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Finch 1 Danielle Finch Mr. Smith/Mr. Berry English 12/Engineering 12 31 March 2010
The Kitchen Konfidential Corporation Culinary arts has become one of the most wide-ranged, versatile forms of art in our culture today. On an average day, sixty-five percent of women and thirty-eight percent of men engage in food preparation. With these numbers increasing, many new problems have surfaced regarding the efficiency and organizational structure of the kitchen. With the help of The Kitchen Konfidential Corporation and its new line of products for kitchens of all types and sizes, these problems can be solved easily and painlessly.
History The modern kitchens that many have become accustomed to today were once luxuries. The modern kitchen not only includes the “basics”, known as the stove, sink and refrigerator, but in addition, it often includes helpful appliances such as the microwave oven, garbage disposer, the coffee maker, the toaster, food processor, blender, stand-mixer, juicer and many others. The first kitchens were placed in the wealthy homes of ancient Greece where they were set in a central courtyard which all of the household rooms were arranged around. The kitchen was often placed on the open patio and consisted of
a simple fire and often a small separate room used for storage of food and other kitchen Finch 2 objects. Most of the water supply came from wells and pumps throughout a vast majority of history. During the time of the Roman Empire, people did not have kitchens in their own homes like they did in Ancient Greece. Most of the food prepared was done in large, open, public kitchens. Although most Romans did not have kitchens, the wealthiest of them did. These wealthy kitchens were often incorporated in the home although the room was set apart because of smoke. Sociologically, many people viewed that the kitchen should also be set apart because it was associated with slaves since slaves were often the only ones who cooked. Although these kitchens were not enjoyed by the owners of the house, they featured large fireplaces that were set on the floor against the wall. These kitchens sometimes even had a small stove-type top for the kitchen fire that modernized the ancient kitchen. With the Middle Ages came many new advances in the overall structure of the kitchen. Many people were concerned with the smoke that was created from the cooking fires and buildings were redesigned so that the fire was under the highest part of the ceiling. The kitchen was even sometimes placed in a separate room or building that had a sunken floor to keep the main building free of smoke from cooking fires. Instead of a chimney, kitchens in the Middle Ages had a hole in the ceiling above the fire where the smoke could escape. Throughout the rest of the middle ages, an open fire was the only method
available for heating and cooking food. The medieval kitchens of Europe were equipped with a hearth and an open fire that was placed in the center of the dark, smoky kitchen. Sometimes these kitchens were placed in opportune parts of the house to supply additional heating to rooms such as bedrooms and washrooms. This Finch 3 additional heating was very useful in most homes where the kitchen was placed underneath or next to a bedroom or any room that would benefit from additional heating, although in most cases, this heating became unnecessary and useless because most kitchens were placed in separate buildings to ensure that slaves and servants were not in the main building of the home. With the invention and incorporation of chimneys, the open fire was moved to one side of the room, creating more space in the middle for other uses. Underneath the hearth there was often a storage compartment to store wood for the fire. Although this type of chimney and hearth system seemed to work well, it was a risky form of cooking because it still used an open fire. As time went on and kitchens continuously improved in design, a new type of heating system was developed to heat different rooms of the house. Not only did this solve the problem of heating due to relocation of the kitchen, but it also made the living areas free of smoke and instead replaced the smoke with clean, fresh air. This allowed the home owner to use the living room in his or her house as an area for socialization and to show off his or her wealth. As one would assume, not all people in ancient and medieval times were wealthy, but even though they did not have some of the same luxuries as the
wealthier people, their kitchens were still improving. Some kitchens did not have a chimney, but they still had a smoke hood through which smoke could escape, providing the household with a liveable space and still providing the house with additional heating for the upstairs or adjacent rooms. Eventually, most homes were equipped with a kitchen that was separate from the living and dining areas, even if that only consisted of a separate room. Finch 4 The Colonial American kitchens differed very little from the medieval kitchens that preceded them. The fireplace used for cooking was located in a corner of the colonial cabin, and was rarely separated from the rest of the house. In wealthier homes, the kitchen could sometimes be located in a different room, usually outside of the main house for the same sociological reasons as the medieval kitchens. This was enforced more efficiently in colonial times because it was required of the masters to be separated from the slaves and servants by the social standards set. Oftentimes, “summer kitchens” were used as a place to prepare meals for harvest workers and to perform tasks such as canning. These kitchens were not as common, but were still used on wealthy farms in the North. Around the 1700's, industrialization hit America. Many new technologies and advances in American culture changed the way the kitchen was seen during this time. New stoves made of iron were introduced and changed the way food was cooked dramatically. The flames, sparks and smoke from the fire were now enclosed inside the stove and the iron surface was used for conducting the heat that was inside. Many of these early stoves were meant for heating and not yet cooking, but Benjamin Thompson, a man from England designed a stove called
the "Rumford stove" around the year 1800. This stove far surpassed its predecessor, the "Franklin stove", named after it's inventor Benjamin Franklin. The next stove to be used was called The Oberlin Stove, patented in 1834. This stove became a huge success in the US and close to one-hundred thousand of these stoves were sold in the thirty years following. As homes were becoming more and more modern and kitchens were improving greatly, cities and other large urban areas were adding ways of distributing water to Finch 5 homes and also adding sewer systems to pump out water once it had been used. With this improvement also came gas pipes and gas was used for lighting and soon after for cooking. These two improvements modernized the kitchen even more, helping people to better use the kitchen as they need it. Water and sewage systems created ways for people to wash dishes and clean the kitchen. It also created ways for people to cook using water without having to go outdoors or far away to a pump to get it. This made home life and dinnertime a much easier and faster process, and created more time for families to spend time together and less time spent cleaning up after each meal. After the introduction of water and sewage systems, electricity became the next best thing. Electric stoves were replacing gas stoves left and right and people were becoming more used to the idea of electricity in the household. This new enhancement to the kitchen modernized the 20th century and showed people that anything was possible, although this new introduction of electricity didn't take off full stream until the 1930s.
