Julia Child's TV Kitchen c. 1964

 Fascinating.

Later in her TeeVee career, she used her own kitchen in her Cambridge, Massachusetts, home rather than a television set, but early on, she worked in a number of somewhat different studio kitchens that strongly resembled what an average middle class housewife would have. It's interesting to see them now and compare and contrast with today's "insane" kitchen renovation ideas.

The first thing you notice in her "Chicken Dinner in Half an Hour" video is... the island. Islands were not common in real kitchens in those days -- except on TeeVee. And why? Well, in order to demonstrate her cooking on screen, she -- and the food -- needed to face the camera. Prep and cooking in a real kitchen would almost always be done with the housewive's back to the room. And in her Chicken Dinner video we see her using a GE push button electric cooktop on the island while there is another similar cooktop on the counter to her right. She never uses it on the screen. Electric wall ovens -- which we don't see in the Chicken Dinner video, but they're there -- are to the left of the countertop cooktop, and a bottom freezer refrigerator is to the left of that. Uh no. The refrigerator is a top freezer model and it is way to the right of the sink, barely seen most of the time. Behind her is a double bowl porcelain on iron or steel sink with a pull out sprayer. Bench tops/counters form an L-shape. The kitchen set is compact, and if it were real, the island would probably be a counter (without the cooktop) against a wall.

What is a GE push button electric cook top? Indeed, you don't see those any more. We had one in our house built in 1957. It was considered ultramodern at the time. A built in cook top with push button control was very Space Age, though GE had been producing push button freestanding ranges since the '40s. The burners were Calrod open coils, and the push buttons allowed for several levels of heat from Lo-simmer to High-sear. The burners heated up pretty fast but not as fast as a gas burner, and they cooled much more slowly than a gas burner, meaning that pans had to be taken off the burner altogether to lower their temperature quickly and prevent burning the food. OK, you had four burners on the cook top, rarely used more than three at a time, so there was one open burner where you could put a pan to cool. 

Julia wound up facing something of a dilemma as she cooked her Chicken Dinner as she was using all four burners at a time, and she didn't have any place to put a pan to cool. So she turned the burner off under the pan that needed cooling and hoped for the best. It seemed to work out ok. Whew.

She had three saute pans going at once and a huge boiling kettle. Each of her saute pans was different. The first was a Farberware stainless steel (with aluminum core) frying pan. I know because we had one just like it. In this she sauted her cut up chicken. The first thing I noticed was that the chicken didn't stick. I never had a problem with sticking on Farberware stainless steel saute/fry pans either, but they say newer stainless steel pans -- like Allclad and so on -- are notorious for sticking. Everything. There are supposedly work-arounds to make them nonstick, but experience says it's hit or miss at best.

Julia also used a Teflon coated fry/saute pan to cook her diced potatoes. She often said how much she loved the non-stick pans that were just being introduced at that time. Very Space Age. She never mentioned the obvious problems with them - the fact that the Teflon would peel off all by itself or when the surface was scratched in normal use. Interestingly, Teflon coated pans still have that problem. 

Her third saute pan appeared to be a professional kitchen aluminum pan that was not widely available for civilians at the time. Much later, we had one and we loved it. Even heat, excellent cooking, easy clean up. As long as it wasn't used for acid foods like tomatoes, it was a joy to use. 

Her boiling pot was an enormous aluminum job, which once it was filled with water was practically unmovable even by someone as sturdy as Julia. She boiled her eight zucchinis and three tomatoes in it. These days such a pot would be used for pasta, spaghetti especially, and not much else. Because they are so heavy and awkward when filled with water, renovators have taken to installing "pot filler" faucets at the cooktop/range, but there is still the little problem of disposing of the water once the boiling is done. An alternative method of cooking pasta has become fashionable: boil it in just enough water to cover, let the pasta absorb most of the water, and then have very little to drain and wrestle around. 

There appears to be no dishwasher on her kitchen set, actually there is one to the left of the sink, I just didn't see it initially, but not having  dishwasher would actually be the situation in most homes at the time. Our 1957 kitchen had a space that could be used for a built in dishwasher but none was installed, and that was fairly typical of all but the fanciest middle class homes at the time. They save you the trouble of washing dishes, but they don't really save you at all since the dishes and pots and pans need to be washed by hand first before they are put in the dishwasher. Hopefully they will come out cleaner. We had a portable dishwasher rather than a built in, and we used it now and then. The point was to "disinfect" which the hot water and soap was supposed to do. You still had to wash the dishes and pots and pans by hand first.

