{"id":562,"date":"2015-02-11T18:42:05","date_gmt":"2015-02-12T02:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/\/\/?p=562"},"modified":"2018-08-31T16:58:19","modified_gmt":"2018-08-31T23:58:19","slug":"lets-get-small","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/?p=562","title":{"rendered":"Let’s get small"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ten months ago, the two of us, Chef Sin and Chef Zuz, decided to move from the third-largest city in the Northwest to a small town in Oregon. Doing so meant moving into a much smaller house. And that came with a much smaller kitchen.<\/p>\n

Our\u00a0previous cooking space\u00a0was pretty sweet. After a 2006 remodel<\/a>, it\u00a0had\u00a0a nice\u00a0gas cooktop, a capacious\u00a0wall oven, and a spring-loaded shelf that\u00a0meant we didn’t need to lug the monster stand mixer in and out of the cabinet\u00a0any more.\u00a0Best of all, this kitchen\u00a0was large enough for the two of us to cook together\u00a0\u2014 and that’s how\u00a0Cuisine Stupide\u00a0<\/em>was born.<\/p>\n

Our new space is barely one-third of the size of the old. It’s what a realtor would spin as an “efficiency kitchen.” Which is to say,\u00a0more than galley, but a whole lot less than gourmet. And we found its limitations and pinch points almost immediately.<\/p>\n

The lack of an automatic dishwasher would have been tolerable, but\u00a0the corner-mount double sink was barely\u00a0six inches deep and so close to the edge of the counter that it virtually guaranteed a Niagara of dishwater all over the floor and us. The apartment-style refrigerator\/freezer meant little\u00a0room for staples, much less leftovers. The electric range was both old and cheap: no oven light, and the stovetop coils were so warped, Chef Sin couldn’t even fry an egg properly. And cupboard space was severely limited; our Costco card, and the opportunity to buy in bulk that it offers, suddenly became\u00a0a lot less practical.<\/p>\n

True, most of this was merely annoying. And perspective is important: Even our downsized kitchen\u00a0is, by many measures,\u00a0extravagant; a lot of people in this world would be happy to have a hotplate, or just a reliable source of clean water.<\/p>\n

Still, we were determined to make better use of what we had.<\/p>\n

\"smallkitchenbook\"<\/a>I sought\u00a0guidance from\u00a0The Itty Bitty Kitchen Handbook<\/em> by Justin Spring (2006), which came highly recommended by Kevin Kelly’s reliable Cool Tools<\/em> website<\/a>. Unfortunately, I found the book more annoying than cool (due to some terrible design and typography choices) and useful only to the extent that it’s extremely\u00a0thorough in stating the obvious. (Really, an entire page detailing\u00a0how to clean a toaster?) The book seems pitched mostly\u00a0toward young people setting up their first kitchens.<\/p>\n

For those of us who have been cooking for a while and find ourselves bumping elbows, here are a few things Cuisine Stupide<\/em> has learned about getting small:<\/p>\n