The time of industrialization brought upon interesting changes for people of every class. Many people shared one home or apartments with entire families sharing no more than two rooms. Water pipes were sometimes used in these buildings but never anymore than one tap and faucet per story and building. As the century was coming to a close, people in large cities or in wealthy levels of society started to replace their stoves with the new gas stoves that had yet to take off as well as planned. The gas stoves were much more expensive, but easier to manage than its coal predecessor. Smaller villages and communities were only converted to gas much later, when the technology had spread and the use of gas Finch 6 was more commonplace among all levels of society. The next new improvement to the kitchen was the idea of a commonly laidout kitchen called the "Frankfurt Kitchen." This kitchen was designed by German Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky with ideas of optimizing the kitchen for better use. This was one of the first actual examples of the creation of a kitchen for the purpose of making it more useful. Margarete's idea was to create this six foot by eleven foot kitchen to maximize work and cut down on time spent preparing and cooking meals. This was because women often worked factory jobs in this time because a man's salary was not always enough to support the family. The Frankfurt Kitchen would make it so that women would have to spend less time in the home and specifically the kitchen preparing meals and would have more time to work outside of the house. Another purpose for the creation of this kitchen was to lower the cost of building a kitchen, specifically a kitchen that is mostly
equipped and decent enough for most household standards. Although this kitchen was a great idea for the time and provided much help around the house during preparation and cooking of meals throughout the day, it had a few downsides to it. People weren't used to kitchens being this small and unlivable. Most people had become accustomed to being able to work and dine in the same kitchen, but with this "work kitchen" only one person could really be in it at any given time. This made it so that the wife or mom of the house was often the only person in the kitchen, thus sectioning her off from the rest of the house and the rest of the family. This idea was heavily criticized because people thought that it exiled the woman into the kitchen instead of simply giving her a better working Finch 7 environment. This criticism was soon bashed though, when people started to realize that this kitchen was good for the average family. People started to remember that there are better reasons for the kitchen to be so small and separate from the rest of the house, and it wasn't necessarily keeping the female of the household trapped in as much as it kept the fumes and smells of the kitchen out of the rest of the house. Overall, with few minor setbacks, the Frankfurt Kitchen was a revolutionary idea that became a standard in most apartment kitchens for the rest of the twentieth century. The introduction of individual and extra appliances came years after the Frankfurt Kitchen. Before these appliances, the standard was always a kitchen sink with hot and cold water taps, and a stove that was usually gas or electric. During the 1930s, the refrigerator was added to the list of common kitchen appliances. In the
1940s, it became more commonplace for household kitchens to be equipped with small and large appliances alike. These appliances included but were not limited to blenders, toasters and microwave ovens.Later on, after the end of World War II, there were demands for consumer goods that led to the new design of a kitchen that can better house larger, newer appliances that were constantly being added to the list. Although the new idea of a kitchen during these times was sufficient and was slowly advancing with the incorporation of appliances, the kitchen only improved from there. Beginning in the 1980s, new advances were added to the kitchen to not only store, preserve or cook food, but to make kitchen life a more pleasurable experience in general.Things such as stove hoods were added to clear smoke and smells from the kitchen through a vent that blew the stale air out of the house, rather than it traveling into the living area. This helped many people because during this time, Finch 8 there was little separation between the area in which food was prepared and cooked from the area in which it was eaten. It also meant that the living area would be free of smoke and harmful gases from the stove.This hood made it easy to incorporate open kitchens in smaller places such as apartments where high skylights and tall ceiling were not possible to remove smoke from the rooms. Once the idea of the kitchen was established, people started becoming more interested in easy living. The use of the microwave and toaster over were becoming more and more popular as easy meals were created. Things such as frozen meals made kitchen life become less important to the everyday family, and
spending time together became more important. Many people also used the kitchen as more of a place for entertaining. The idea of this new, open kitchen became a place to show off culinary skill and entertain crowds or other families during dinner parties. This open kitchen meant that the person could be with their guests while they were cooking and have conversation without being separated by the inconvenience of a small kitchen. Many new forms of kitchens were created as time went on. Some of the first modern kitchens featured shelves as ways to organize things opposed to cabinet, which came later on. These storage areas were very useful for the busy kitchen, making things more convenient to reach and easier to put away when not in use. These shelves were typically placed on the wall behind the counter space or work area to keep the work area clean and organized. Other storage areas were also used to store food items around the kitchen. This made it easier to get a hold of ingredients and organize them in their own individual area. Another change made to the first modern kitchen was separating the oven from the work space so that Finch 9 preparation and cooking were separate from each other and allowed more room for each of the two necessary activities. This design of the modern kitchen was embodied in the Frankfurt Kitchen, but was improved upon greatly in the following decades. These kitchen forms started to bring upon technical forms that can be known as the L-Kitchen, the U-Kitchen, the Single-File and Double-File Kitchen, and the Island Kitchen. All of these kitchen types embody a central design of a "Triangle Kitchen." This triangle kitchen is a simple idea that demonstrates the
three biggest aspects of the kitchen: storage, preparation, and cooking. These three aspects have inspired these aforementioned designed, giving each kitchen a different style, but keeping in mind the general idea of a kitchen that functions and runs in a simple and common cycle with the oven, kitchen sink, and storage areas (such as the refrigerator) in areas that provide easy use. These designs have ranged over the years, adding more designs as time went on. The design of the Island Kitchen is the newest of the basic kitchen designs. It incorporates the idea of the basic "triangle" while giving the kitchen a more modern and technologically advanced design. The oven and considerable counter space are located on a single or multiple islands in the center of the kitchen, typically surrounded by the usual L-Kitchen where the cabinets, sink, and refrigerator create an L to outline the basis of the kitchen. These islands open up the kitchen considerably and create more entertaining space by moving the working space away from the wall and into the center of the room. More designs such as this have been created or added onto to create new and inventive designs for the way the kitchen is laid out. No matter the layout of the kitchen, though, there will always be the Finch 10 necessary staples that make the kitchen a kitchen. These necessary staples are the kitchen sink, the storage areas such as the refrigerator and cabinets, the stove/oven, and the counter space which represents the preparation area. Cabinetry The kitchen cabinet has always been a tool that we, as Americans, have known. Kitchen cabinets help us a lot around the kitchen as they provide places to
store food, equipment used for cooking, and serving dishes and silverware used to eat food on and with. The idea of a kitchen cabinet has modernized the present state of the kitchen as a clean and organized space in which little clutter is involved in the daily usage of the kitchen itself. The design of the first kitchen cabinet had improved greatly from the design of open storage around the kitchen such as open shelves on the wall. The cabinet gave the kitchen a sleeker, more organized look and kept the kitchen cleaner and neater, hiding things away behind wood instead of leaving them out to be seen. Back before the first World War, kitchens didn't have cabinets but instead had work tables to prepare food on and the food and raw ingredients were stored in a pantry. Things such as cabinets or cupboards were not used much for storing dishes or other kitchen necessities. These things were typically stored in the dining room. Foods such as milk and meat could not be saved and were bought as needed for each meal or at the beginning of each day. During the industrial times, kitchen cabinets began to surface, but were usually covered by linoleum, steel or other materials that were not necessarily suitable for the kitchen to maximize it's functionality. After the second World War, the US saw increasing interest in cabinets and countertops and they were used in almost every kitchen of the time. Countertops Finch 11 were usually made of laminates. Cabinets were popular, since improved materials had been discovered to use for the creation of the cabinets. The cabinets were oftentimes frameless and appealed to consumers because it was a very minimal design aesthetically.