Julia had a lot of counter space in her TeeVee kitchen, and that was pretty typical of home kitchens at the time, too. Her counters appeared to be surfaced with Formica. Now of course Formica has fallen out of favor, and no renovator with any sense of pride or dignity would use it. That's too bad. Formica and its variations were excellent counter top materials and they still are. The issue these days is that Formica is "cheap," and "cheap looking." Whether or not it wears well and serves the purpose is irrelevant.

Counter tops must look and be expensive, which stone and its many synthetic imitations are. So stone and quartz and whatever actually is expensive are mandatory in new renovations -- or you may as well disappear.

Formica was good enough for Julia Child, though. Even in Cambridge. At least that's what her counter tops appeared to be. Most of the time. (Actually, according to the Smithsonian which proudly displays her Cambridge kitchen, her home counter tops were wood, butcher block. Hm.)

On her TeeVee set she also had a large wooden cutting board that sat on the counter top beside the island cook top/range. There she chopped and chopped and chopped and chopped. Later, I think she had a marble pastry board installed on the other side of the cook top. But as far as I remember, at no time did she replace her work surfaces with granite, all marble, or quartz.

Julia also had a large number of built-in cabinets on her TeeVee set -- but not, as I recall, at her home. These cabinets, uppers and lowers, stored everything. There were no open shelves. The idea of open shelves was appalling. Dust, grime, the mess, endless cleaning. Every upper cabinet had doors, as did every lower storage cabinet. Drawers held miscellaneous tools and equipment, but she also had a magnetized knife rack on the wall beside the sink and what looked like a plastic fishing tackle box with many little drawers screwed to the wall on the other side of the sink for spices and other condiments.  I imagine that was her idea, or possibly her husband Paul's. 

Julia's TeeVee kitchens changed and changed over time, and finally, she used her home kitchen -- with an island installed so she and her guests could face the cameras. It was... cramped. 

But the kitchen set where she prepared her half hour chicken dinner was perhaps the best of the lot, the closest to what many middle class housewives had in their post-war houses -- well, except for the island.

And there is some nostalgia for recreating that among us old folks. 

One thing nostalgic kitchens feature is the built in range and oven, the oven(s) at a convenient height so you don't have to bend down, and a broiler at eye level and not on the floor. It is possible -- but very expensive -- to do that these days. But I guess it's not as expensive as one of those monster French or Italian ranges that are so fashionable! 😄

So a nod to Julia Child for never being afraid and never being a victim of kitchen fashion. You go girl!

Kitchens

 I started a post a long time ago about kitchen renovations and remodeling but I haven't finished it and don't think it really gets to the point.

Our house was renovated fifteen years ago or so to make it habitable after five to ten years of abandonment. It took ten months, and everything that was done was... so so. Job came in under budget, so there was that, but many things that should have been done weren't. Now, fifteen years later, those undone things have caught up with us.

One of them being the kitchen. It's fine and yet, no. The cabinetry is original. The vinyl sheet flooring is wearing through in places. We had to replace the ceiling fan a few years ago because the one put in by the contractor died. I've replaced the sink and faucet a couple of times now -- hard water. There's no dishwasher. The refrigerator came with the house and is at least 25 years old -- horror stories about new ones though are rampant, and maybe we should consider ourselves lucky that we have an old one that works. The gas range was put in by the contractor, and though there's a hood over it, it doesn't vent to the outside. I think we need to do something about that. 

Perhaps the worst part though is that the kitchen floor has a definite slope toward the sink and south wall. Here's the problem: the kitchen, laundry room and entry hall were built within an enclosed front porch/portal. Part of the porch was built over an underground cellar that we found out about when we had a proper drain line installed for the washing machine. Part of the foundation for the kitchen is sinking into that cellar and critters have made their way into it as well. There is no access to the cellar unless you dig --- as the plumbers did as did the critters.

The entry hall is very small and the laundry room still shows evidence of work done to improve the drainage -- by putting in an actual drain line that connects with the sewer line -- and to replace the water heater. The washing machine is 8 years old, and is showing signs of age. So...

