I’m A Home Cook Designing My Dream Chef’s Kitchen. Here Are My Must-Need Features.
Creating a Gordon Ramsay-approved chef’s kitchen
I was a huge fan of cooking shows when I was younger. It started with Hell’s Kitchen; the constant scolding from chef Gordon Ramsay was endless entertainment for me. At the same time, it also lit a spark in me to get into cooking. I would spend my time watching cooking videos on YouTube and attempt to replicate the recipes in my own mini chef’s kitchen at home. I’ve made many delicious successes and many disgusting failures over the years. Cooking brought me joy. It was my go-to stress reliever during times when I had to mug overnight or churn out a last-minute report for work.
Like many Singaporeans, I’ve already started planning for my dream home despite being nowhere close to having the money to buy one. After all, just the act of browsing through property listings and imagining my future is cathartic.
As a passionate home chef, I dream of someday having my own professional kitchen at home and starting a home-based business right in my humble abode. A place where I can knead dough on a beautiful marble counter and feel the oven heat kiss my skin and fill my nose with the fragrant buttery scent of croissants.
That’s why I often scroll through listings on sites like Ohmyhome and imagine how I’ll repurpose the different spaces to fit my dream kitchen. Here are some features my dream kitchen will need.
A kitchen island with loads of surrounding space
If there’s one feature I am constantly on the lookout for during my house search, it’s a kitchen that’s huge. I need an open kitchen that’s big enough for an island to be installed. As someone who’s aspiring to start a home-based business selling baked goods, I can fit a kitchen island with an oven and a cooker hob, allowing me to centralise all my cooking in one place. Alternatively, I can go in the opposite direction and use the island as an eating area and storage space. The possibilities are endless!
A stand mixer to fulfil my bread cravings
When I first got into baking, I made everything by hand and the feeling of kneading dough was ecstasy to me.
I love bread; it’s my number one choice of carbs. When I was still in my bread-baking phase, I baked a loaf of bread almost every day. At the beginning, I failed miserably. My dough was sticky and wasn’t rising. Overtime, I honed my skills and I could probably bake a loaf of sourdough bread blindfolded now.
I baked bread relentlessly for many months, until I finally got tired of kneading it myself. So I made the best investment possible. I bought a Smeg Stand Mixer. Now I could free up my hands and prep ingredients for my other dishes while letting the machine do the work for me.
I’ve used my Smeg mixer so much that I can no longer live without it. It was my gateway to multitasking and trying out other recipes like cakes, cookies, and meringues. My wallet may be a lil’ lighter now but hey, at least my stomach is full. Plus, the mixer is really aesthetically pleasing.
A wine cooler because I’m secretly an alcoholic
I’ve mentioned this before but I’m actually a hardcore clubber. So my dream kitchen is gonna need to have space for my second favourite hobby: alcohol. I’m currently deciding between a standing wine cooler or an in-built one and it’s honestly one of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make. I mean, the former is easier to be sold off if I ever become sober.
BUT.
The latter has Wi-Fi connectivity which honestly is freaking cool since I can control it with just my phone.
Design ideas for an aesthetic chef’s kitchen
If you’re a passionate home chef like me, you’ve probably also dreamt of having a beautiful kitchen. It’s time to manifest it into reality! Me? I’m still in the midst of collecting that moolah, so I’ll have to keep fantasising while I browse through home listings. On a side note, for those of you looking to kickstart your home baking business, I would totally recommend getting a Smeg mixer. It’s life-changing and I’ll never be able to go without it anymore!