These basic designs transformed into some of the more complex and elaborate designs that people see today in the modern kitchen. The three basic designs created by the Kitchen Konfidential Corporation utilize the kitchen cabinets and their useful storage area to house and store these three items. The kitchen cabinet has become one of the staples in every kitchen of today's time, as it has provided new and exceedingly handy ways of storing any and all types of cooking equipment. The Products With the help of the Kitchen Konfidential Corporation and our products, the functionality and organization of the kitchen can be greatly improved. Our three products are designed with structure and efficiency in mind, helping the kitchen to become a more pleasurable and comfortable place to be in. With the help of these three items, counter space will be maximized and storage devices will be hidden from sight with ease. Our first products is the Retractable Toaster. This toaster pulls down from under the cabinet for easy and clean use, then stores away into the cabinet until needed for later use. Our second product, called the Quick-Cool Cooling Rack consists of a cooling rack that is attached to the underside of a cabinet and folds out when in use to a locking position so that the cooling rack can still be used, but does not require counter space. The third of our products is the Levitating Spice Rack which hangs from the underside of a cabinet for easy access and maximized counter space. Finch 12 The Retractable Toaster will save counter space by putting the toaster into the cabinet via a retractable shelf-like contraption. Since the toaster is a very
popular and important appliance in most kitchens, it will maximize the functionality of the toaster and eliminate clutter and frustration in a busy kitchen. Cooling racks are one of the most simple and useful devices for people who bake often. They make for great places to cool hot baked goods. The Quick-Cool Cooling Rack will be featured under the cabinet and when not being used, will be folded under the cabinet. When in use, the rack folds out and things can be placed on it to cool. Since the rack is suspended under the cabinet, it eliminates the use of counter space that normal cooling racks use. The Levitating Spice Rack, like the other two, also hangs from under the cabinet and makes the spices and bottles much easier to see and grab when needed. This also eliminates the use of counter space and keeps the spice rack cleaner than if it was on a counter around food. These products were designed and created for people who have trouble navigating around the kitchen because of clutter or disorganization. Things such as bulky appliances which are heavy to move and hard to clean were great advances and additions to the modern kitchen, but what Kitchen Konfidential is trying to do with their products is create new ways for these helpful appliances to be stored out of the way, while still being able to easily use them. This way, people can use their appliances with ease and not worry about having to pick them up and lift them high to store them anymore. Also, what most people do with appliances such as these is keep them on the counter to avoid having to take them down every time they needed to use them. With the help of Kitchen Konfidential, there will no longer be a Finch 13
need to keep appliances out any longer than needed so that a person can also avoid their appliances from getting dirty sitting out on the counter, as they may collect dust or grease from the air when cooking. The inspiration used to create these three products came from the understanding also that there are many young and aspiring chefs in the world trying to get by with small apartments and even smaller kitchens, working their way through culinary school. These products will help culinary students and chefs who have little kitchen space to work with in their everyday activities and procedures from breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, and to dessert. The original design consisted of created cabinets to house and hold the three products offered by the Kitchen Konfidential Corporation. These cabinets were designed to utilize common building materials for projects such as this. Cabinet Materials -3/4” Plywood (4 foot x 8 foot sheets) Quantity: 2 -Common brass door hinges Quantity: 6 -Wood Stain Quantity: 1 Can -Wood Screws -Tools (Drill, Saw, Paintbrushes, etc) The cabinets were first constructed using the three-quarter inch plywood and securing them with basic wood screws. These screws made sure that the cabinets were secure and would support weight from the products to be put inside of the cabinets. The brass door hinges were used to secure the cabinet doors to the cabinets for easy opening and closing of the doors. The cabinets were then painted with a dark wood stain to give them a nicer look and to make them more
Finch 15 professional. Figure 1 shows a starting design of the cabinets with the supporting frame. This frame is also constructed of plywood and the other necessary building materials. The frame is designed like this because all of the products of The Kitchen Konfidential Corporation are meant to be hung from under a cabinet, requiring that the frame for these model items be built so that the cabinets in question can be freestanding and supported so that other products can be attached from the underside of the Figure 1 (All Figures Generated by Kitchen Konfidential Corporation) cabinets. This stand is also painted the same color as the cabinets to keep that professional and clean look. Quick-Cool Cooling Rack The first product to be designed by The Kitchen Konfidential Corporation was the Quick-Cool Cooling Rack. This product was designed mainly with bakers in mind. Bakers are constantly lacking counter space around the kitchen, since they always have many ingredients out and large appliances that they cannot do without on a daily basis. The idea of a cooling rack that stores under the cabinet
