Funny - I had the opposite reaction, that if a famous chef/restaurant owner would choose this kitchen, then a lot of what non-chef's consider imperative, is not. That or the chef doesn't cook a lot on off work days....but really, think of all the great cooking that has come out out of tiny, tiny ill put together kitchens over the decades.

I think Stan was sarcastic...

Years ago, there was a local article about the home kitchens of some local chefs and they were much the same as this. ( For one thing most chefs don't get paid a whole lot).

I posted some of the kitchens and it was almost completely discounted: "they don't cook at home on their day off", "if they want to cook seriously, they use the restaurant", "they never eat at home," "they bring home restaurant food", " they don't even need a kitchen at home, really".

Lots of assumptions there, including that chefs own their restaurants outright and that the food also "belongs" to them as well.

Hey, if it works for them, why not. I do like the living room, especially the wall colour. Mmmm, I wonder.....

Works for me...I would just want that island a little bigger and a little taller. Aesthetically not so much.

My sister bought a house from a well known restauranteur/chef in our neck of the woods. The house was definitely in the 7 figures.

The whole house had been redone to perfection. Marble baths, hardwood floors, etc. The kitchen was a warren of small rooms with those cabinets from the 1970's. The laminate ones with the wood strip?

The reason the kitchen was never done was because the chef never cooked at home. He didn't care about the kitchen at home. My guess is it's the same with this chef. When he's home, he's not cooking.

I've known several chefs in my time, and all the ones I happened to know cooked at home, too. That's what they did--they cooked, no matter where they were.

Anyway, yeah, they all had horrid kitchens that nobody here would tolerate for a minute. One had an old radiant smoothtop with one working burner, but he didn't care. It got hot and he could plan around it. And he sure could cook on that thing!

This is awesome! One can't possibly cook safely without a counter to the left side of the stove! A ceiling fan? Oh, the horrors.

Have you seen Julia Child's kitchen at the National Museum of American History ?

His wife, Polly, does most of the cooking at home. And yes, they own several of the top restaurants.

Their weekend homes with kitchen

http://www.homeanddesign.com/2014/08/07/private-tour-shore-life

I love it. Sure I'd like something a little bigger, but the house looks historic, and kitchens aren't always huge in historic houses. But I love the decor and colors. Not a thing wrong with it in my opinion.

I'm not a huge fan of stained, dark wood and that particular red, actually, but if this were someone's reveal, Id say, great. As it is a chef's kitchen (with a microhood!) I'm compelled to cry MICROHOOD! I can think of a dozen improvements I would make for myself, but if it works for the owners, awesome.

I used to do some part-time work for a high-end caterer who mostly caters parties in wealthy client homes. At some parties there would be 200 guests in these massive estates. She has been catering for over 30 years and has actually worked with Joanne Weir at one point.

I ran into her not too long ago and she told me of her own kitchen reno. I assumed she would have purchased the top of the line appliances, but she told me no. She actually re-used her GE range. Why? It heats up evenly. Her experiences of working in countless private homes doesn't necessarily mean that uber expensive is always the best. She also chose luxury vinyl flooring and absolutely loves it. I was kind of surprised.

I like this chef's kitchen in the picture. A little space next to the range would be nice, but at least it is not next to a pathway like mine is!

I had posted the wrong link to his weekend home; now corrected. Here's that kitchen:

The first kitchen posted actually has good functional flow, from fridge-->sink-->prep space-->range, and it looks as if the pantry might be the white door on the right. The chopping block cart makes the aisles narrow, but I think anyone could cook efficiently in this layout. (I prep over my DW, too, so I might be too easy.)

I just read my response above and it sounds like I was implying that his kitchen is teeny tiny and ill put together, and that was not my intention .

This conversation reminds me of the brouhaha when Mark Bittman's NYC kitchen was pictured incidentally in the NYT. Nobody could believe that was the kitchen of an important food writer. He reminded everyone of how much more food his mother put out from a similar kitchen without as many conveniences as we have.

Oh, well, sure.

Hah mama goose! The whole way through this thread I was thinking Ice. Water. Stone. Fire.

I was thinking about marcolo, too. :)

I didn't look at the week-end house link until this morning. Oh, my! I would cook on a hotplate, with an igloo cooler, during the week, just knowing I could escape to that house at week's end.

One of my sisters does the same to be near her counseling practice in a large city, a couple of hours' drive from her home. She rents a tiny apartment, where she stays during the work week, but on Thursday evening she returns to her nice house and quiet village.

In my current kitchen, most of my prep has been over the range, or if lengthy, sitting down at the dining room table. Both pictured kitchens are far superior to my current one... but I really love my future one!

I like the red walls in the former depicted here, and the red cabs in the latter image. I also like the fact both look worked-in and used. Obviously better work space available in the second image.

See anything similar in Mark Bittman's kitchen? MICROHOOD!

I bet he has renovated his kitchen since the brouhaha...

Mark's is a typical NYC apartment. Wouldn't expect much else.

To be fair, there is a nice big window there and the kitchen is not a part of the living room. Though of course many (maybe most) NYC buildings do not allow you to vent outside anyway.

Flip side: People I know with pristine trophy kitchens who have barely used their six burner chef range, etc.

Id guess that the that weekday house is in the 1 imo range, the weekend house quite a bit higher.