Dana Cowin on the Latest Kitchen Trends

Big Think

Kitchen Trends on The Horizon

Dana Cowin
Editor-in-Chief, Food & Wine Magazine

So we went from white kitchens to stainless steel kitchens and now I think we’re going to
move in to colored kitchen and its just stainless steel is quite cold and it’s not that easy to
take care of. The reason stainless steel came sort inter-vogue was because you know
people emulating the Chef kitchen’s and there is so much chefs on TV and that’s so great
and they want to be the little chef’s at home or the chef’s at the house but now I think that
as the kitchen has become more of a living room, the living room have color, why can’t
kitchens have color?

Kitchen’s with movable furniture, you know there’s a great emphasis in the kitchen on
speed so there’s ovens that will do it faster for you, turbo chef has an oven manufacturer
it makes oven that will cook things in general 15 times faster than your normal oven. I
think there’s a rise of some small gadgets which you know I’m pretty— because I have a
small nearest to the kitchen but I have been convinced that certain gadgets are absolutely
worth it like a rice cooker. I don’t know but people swear by it and it changed their lives.

Other changes in the kitchen I think the biggest change in the kitchen is moving the
kitchen outdoors. Alright so we have fancied up our kitchen as much as humanly possible
beyond our abilities for sure and now we moved to the outdoor kitchen because people
now. People cooked outside four seasons. I have great letters from people from you know
Chicago or in Canada saying oh yeah of course you know I grill all winter and I just got
my coat and run out and I flip my steak and I come back in and it’s fantastic there’s so
little clean up.

So now the kitchen united with the living room because you basically have you know an
island and you can do your homework or you can do your work or whatever outdoor
kitchen the same thing. It’s not just one huge grill a grill or a refrigerator it’s the sink and
furniture all together and its’ amazing because you know being sort of New York centric
it’s not as we see as much but when you travel to the country Texas, California you know
in the South they have most magnificent outdoor living setups far out it’s phenomenal.

And the other thing in the kitchen is you get materials so people worry about off casting
and people worrying about as you paint. People worrying about you know what is their
countertop is there’s so many new materials that you can find that are beautiful and
durable and eco. So I’m really excited about that trend and the other thing is that wine
and coming into the kitchen so now wine for just everywhere in the kitchen but in the you
know in the den people’s bedrooms. I actually have one in the bathroom closet but
whatever and that’s it. I don’t have that much space but wine cellars with kitchens
attached again like kitchen’s migrating all of the house so you could go downstairs to
your cellar where there’s a kitchen there and there’s another little room where you can
have dinner adjacent to your cellar, a part of the huge wine trend, the little burners in an
upstairs kitchen so that you don’t have to travel to the house.

Why has the kitchen migrated?

Coziness and the side of the American house so as the American house has grown so big
you know you don’t want it all the way to the kitchen anymore and you have this extra
little space you weren’t sure what to do with so you have a little, it’s basically a warning
set up and a night time set up. So you would have your breakfast, you know in your
bedroom and your bedroom is sweet in these big American houses in the development
houses.

It’s kind of fabulous. Beverage centers everywhere, beverage center in the living room so
refrigerate drawers everywhere.

Hs the kitchen migrated?

Well you know all recessions last a certain amount of time and then we can wrap it then.
I have not seen any movement towards a smaller house less for a footage and there’s a
sort of perennial American interest in new so you know yes a little slow down but I don’t
think it’s the end of anything. I think what might happen is that people instead of selling
their asses because the market is so problematic. What we’ll do is really to be some place
else to just fix up their kitchen. So we’ll see some you know great kitchen upgrades that
make people feel like they have come to another house because they live in their kitchen
of course. So just walk through that door and they could be in your space if they do
renovations and move quickly with it.