when not in use allows bakers to have a safe and quick place to cool their baked goods while they Finch 16 continue working on other recipes. The idea of having the cooling rack above counter level helps to provide more counter space back to the baker and also provides a place where the baked goods can cool without being knocked off of the counter in the busy work of the kitchen. This product is not limited to the baker though. This product can be useful for any chef, student, or even everyday mom. When baking cookies for a community bake sale or school function, this product can easily be folded out and secured in place to provide a quick place for those cookies to cool while another batch is being prepared and baked. The possibilities of this product are endless and it will constantly provide help to any aspiring or everyday cook who could use a little more space to work around the busy kitchen. The Quick-Cool Cooking Rack was built using very simple and common building materials, much like the cabinets that house it. Quick-Cool Cooling Rack Materials -Metal Fastening Hooks Quantity:4 -Metal Rods Quantity:2
-Standard Kitchen Cooling Rack Quantity:1 The Quick-Cool Cooling Rack was created by first taking the cooling rack itself and attaching it to the cabinet via metal hooks (for when it is
Figure 2
Finch 17 not in use) and two metal arms so that the cooling rack can fold out and lock into position (when in use). Figure 2 shows a basic design of the Quick-Cool Cooling Rack when attached to the underside of the cabinet. This image of the product shows it when not in use. When in use, two metal rods will be shown as they are extended from the underside of the cabinet to the middle of the cooling rack. These metal rods extend when in use, and hold the weight of whatever is set on the cooling rack. This design, although simple, provides many options for chefs. Retractable Toaster The next product designed and created by the Kitchen Konfidential Corporation is the Retractable Toaster. This product makes it easy to use appliances such as the toaster without having to store them away in high or low cabinets and pull them out when needed. This also eliminates having a cluttered kitchen counter full of appliances such as the toaster that people use on a daily basis. As the toaster is one of the most important appliances in the kitchen, and is
used several times a day in most kitchens, this product makes it very convenient to use the toaster. Retractable Toaster Materials -Basic two-slice toaster Quantity:1 -3/4” Cabinet grade plywood -Sliding drawer tracks Quantity:2 sets of 2 -Catch and release latches Quantity:2 -Wood Screws -Metal Handle
Finch 18 The Retractable Toaster was created by taking two U-shaped wood pieces (one bigger than the other) as shown in Figure 3. The bottom or smaller portion of wood is used to hold the toaster while the larger one is housed inside the cabinet. In between the two “boxes”, there is one Figure 3
track that connects them and keeps them straight and level. This also helps the bottom box pull out of the cabinet with ease and keeps it safe from falling. The completed Retractable Toaster unit is shown in Figure 4 hanging from the cabinet it is housed in. The top box is hidden away inside of the cabinet to keep the product looking professional and simple. Figure 4 Finch 19 The toaster is locked into the cabinet when the bottom box is pushed up into the cabinet and a ball catch is locked into a metal and plastic latch. This product can be used not only for the toaster but for other household or restaurant kitchen appliances. This product can be made in differing sizes and styles to accommodate different types of appliances and kitchen tools, creating an easier and cleaner way to store and use everyday appliances, especially those that are too large, heavy or cumbersome to pull out of high or low cabinets just to be put away after they are used. This product shows the versatility of today's cabinetry. Levitating Spice Rack
The last product of Kitchen Konfidential Corporation is the Levitating Spice Rack. This spice rack, unlike most spice racks, pulls out from underneath the kitchen cabinet to easily choose from a kitchen's selection of spices. Levitating Spice Rack Materials -3/4” Cabinet Grade Plywood -Flexible Plastic Siding -Wooden Dowel -Catch and Release Latch Quantity:1 The Levitating Spice Rack was created with plywood and a wooden dowel to create a pull-down storage unit to store spices on round shelves. The shelves are attached to the dowel which holds the spice rack in place. The spice rack got its name because it hangs from under the cabinet to keep it from taking up additional counter space. Flexible plastic siding is wrapped around the edges of the spice rack to keep spices and other things from falling off of the shelves or being knocked around when in the pulled-down position. Figure 5 shows a simple design of a Finch 20 Levitating Spice Rack when pulled down from under the cabinet.
Figure 5 The kitchen has always been a room in the house in which things are constantly changing and evolving to better equip the kitchens of today’s time for maximum efficiency and use. Storage, being one of the most important aspects of the kitchen, has become necessary over the years in every kitchen, no matter the size, shape or style. Our company is aimed towards advancing the kitchen and the storage options of the kitchen by creating new products to provide additional and convenient storage options for any kitchen at a reasonable price. The Kitchen Konfidential Corporation is a company designed and created with all type of cooks in mind. From the restaurant manager to the head chef to the culinary student and to the soccer mom, the Kitchen Konfidential Corporation has found ways to accommodate what people need. Our company has so far designed
Finch 22 three products that maximize the efficiency of the everyday kitchen. All three of these products help the user to work better in the space and environment they have, no matter how small. These products eliminate the use of counter space for certain appliances and storage devices. These products are also very easy to use, as they all lay at a more comfortable height than heavy and bulky appliances hidden away in kitchen cabinets. We have the intention to broaden our company even more, designing and creating more additions for the kitchen and showing the versatility of our company and its ability to improve the daily life of everyday people. With the help of all of the products created by Kitchen Konfidential Corporation, the way of the kitchen and the chef will be greatly improved and newer technology will always be available for those with finer taste.
