like using a wok or deep frying it would be nice to have it elsewhere. But I don't see the point of spending tens of thousands on a kitchen that I won't use at all.

There's also the wet/dry separation they use in parts of Asia, but in that case, both sides are used.

It's called a back kitchen not a utility.

I stayed in a house like this. The staff prepped all the food in the back kitchen, the open plan kitchen was used for laying out and food heating by the guests. It was all open plan, so I guess the idea was to not stink out the whole house by cooking, and not having the staff in the same room as the guests when they were preparing the meals.

Another reason I don't like open plan (not that I have staff, or guests, but I do have messy dc who like to cook, so and I don't want to be exposed to their smell and mess).

A scullery was primarily for washing things though - pots/dishes & clothes. It was full of sinks and hot & cold water. I think only food prep involving water would go on in a scullery e.g. washing veg and perhaps boiling things if it was a huge meal. The main kitchen was still for prepping & cooking food. I'd love a scullery though. A show kitchen, not so much!

A kitchen just for show is crazy. When I was getting my kitchen done the fitters told me they'd been to a house where a woman had put in a basic kitchen for the rest of the family as a really nice one for her. I can definitely get behind that idea as I love my new kitchen and try to keep it clean and tidy and the rest of my family don't. I'd love to tell them to bugger off into their own kitchen

Some houses built for Asian families have two kitchens, one a regular kitchen and one a spice kitchen with a really good extraction/filter system for the cooking of spices.

Then you have those of the Jewish faith with 2 kitchens to keep kosher.

@MuchuseasaChocolateTeapot 2 kitchens for kosher is not the normal at all. It's separate (one for milk and one for meat) prep items/ washing up items and utensils and crockery and cutlery. All stored and used in the same kitchen.

@DancingLions I've seen these show kitchens on Real Housewives shows. They look incredible and who wouldn't love a kitchen kept sparking while someone else cooks for you....ahhhh to dream!

My friend moved into a house which was built about 7 years previously. The kitchen was refitted about 4 years prior and it was pristine. From what a neighbour said the previous owners lived on takeaways and eating out.

I was told, more than 20 years ago, that this is very common in Italy. The posh pretend kitchen is used for entertaining and the real kitchen is hidden away elsewhere.

My friend has the best scullery, hers has all the appliances and food etc, a fridge too so basically everything is nicely 'tucked' away

Common in Asian families - there is a spice kitchen and a regular kitchen. Lots of houses have them.

Cooking smells can be very strong. It’s better to cook in a smaller very well ventilated space.

@ChallaMama No idea if it’s the norm but it definitely happens. I know a couple who converted to Judaism and had a second kitchen installed. I would guess those that can afford to and have the space will do this and those that can’t will just have separate utensils etc as your describe.

When we viewed the house we now live in the previous owner showed us round the kitchen and told us the oven had never been used. When they had the kitchen remodelled she'd had the old oven moved into the utility and used that instead of the new one!

I'd love a scullery, we had one when I was a child (and then we moved). On the list of things for my dream house.

I'm Jewish -- a complete second kitchen is a real extravagance! Yes, if you have the space and money, having properly separated areas for meat and dairy is ideal. But separate rooms... no. Double appliances (though two fridge-freezers aren't necessary, but dishwashers and ovens) are nice if you have the space. You just have designated worktops and cupboards for each, so it's hard to get things mixed up. But I know people in tiny NYC apartments who still keep kosher.

(I do know someone who is very wealthy and has a small second kitchen just for Passover. But that's not typical at all.).

Oh I used to work for a family that had a Passover kitchen. It was hidden behind cupboards off the casual family dining room (not to be confused with the formal Friday/ yom tov dining room which also had a retractable glass roof).

The main kosher kitchen was incredible and so was the staff prep kitchen that was for the exclusive use of us, non Jewish staff. It was full of appliances I didn’t even know existed back then.

I get the point about open plan, which is one of the reasons I'm not a fan of that layout. Likewise I guess if you have a reason for 2 cooking areas and therefore both are used. But to have one just for show does come across as pretentious, as per the first answer! Especially if your home is a standard family home. I'd be less surprised if it was a mansion.

If money was no object, I would like a proper utility, walk in larder, that kind of thing. But I really wouldn't want or need two full kitchens.

I had to laugh though as the person who posted that said they were reposting after failing to find a cat sitter and I could see why they were struggling, as there were a long list of rules to follow. Including not being allowed to use the show kitchen!

Lots of my family have a 'clean' and 'dirty' kitchen. Work takes place in 'dirty' one and presented in clean. I am told it is cultural - Asian backgrounds.

We have a second kitchen that has the dishwashers in, plus a few other bits. It's great as all dirty dishes etc go in there and the main kitchen stays pretty tidy.
My DH loves the dishwasher kitchen, it's got a sink and he can wash all his garage-y things in there.

Exactly. Different areas is entirely normal in lots of cultures & where there is room but they have proper functions (& in the past different staff e.g. a scullery maid). A show kitchen that is barely used and is literally 'for show' is incredibly superficial & pretentious.