CHEF'S KITCHEN
Double service was the order of the day for this pro-quality kitchen
When Michelin-starred Swedish chef Henrik Ritzén decided to take his leave as executive chef of Acquavit London and move his young family out of London, naturally he turned to Sola Kitchens for a Swedish-style kitchen for his new home, an extended cottage in the Cotswolds.
The Brief
The client wanted a classic country kitchen with a Scandinavian ambience, and suitable for his family's use but fitted with professional-level appliances and with plenty of workspace so it functions as the nerve centre for his chef's business and as executive chef at The Double Red Duke, which involves testing recipes, giving cookery demonstrations and entertaining clients. He wanted a design that appears to be freestanding rather than fitted and as he is very tall, and the room has a low, beamed ceiling and a fairly long but narrow floorspace, with a dining table at one end, to avoid cluttering up the space, he wanted no overhead cabinets, hanging racks or suspended extractor fan.
The designer's solution uses classic Shaker style cabinetry painted with Farrow & Ball's Hague Blue and arranged around an eye-catcher of an island that stands on legs and has the hob fitted at the end closest to the diners, in good chef's table fashion, with the necessarily powerful extraction system set into the ceiling above. Each of the runs of tall and base cabinetry is compact but capacious, to look more like pieces of furniture, like the island, which features a combination of drawer sizes for everything from pots and pans to cutlery. So Henrik can access dry and refrigerated storage quickly and easily while he prepares food at the island, the tall cabinetry enclosing the Gaggenau fridge-freezer, ovens, and the pantry is massed together on one of the long walls, with the sink and storage for crockery, bins, and dishwasher in the base cabinets arranged in an L-shape out the eyeline of clients sitting at the island, and furthest away from the dining table.
Special Features
Leg power: despite its freestanding appearance, the island is fixed to its position and wiring for the hob and the power sockets is run up through the legs.
Finishing touches: bespoke stainless-steel shelves on coordinating brackets add a further industrial-style note to the scheme.
Materials & Finishes
1.
2.- Caesarstone Empira White
- Hand Painted Ash in Farrow & Ball 'Hague Blue'
The process