Finch 23 Works Cited
Andrea Girolamo (2009-11). Cabinets Impact Healthy Kitchen Designs. Kitchen & Bath design news. 20 March 2010. Consumer Buying Trends. Kitchen & Bath design news. August 2006. 20 March 2010. Modernism: Designing a New World 1914-1939. Victoria and Albert Museum. n.p. n.d. 20 March 2010. Thompson, Theodor, Medieval Homes, Sampson Lowel House 1992
The Kitchen Konfidential Corporation Culinary arts has become one of the most wide-ranged, versatile forms of art in our culture today. On an average day, sixty-five percent of women and thirty-eight percent of men engage in food preparation. With these numbers increasing, many new problems have surfaced regarding the efficiency and organizational structure of the kitchen. With the help of The Kitchen Konfidential Corporation and its new line of products for kitchens of all types and sizes, these problems can be solved easily and painlessly.
History The modern kitchens that many have become accustomed to today were once luxuries. The modern kitchen not only includes the “basics”, known as the stove, sink and refrigerator, but in addition, it often includes helpful appliances such as the microwave oven, garbage disposer, the coffee maker, the toaster, food processor, blender, stand-mixer, juicer and many others. The first kitchens were placed in the wealthy homes of ancient Greece where they were set in a central courtyard which all of the household rooms were arranged around. The kitchen was often placed on the open patio and consisted of
a simple fire and often a small separate room used for storage of food and other kitchen Finch 2 objects. Most of the water supply came from wells and pumps throughout a vast majority of history. During the time of the Roman Empire, people did not have kitchens in their own homes like they did in Ancient Greece. Most of the food prepared was done in large, open, public kitchens. Although most Romans did not have kitchens, the wealthiest of them did. These wealthy kitchens were often incorporated in the home although the room was set apart because of smoke. Sociologically, many people viewed that the kitchen should also be set apart because it was associated with slaves since slaves were often the only ones who cooked. Although these kitchens were not enjoyed by the owners of the house, they featured large fireplaces that were set on the floor against the wall. These kitchens sometimes even had a small stove-type top for the kitchen fire that modernized the ancient kitchen. With the Middle Ages came many new advances in the overall structure of the kitchen. Many people were concerned with the smoke that was created from the cooking fires and buildings were redesigned so that the fire was under the highest part of the ceiling. The kitchen was even sometimes placed in a separate room or building that had a sunken floor to keep the main building free of smoke from cooking fires. Instead of a chimney, kitchens in the Middle Ages had a hole in the ceiling above the fire where the smoke could escape. Throughout the rest of the middle ages, an open fire was the only method
available for heating and cooking food. The medieval kitchens of Europe were equipped with a hearth and an open fire that was placed in the center of the dark, smoky kitchen. Sometimes these kitchens were placed in opportune parts of the house to supply additional heating to rooms such as bedrooms and washrooms. This Finch 3 additional heating was very useful in most homes where the kitchen was placed underneath or next to a bedroom or any room that would benefit from additional heating, although in most cases, this heating became unnecessary and useless because most kitchens were placed in separate buildings to ensure that slaves and servants were not in the main building of the home. With the invention and incorporation of chimneys, the open fire was moved to one side of the room, creating more space in the middle for other uses. Underneath the hearth there was often a storage compartment to store wood for the fire. Although this type of chimney and hearth system seemed to work well, it was a risky form of cooking because it still used an open fire. As time went on and kitchens continuously improved in design, a new type of heating system was developed to heat different rooms of the house. Not only did this solve the problem of heating due to relocation of the kitchen, but it also made the living areas free of smoke and instead replaced the smoke with clean, fresh air. This allowed the home owner to use the living room in his or her house as an area for socialization and to show off his or her wealth. As one would assume, not all people in ancient and medieval times were wealthy, but even though they did not have some of the same luxuries as the
wealthier people, their kitchens were still improving. Some kitchens did not have a chimney, but they still had a smoke hood through which smoke could escape, providing the household with a liveable space and still providing the house with additional heating for the upstairs or adjacent rooms. Eventually, most homes were equipped with a kitchen that was separate from the living and dining areas, even if that only consisted of a separate room. Finch 4 The Colonial American kitchens differed very little from the medieval kitchens that preceded them. The fireplace used for cooking was located in a corner of the colonial cabin, and was rarely separated from the rest of the house. In wealthier homes, the kitchen could sometimes be located in a different room, usually outside of the main house for the same sociological reasons as the medieval kitchens. This was enforced more efficiently in colonial times because it was required of the masters to be separated from the slaves and servants by the social standards set. Oftentimes, “summer kitchens” were used as a place to prepare meals for harvest workers and to perform tasks such as canning. These kitchens were not as common, but were still used on wealthy farms in the North. Around the 1700's, industrialization hit America. Many new technologies and advances in American culture changed the way the kitchen was seen during this time. New stoves made of iron were introduced and changed the way food was cooked dramatically. The flames, sparks and smoke from the fire were now enclosed inside the stove and the iron surface was used for conducting the heat that was inside. Many of these early stoves were meant for heating and not yet cooking, but Benjamin Thompson, a man from England designed a stove called
the "Rumford stove" around the year 1800. This stove far surpassed its predecessor, the "Franklin stove", named after it's inventor Benjamin Franklin. The next stove to be used was called The Oberlin Stove, patented in 1834. This stove became a huge success in the US and close to one-hundred thousand of these stoves were sold in the thirty years following. As homes were becoming more and more modern and kitchens were improving greatly, cities and other large urban areas were adding ways of distributing water to Finch 5 homes and also adding sewer systems to pump out water once it had been used. With this improvement also came gas pipes and gas was used for lighting and soon after for cooking. These two improvements modernized the kitchen even more, helping people to better use the kitchen as they need it. Water and sewage systems created ways for people to wash dishes and clean the kitchen. It also created ways for people to cook using water without having to go outdoors or far away to a pump to get it. This made home life and dinnertime a much easier and faster process, and created more time for families to spend time together and less time spent cleaning up after each meal. After the introduction of water and sewage systems, electricity became the next best thing. Electric stoves were replacing gas stoves left and right and people were becoming more used to the idea of electricity in the household. This new enhancement to the kitchen modernized the 20th century and showed people that anything was possible, although this new introduction of electricity didn't take off full stream until the 1930s.