Here was my thought before I got sick and Chairman Powell decided that low interest rates were the cause of inflation: We would refinance the house with an inclusive mortgage/renovation loan, move out for the duration, and have the kitchen redone from the roof down. Relatively minor work needs doing in the rest of the house -- new flooring, remodel the bath, paint and paneling, maybe adding a bath on the west side along with a proper garage. Re-roof the whole house.

I figured it would cost $60-70,000 and the total financed would come in well under the valuation of the house after renovations, and our income would be more than sufficient to cover the extra mortgage cost.

Well, that went out the window when I got sick and we came under so many expenses that followed. Most of that extra income is now being spent to cover the cost of dental work and co pays for medical attention.

In other words, there's no extra right now for renovations, even if we could find a contractor to do it. One of the problems is that we live in the country, and many contractors don't like to work out here or outright refuse to. And our budget would not be big enough to make it worth their while. 

The other thing is that interest rates have gone up so much that even if we had the income, the amount we could borrow for renovation might be no more than half what is needed to do a good job. The Universe seems to conspiring to say "No!"

But then I've spent years looking at possible kitchen renovation designs online and in magazines.  and I'm sorry, the whole field is insane. Totally.

There are certain absolute requirements for a modern kitchen renovations starting with: one or more islands. I've seen as many as four islands in one kitchen remodel. One for prep, one for gathering, one for home schooling, one for misc. tasks.  Each island must have two or more (I've seen up to 16) "statement pendants" over them. These are preferably enormous but put out very little light. The next requirement is a "statement range". These are almost always gas, monster-sized, with multiple ovens, sous-vide, griddles and ten or so burners. They must be made in France or Italy. They usually cost between $35,000 and $100,000, but I'm sure there are models that cost way more, and installation must be as difficult as possible. 

"Smart" refrigerators are a necessity so you can check on supplies remotely with your phone. Or contrary-wise, you can get refrigerators and freezers in under counter drawers. Then there are the dishwashers. You need more than one. Two at a minimum, but up to four is gooder. Your dishes must be stored on open shelves, and because of dust and grease and such that the extractor fan in the overstove hood doesn't remove, they have to be washed every day. Well, that's assuming the kitchen is actually used for cooking and not solely for display.

I'm convinced many of these insane kitchens are really just for looks -- and "statements." There's probably a small kitchen in the back somewhere (I've seen them called pantries and whatnot) where actual cooking is done -- when it's done at all. The residents either have take-out, delivery or catering at home, but they probably eat out as frequently as possible and never use their statement kitchens for anything but display.

"Lookit what I have!" 

And the costs for one of these statement kitchens is upwards of $300,000. Far more than we can afford.

And unless we expand the kitchen, essentially doubling its size, we can't do an island at all, let alone multiple ones. Our current kitchen is essentially a corridor from the side door in the laundry room to the door to the living room. It's wide enough so that someone can work in the kitchen while others pass between doors, but it's not nearly wide enough for an island, too. Because of the adobe construction of the house, there's not a lot we can do to expand the kitchen or "open it up." I've thought about incorporating the current laundry room into the kitchen and building another laundry room and bathroom in part of a new garage. But adding the laundry room space to the current kitchen doesn't do anything about the width of the room, only the length. 

The whole process requires rebuilding the parts of the house that were once a porch and doing something about the cellar. Filling it in would probably be good.

I've thought about expanding the entry hall by eliminating the closet and moving the front door to the end of the tiny porch that's there now, then adding a 7' wide porch/portal across the front, about 32' long, that would provide shade and protection from the sun and rain and a place to sit and watch the world go by.

It would change the look of the house, but not radically. There was a porch across the front at one time after all.

What would really change the look of the house is removing the siding, repairing and restoring the stucco over adobe exterior, replacing the current black-framed windows with white ones with muntiins for a much more historic look.

That and a new metal roof would be an enormous change in the look of the house, and while it wouldn't be cheap, it wouldn't be all that expensive. Probably less than one of those "statement" ranges from Italy or France, no?

But all this and more of what we wanted to do depended on: availability of contractors (ify these days), low or moderate refinancing interest rates (nope!), and relatively inexpensive move out/alternate residence for the duration (we had one in mind, but it's no longer available.)

My ideas for the kitchen are more along historic lines, either mid-century (when the current kitchen was built) or going back to 1900 when the first part of the house was built. Either one would appeal to me. But we can't do it right now and will have to putter along with what we've got.

