| If envy is an issue with which you struggle daily, you may want to avoid Great Kitchens, a lavishly illustrated walk-through of 26 fabulous kitchens in the homes of some of America's best chefs. This is a Taunton Press publication--the same people who bring us Fine Woodworking, Fine Homebuilding, and Wooden Boat, among others--so rest assured the production values are high enough to raise the stakes for everyone else in the business. The one thing all of these kitchens have in common is that they didn't start out this way. There are kitchens put into Victorian houses, 1920s farm houses, swim schools (no kidding: Mary Sue Milliken of Border Grill in Los Angeles, and her architect husband, Josh Schweitzer, bought a small swim school and put home and kitchen where locker rooms and showers could once be found), old bars, upscale apartments, ancient stone houses. These are kitchens, then, that have been thought about by people who work with food, and know what they want at home. Built-in wood-burning ovens and hearths seem to be a big deal. So, too, are custom wok stoves. Seattle chef Tom Douglas put his enormous prep island on industrial casters. He also put his herbs and spices into cans that attach to bar magnets on what would be wasted wall space. He chose the domestic version of an industrial stove because it is better insulated and doesn't heat up the kitchen. And like several chefs in the book, he swears by his commercial Hobart dishwasher with its 90-second cycle. Great Kitchens is a multifunction book. You can leave it open on a coffee table as a piece of publishing art. You can use it to launch your daydreams. But most of all, you can use it to learn from the mistakes and successes of others, and gain insight from a lot of very practical information. Most over-the-top built-in appliance? Terrance Brennan's bread-warming drawer. But in this book, it makes perfect sense. --Schuyler Ingle |
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 Absolutely the best book ever for planning a kitchen. |
| Review Date: September 22, 1999 |
| Reviewer: , |
| I bought this book thinking that it would be just a sort of celebrity tour of the home kitchens of some well-known chefs, a great idea in itself, but more style than substance. Boy was I wrong. There's more meat to this book than in Julia Child's beef bourguignon. My wife and I have been planning to completely overhaul our kitchen for years now, and we've gone through dozens of kitchen books without finding much really useful design information. Well here it is. On our first sitting with Great Kitchens, we identified at least five great kitchen design ideas we will definitely incorporate into our new kitchen. I'm sure there are more, but I just can't seem to get the book out of my wife's hands. |
Full of brilliant ideas that are actually useful!
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| Review Date: October 13, 1999 |
| Reviewer: Jeffrey Malloy, San Francisco, CA |
| Finally a book with some "meat and potatoes" content that is enhanced with beautiful photography and actual floorplans! Not just a book of pretty pictures that have little to do with actual cooking. These kitchens combine the best of design, performance and above all, personality. The written background is also fascinating and really gets into these chef's heads about their approaches to their own, personal kitchens. When's Book TWO?!!! |
The best kitchen design book...
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| Review Date: February 4, 2000 |
| Reviewer: Karen L. Vandusen, Woodinville, Washington United States |
| Because we're planning to remodel the kitchen, I've looked at many kitchen design books. This is the best one! It has great ideas. It has floor plans. The featured chefs even talk about the mistakes they think they made when they designed their kitchens. These are grand kitchens. Even if you want to do something more modest, you'll appreciate the ideas in this book. We've all cooked in kitchens that are just plain badly designed. These kitchens were planned by people who really cook. If you don't have a kitchen remodel in your future, put this book on your coffee table. Everyone will enjoy looking at it. |
Great ideas and outstanding design in a beautiful book!
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| Review Date: September 21, 2000 |
| Reviewer: , |
| I recently purchased this book. Having been interested in Kitchen Design for a number of years, I thought I would maybe find a nice cabinet style for my ideas file. I was wrong. I couldn't put this book down when I opened it. As other reviewers have mentioned, it features floorplans and beautiful pictures. I came away with plenty of new ideas to further develop the plan of my perfect kitchen. From the grand workhorse kitchens of Perrier, Miller and Folse (my favorites) to the open living kitchens of McCarty and Dale, there are a vast array of kitchen styles and functions covered in this book. There are kitchens that use the Magic Triangle method, and those who use a restaurant-style function (Wet/Dry/Hot/Cold) layout, which I find more practical and was thrilled to see. I would highly recommend this book to all people planning a kitchen, whatever the size. You are bound to get at least a dozen ideas to make your kitchen more space efficient, organized or just more beautiful! |
Excellent Kitchen Planning Book
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| Review Date: December 12, 2001 |
| Reviewer: Annette Walker, Seattle, WA United States |
| This is hands-down the best kitchen planning and design book I have seen. I learned so many things from it about picking materials, lighting, fixtures, sinks, layouts, etc. that my remodeled kitchen will be better because of it. I paged through endless books and magazines filled with lovely photos, but that lacked information or substance. This book stands out because it discusses pros and cons, budget tradeoffs made, the good decisions and "if-I-had-it-to-do-over-again" mistakes. These are kitchens put together by demanding professionals who won't tolerate (bad)or lightweight materials that are hard to clean. I learned many lessons about flooring, countertops, backsplashes and so on that were never touched upon by other books. Sure there are appliances to drool over, but there are also chefs who ran out of money during the remodel, or bought factory seconds tile to save money. Real-life issues and lessons. |
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