The time of industrialization brought upon interesting changes for people of every class. Many people shared one home or apartments with entire families sharing no more than two rooms. Water pipes were sometimes used in these buildings but never anymore than one tap and faucet per story and building. As the century was coming to a close, people in large cities or in wealthy levels of society started to replace their stoves with the new gas stoves that had yet to take off as well as planned. The gas stoves were much more expensive, but easier to manage than its coal predecessor. Smaller villages and communities were only converted to gas much later, when the technology had spread and the use of gas Finch 6 was more commonplace among all levels of society. The next new improvement to the kitchen was the idea of a commonly laidout kitchen called the "Frankfurt Kitchen." This kitchen was designed by German Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky with ideas of optimizing the kitchen for better use. This was one of the first actual examples of the creation of a kitchen for the purpose of making it more useful. Margarete's idea was to create this six foot by eleven foot kitchen to maximize work and cut down on time spent preparing and cooking meals. This was because women often worked factory jobs in this time because a man's salary was not always enough to support the family. The Frankfurt Kitchen would make it so that women would have to spend less time in the home and specifically the kitchen preparing meals and would have more time to work outside of the house. Another purpose for the creation of this kitchen was to lower the cost of building a kitchen, specifically a kitchen that is mostly
equipped and decent enough for most household standards. Although this kitchen was a great idea for the time and provided much help around the house during preparation and cooking of meals throughout the day, it had a few downsides to it. People weren't used to kitchens being this small and unlivable. Most people had become accustomed to being able to work and dine in the same kitchen, but with this "work kitchen" only one person could really be in it at any given time. This made it so that the wife or mom of the house was often the only person in the kitchen, thus sectioning her off from the rest of the house and the rest of the family. This idea was heavily criticized because people thought that it exiled the woman into the kitchen instead of simply giving her a better working Finch 7 environment. This criticism was soon bashed though, when people started to realize that this kitchen was good for the average family. People started to remember that there are better reasons for the kitchen to be so small and separate from the rest of the house, and it wasn't necessarily keeping the female of the household trapped in as much as it kept the fumes and smells of the kitchen out of the rest of the house. Overall, with few minor setbacks, the Frankfurt Kitchen was a revolutionary idea that became a standard in most apartment kitchens for the rest of the twentieth century. The introduction of individual and extra appliances came years after the Frankfurt Kitchen. Before these appliances, the standard was always a kitchen sink with hot and cold water taps, and a stove that was usually gas or electric. During the 1930s, the refrigerator was added to the list of common kitchen appliances. In the
1940s, it became more commonplace for household kitchens to be equipped with small and large appliances alike. These appliances included but were not limited to blenders, toasters and microwave ovens.Later on, after the end of World War II, there were demands for consumer goods that led to the new design of a kitchen that can better house larger, newer appliances that were constantly being added to the list. Although the new idea of a kitchen during these times was sufficient and was slowly advancing with the incorporation of appliances, the kitchen only improved from there. Beginning in the 1980s, new advances were added to the kitchen to not only store, preserve or cook food, but to make kitchen life a more pleasurable experience in general.Things such as stove hoods were added to clear smoke and smells from the kitchen through a vent that blew the stale air out of the house, rather than it traveling into the living area. This helped many people because during this time, Finch 8 there was little separation between the area in which food was prepared and cooked from the area in which it was eaten. It also meant that the living area would be free of smoke and harmful gases from the stove.This hood made it easy to incorporate open kitchens in smaller places such as apartments where high skylights and tall ceiling were not possible to remove smoke from the rooms. Once the idea of the kitchen was established, people started becoming more interested in easy living. The use of the microwave and toaster over were becoming more and more popular as easy meals were created. Things such as frozen meals made kitchen life become less important to the everyday family, and
spending time together became more important. Many people also used the kitchen as more of a place for entertaining. The idea of this new, open kitchen became a place to show off culinary skill and entertain crowds or other families during dinner parties. This open kitchen meant that the person could be with their guests while they were cooking and have conversation without being separated by the inconvenience of a small kitchen. Many new forms of kitchens were created as time went on. Some of the first modern kitchens featured shelves as ways to organize things opposed to cabinet, which came later on. These storage areas were very useful for the busy kitchen, making things more convenient to reach and easier to put away when not in use. These shelves were typically placed on the wall behind the counter space or work area to keep the work area clean and organized. Other storage areas were also used to store food items around the kitchen. This made it easier to get a hold of ingredients and organize them in their own individual area. Another change made to the first modern kitchen was separating the oven from the work space so that Finch 9 preparation and cooking were separate from each other and allowed more room for each of the two necessary activities. This design of the modern kitchen was embodied in the Frankfurt Kitchen, but was improved upon greatly in the following decades. These kitchen forms started to bring upon technical forms that can be known as the L-Kitchen, the U-Kitchen, the Single-File and Double-File Kitchen, and the Island Kitchen. All of these kitchen types embody a central design of a "Triangle Kitchen." This triangle kitchen is a simple idea that demonstrates the
three biggest aspects of the kitchen: storage, preparation, and cooking. These three aspects have inspired these aforementioned designed, giving each kitchen a different style, but keeping in mind the general idea of a kitchen that functions and runs in a simple and common cycle with the oven, kitchen sink, and storage areas (such as the refrigerator) in areas that provide easy use. These designs have ranged over the years, adding more designs as time went on. The design of the Island Kitchen is the newest of the basic kitchen designs. It incorporates the idea of the basic "triangle" while giving the kitchen a more modern and technologically advanced design. The oven and considerable counter space are located on a single or multiple islands in the center of the kitchen, typically surrounded by the usual L-Kitchen where the cabinets, sink, and refrigerator create an L to outline the basis of the kitchen. These islands open up the kitchen considerably and create more entertaining space by moving the working space away from the wall and into the center of the room. More designs such as this have been created or added onto to create new and inventive designs for the way the kitchen is laid out. No matter the layout of the kitchen, though, there will always be the Finch 10 necessary staples that make the kitchen a kitchen. These necessary staples are the kitchen sink, the storage areas such as the refrigerator and cabinets, the stove/oven, and the counter space which represents the preparation area. Cabinetry The kitchen cabinet has always been a tool that we, as Americans, have known. Kitchen cabinets help us a lot around the kitchen as they provide places to
store food, equipment used for cooking, and serving dishes and silverware used to eat food on and with. The idea of a kitchen cabinet has modernized the present state of the kitchen as a clean and organized space in which little clutter is involved in the daily usage of the kitchen itself. The design of the first kitchen cabinet had improved greatly from the design of open storage around the kitchen such as open shelves on the wall. The cabinet gave the kitchen a sleeker, more organized look and kept the kitchen cleaner and neater, hiding things away behind wood instead of leaving them out to be seen. Back before the first World War, kitchens didn't have cabinets but instead had work tables to prepare food on and the food and raw ingredients were stored in a pantry. Things such as cabinets or cupboards were not used much for storing dishes or other kitchen necessities. These things were typically stored in the dining room. Foods such as milk and meat could not be saved and were bought as needed for each meal or at the beginning of each day. During the industrial times, kitchen cabinets began to surface, but were usually covered by linoleum, steel or other materials that were not necessarily suitable for the kitchen to maximize it's functionality. After the second World War, the US saw increasing interest in cabinets and countertops and they were used in almost every kitchen of the time. Countertops Finch 11 were usually made of laminates. Cabinets were popular, since improved materials had been discovered to use for the creation of the cabinets. The cabinets were oftentimes frameless and appealed to consumers because it was a very minimal design aesthetically.