The more things change, the more they stay the same....😉

Kitchen Vernacular and ASMR

 [Once again a diversion from the multiple crises afflicting our fair globe and nation, crises I believe we can do little about. The pandemic still keeps me mostly at home; if I go out it's for groceries and supplies, or to various medical appointments. So I spend at least some of my time exploring the YouTubes and reading glossy magazines where I make discoveries.]

Kitchen design has evolved somewhat during my lifetime. Above is a picture of a typical kitchen in what I suspect is a farmhouse c. 1930. It's large and square and "unfitted." Ie, without built in cabinets. This means the house and kitchen probably date from around 1900, but the equipment is newer. The stove is probably from the mid-1920s or even 1930, and the refrigerator is a 1930 or later GE Monitor Top. 

Though I don't remember it clearly, this is probably similar to the kitchen in my father's house in Iowa where I only lived a few months after I was born and returned to for a few months in the summers of 1961 and 1962. The house was old, parts of it very old (c.1845-50), but the kitchen was an add-on around 1900 when my grandfather bought it and had it expanded. When I visited in the summers of 1961 and 62, the kitchen was modernized somewhat. I remember there was one of those steel cabinet sinks under the bank of windows on one side and a newer stove and refrigerator but beyond that, I don't remember much.

The first house we lived in in California was built in 1930 and had a very plain and simple kitchen. It was a narrow corridor along the back of the house (actually it was a duplex). There was a black stove up on legs (c. 1930) and a small refrigerator (flat-top c. 1935) on one wall. The other side was a built-in cabinet with sink under the tiny window and tile drainboards on either side. There were upper cabinets for dishes and dry foods. And by the side door, there was a broom closet. There wasn't room for much else, though there might have been a "California Cooler" on the same wall as the sink and the broom closet might have been on the wall with the stove and refrigerator. There was a single overhead light (might even have been a bare bulb), and I remember the room seemed dark and cramped -- even when I was just a toddler. The flooring was varied gray linoleum with a small figure and a border.

We moved from there to another bigger house when I was three. I don't remember the kitchen or much of the interior of that house at all. The house itself was practically new, built as Post War housing on a lot next to a high water Victorian. I remember the kitchen in that Victorian house better than the one next door where I lived. The Victorian one was plain and unfitted except for the steel cabinet sink -- those seemed to have been ubiquitous for a while -- and had a round table and chairs at one end, newer stove and refrigerator at the other. There was a dish cabinet, too. It wasn't a Hoosier, but was simpler, with an upper section with glass doors and a lower section with drawers on one side and a wood-doored section next to the drawers. I believe the cabinet was on wheels. There was one electric light on a dangling cord in the center of the room and there may have been another one over the stove but I'm not sure. 

After that, we lived in a succession of pre-and-post-War houses in Los Angeles County, only one of which left much of an impression on me. It was a very cozy and homey house in West Covina built around 1939 or so, with a corridor kitchen. Built in cabinets, sink under the window, blue and white tiled counter tops, an older but functional stove and refrigerator, both dating from about the time the house was built, and an eating area in a bay window at the back. There was ivy-decorated white wall paper. The room was light and bright -- I remember the sunlight in the breakfast area well -- and I liked it. 

We moved from there to a brand new house a few miles away. It also had a corridor kitchen, but without the charm of the one we'd left. There was the usual sink and tile drainboard built-in cabinet on one side with the usual upper cabinets on either side of the window over the sink and a stove and refrigerator on the other side. We went through a succession of used refrigerators dating from the mid-thirties to the late forties, none of which lasted very long (the longest lasting was a Servel gas refrigerator) before getting a new Kenmore refrigerator which we kept for at least ten or even fifteen years and hauled around to a number of different houses. The stove, however, was an indestructible Wedgewood that had been purchased with the house, and which stayed with the house when we moved again five years later. 

At the far end of this corridor kitchen was an eating area with a window (no bay window) that also served as a laundry area. We had a Kenmore automatic washer but no dryer, and there was no room for a dryer anyway. Laundry was hung on the clothes line out in the side yard or on one of those folding wooden racks indoors when the weather was bad.

The flooring was linoleum with an overall pattern, no border, and I think it was green like the tile border on the countertops. There was a cabinet next to the stove that held the water heater and some brooms and such.  There was one overhead light in the kitchen proper and one in the eating/laundry area.