These basic designs transformed into some of the more complex and elaborate designs that people see today in the modern kitchen. The three basic designs created by the Kitchen Konfidential Corporation utilize the kitchen cabinets and their useful storage area to house and store these three items. The kitchen cabinet has become one of the staples in every kitchen of today's time, as it has provided new and exceedingly handy ways of storing any and all types of cooking equipment. The Products With the help of the Kitchen Konfidential Corporation and our products, the functionality and organization of the kitchen can be greatly improved. Our three products are designed with structure and efficiency in mind, helping the kitchen to become a more pleasurable and comfortable place to be in. With the help of these three items, counter space will be maximized and storage devices will be hidden from sight with ease. Our first products is the Retractable Toaster. This toaster pulls down from under the cabinet for easy and clean use, then stores away into the cabinet until needed for later use. Our second product, called the Quick-Cool Cooling Rack consists of a cooling rack that is attached to the underside of a cabinet and folds out when in use to a locking position so that the cooling rack can still be used, but does not require counter space. The third of our products is the Levitating Spice Rack which hangs from the underside of a cabinet for easy access and maximized counter space. Finch 12 The Retractable Toaster will save counter space by putting the toaster into the cabinet via a retractable shelf-like contraption. Since the toaster is a very
popular and important appliance in most kitchens, it will maximize the functionality of the toaster and eliminate clutter and frustration in a busy kitchen. Cooling racks are one of the most simple and useful devices for people who bake often. They make for great places to cool hot baked goods. The Quick-Cool Cooling Rack will be featured under the cabinet and when not being used, will be folded under the cabinet. When in use, the rack folds out and things can be placed on it to cool. Since the rack is suspended under the cabinet, it eliminates the use of counter space that normal cooling racks use. The Levitating Spice Rack, like the other two, also hangs from under the cabinet and makes the spices and bottles much easier to see and grab when needed. This also eliminates the use of counter space and keeps the spice rack cleaner than if it was on a counter around food. These products were designed and created for people who have trouble navigating around the kitchen because of clutter or disorganization. Things such as bulky appliances which are heavy to move and hard to clean were great advances and additions to the modern kitchen, but what Kitchen Konfidential is trying to do with their products is create new ways for these helpful appliances to be stored out of the way, while still being able to easily use them. This way, people can use their appliances with ease and not worry about having to pick them up and lift them high to store them anymore. Also, what most people do with appliances such as these is keep them on the counter to avoid having to take them down every time they needed to use them. With the help of Kitchen Konfidential, there will no longer be a Finch 13
need to keep appliances out any longer than needed so that a person can also avoid their appliances from getting dirty sitting out on the counter, as they may collect dust or grease from the air when cooking. The inspiration used to create these three products came from the understanding also that there are many young and aspiring chefs in the world trying to get by with small apartments and even smaller kitchens, working their way through culinary school. These products will help culinary students and chefs who have little kitchen space to work with in their everyday activities and procedures from breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, and to dessert. The original design consisted of created cabinets to house and hold the three products offered by the Kitchen Konfidential Corporation. These cabinets were designed to utilize common building materials for projects such as this. Cabinet Materials -3/4” Plywood (4 foot x 8 foot sheets) Quantity: 2 -Common brass door hinges Quantity: 6 -Wood Stain Quantity: 1 Can -Wood Screws -Tools (Drill, Saw, Paintbrushes, etc) The cabinets were first constructed using the three-quarter inch plywood and securing them with basic wood screws. These screws made sure that the cabinets were secure and would support weight from the products to be put inside of the cabinets. The brass door hinges were used to secure the cabinet doors to the cabinets for easy opening and closing of the doors. The cabinets were then painted with a dark wood stain to give them a nicer look and to make them more
Finch 15 professional. Figure 1 shows a starting design of the cabinets with the supporting frame. This frame is also constructed of plywood and the other necessary building materials. The frame is designed like this because all of the products of The Kitchen Konfidential Corporation are meant to be hung from under a cabinet, requiring that the frame for these model items be built so that the cabinets in question can be freestanding and supported so that other products can be attached from the underside of the Figure 1 (All Figures Generated by Kitchen Konfidential Corporation) cabinets. This stand is also painted the same color as the cabinets to keep that professional and clean look. Quick-Cool Cooling Rack The first product to be designed by The Kitchen Konfidential Corporation was the Quick-Cool Cooling Rack. This product was designed mainly with bakers in mind. Bakers are constantly lacking counter space around the kitchen, since they always have many ingredients out and large appliances that they cannot do without on a daily basis. The idea of a cooling rack that stores under the cabinet
when not in use allows bakers to have a safe and quick place to cool their baked goods while they Finch 16 continue working on other recipes. The idea of having the cooling rack above counter level helps to provide more counter space back to the baker and also provides a place where the baked goods can cool without being knocked off of the counter in the busy work of the kitchen. This product is not limited to the baker though. This product can be useful for any chef, student, or even everyday mom. When baking cookies for a community bake sale or school function, this product can easily be folded out and secured in place to provide a quick place for those cookies to cool while another batch is being prepared and baked. The possibilities of this product are endless and it will constantly provide help to any aspiring or everyday cook who could use a little more space to work around the busy kitchen. The Quick-Cool Cooking Rack was built using very simple and common building materials, much like the cabinets that house it. Quick-Cool Cooling Rack Materials -Metal Fastening Hooks Quantity:4 -Metal Rods Quantity:2
-Standard Kitchen Cooling Rack Quantity:1 The Quick-Cool Cooling Rack was created by first taking the cooling rack itself and attaching it to the cabinet via metal hooks (for when it is
Figure 2
Finch 17 not in use) and two metal arms so that the cooling rack can fold out and lock into position (when in use). Figure 2 shows a basic design of the Quick-Cool Cooling Rack when attached to the underside of the cabinet. This image of the product shows it when not in use. When in use, two metal rods will be shown as they are extended from the underside of the cabinet to the middle of the cooling rack. These metal rods extend when in use, and hold the weight of whatever is set on the cooling rack. This design, although simple, provides many options for chefs. Retractable Toaster The next product designed and created by the Kitchen Konfidential Corporation is the Retractable Toaster. This product makes it easy to use appliances such as the toaster without having to store them away in high or low cabinets and pull them out when needed. This also eliminates having a cluttered kitchen counter full of appliances such as the toaster that people use on a daily basis. As the toaster is one of the most important appliances in the kitchen, and is
used several times a day in most kitchens, this product makes it very convenient to use the toaster. Retractable Toaster Materials -Basic two-slice toaster Quantity:1 -3/4” Cabinet grade plywood -Sliding drawer tracks Quantity:2 sets of 2 -Catch and release latches Quantity:2 -Wood Screws -Metal Handle
Finch 18 The Retractable Toaster was created by taking two U-shaped wood pieces (one bigger than the other) as shown in Figure 3. The bottom or smaller portion of wood is used to hold the toaster while the larger one is housed inside the cabinet. In between the two “boxes”, there is one Figure 3
track that connects them and keeps them straight and level. This also helps the bottom box pull out of the cabinet with ease and keeps it safe from falling. The completed Retractable Toaster unit is shown in Figure 4 hanging from the cabinet it is housed in. The top box is hidden away inside of the cabinet to keep the product looking professional and simple. Figure 4 Finch 19 The toaster is locked into the cabinet when the bottom box is pushed up into the cabinet and a ball catch is locked into a metal and plastic latch. This product can be used not only for the toaster but for other household or restaurant kitchen appliances. This product can be made in differing sizes and styles to accommodate different types of appliances and kitchen tools, creating an easier and cleaner way to store and use everyday appliances, especially those that are too large, heavy or cumbersome to pull out of high or low cabinets just to be put away after they are used. This product shows the versatility of today's cabinetry. Levitating Spice Rack
The last product of Kitchen Konfidential Corporation is the Levitating Spice Rack. This spice rack, unlike most spice racks, pulls out from underneath the kitchen cabinet to easily choose from a kitchen's selection of spices. Levitating Spice Rack Materials -3/4” Cabinet Grade Plywood -Flexible Plastic Siding -Wooden Dowel -Catch and Release Latch Quantity:1 The Levitating Spice Rack was created with plywood and a wooden dowel to create a pull-down storage unit to store spices on round shelves. The shelves are attached to the dowel which holds the spice rack in place. The spice rack got its name because it hangs from under the cabinet to keep it from taking up additional counter space. Flexible plastic siding is wrapped around the edges of the spice rack to keep spices and other things from falling off of the shelves or being knocked around when in the pulled-down position. Figure 5 shows a simple design of a Finch 20 Levitating Spice Rack when pulled down from under the cabinet.
Figure 5 The kitchen has always been a room in the house in which things are constantly changing and evolving to better equip the kitchens of today’s time for maximum efficiency and use. Storage, being one of the most important aspects of the kitchen, has become necessary over the years in every kitchen, no matter the size, shape or style. Our company is aimed towards advancing the kitchen and the storage options of the kitchen by creating new products to provide additional and convenient storage options for any kitchen at a reasonable price. The Kitchen Konfidential Corporation is a company designed and created with all type of cooks in mind. From the restaurant manager to the head chef to the culinary student and to the soccer mom, the Kitchen Konfidential Corporation has found ways to accommodate what people need. Our company has so far designed
Finch 22 three products that maximize the efficiency of the everyday kitchen. All three of these products help the user to work better in the space and environment they have, no matter how small. These products eliminate the use of counter space for certain appliances and storage devices. These products are also very easy to use, as they all lay at a more comfortable height than heavy and bulky appliances hidden away in kitchen cabinets. We have the intention to broaden our company even more, designing and creating more additions for the kitchen and showing the versatility of our company and its ability to improve the daily life of everyday people. With the help of all of the products created by Kitchen Konfidential Corporation, the way of the kitchen and the chef will be greatly improved and newer technology will always be available for those with finer taste.
Finch 23 Works Cited
Andrea Girolamo (2009-11). Cabinets Impact Healthy Kitchen Designs. Kitchen & Bath design news. 20 March 2010. Consumer Buying Trends. Kitchen & Bath design news. August 2006. 20 March 2010. Modernism: Designing a New World 1914-1939. Victoria and Albert Museum. n.p. n.d. 20 March 2010. Thompson, Theodor, Medieval Homes, Sampson Lowel House 1992
