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Latest Home Tours from The Kitchn

Kitchen Spotlight: Meghan & Shawn's Vibrant Orange

2008_10_04-Spotlight.jpgWhen we saw this house tour over at AT San Francisco we couldn't believe what a wonderful kitchen Meghan and Shawn have. It's a vibrant, warm orange that pops off the screen and just makes us want to stand in there and cook all day. See more of their vibrant apartment kitchen below.



Kitchen Tour: Alli's Vintage Hacienda

2008_11_25-Alli.jpgDo we have a treat for you today! This is perhaps the most appropriate kitchen tour we could bring you today, two days before Thanksgiving. Why? Well, Alli here roasts a turkey every single week. She also happens to inhabit a fabulous vintage hacienda kitchen in Los Angeles, California, and she wants to show you her favorite details of this kitchen - starting with that gorgeous stove.

A hot vintage kitchen, plus recipes for roast turkey and faux mashed potatoes below!



Kitchen Tour: Eric Haeberli of We Love Jam

I'm standing in front of a house with with no numbers and a bright yellow door. It's a 1964 Eichler in the middle of a long row of Eichlers clinging to a hillside in San Francisco. I was there on an invite from the owner and creator of my favorite local jam, after vaguely promising him a kitchen tour without actually having ever seen his kitchen. As I walk through the little courtyard and down a flight of stairs to the kitchen, I began to worry. Entering the bright minimal space, squinting at slabs of polished steel and slick white cupboards, I realized that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Oh dear.



Kitchen Tour: Ragdale House Travels Through Time
Lake Forest, Illinois

2008_09_22-Ragdale1.jpgOn entering the kitchen of Ragdale House in Lake Forest, Illinois, you might have the peculiar sensation of traveling through time. With its cheery buttercup-yellow walls and peacock-blue painted farmhouse furniture, vintage stove, and generous porcelain sink, this homey kitchen might first appear to belong to a family from the early part of the last century.

Step in a little further, though, and you’ll notice the drawers and cupboards have all been clearly labeled in bold black type: “Coffee Carafes & Tupperware,” “Foil & Plastic Wrap,” “Cereal & Snacks.” You’ll see a dishwasher, microwave oven, plates and mugs from Crate & Barrel and Target, as well as a very 21st-Century assortment of convenience foods.

What’s going on?



Where Does Milk Come From? A Tour of Shatto Dairy in Kansas City

072708-shatto19.jpgThis being Ice Cream Month and all, we wanted to focus on the ingredients and producers that let us make this sweet creamy treat. So today we have another sort of treat for you: a tour of a dairy farm!



Sneak Peek: Melissa Clark Kitchen Tour

MC-mini-tour-flaky-pie-crus.jpgWe're on a kitchen tour roll. Last Thursday we featured a tour of Bento Expert Biggie of Lunch In a Box. On Monday, I took your through Joanne Weir's beautiful kitchen in San Francisco.

So, given Nora's post today about one of our favorite food writers, Melissa Clark, and her way of making DIY Maraschino Cherries, it's only fair to give you a sneak peek into an upcoming tour of Melissa's Brooklyn kitchen.



Kitchen Tour: Joanne Weir's Live/Work Laboratory

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Joanne Weir is an award-winning cookbook author (her new book, Wine Country Cooking just came out), a cooking teacher, a chef who cooked for five years at Chez Panisse, and a television personality.

When she's not leading culinary tours and classes through the Mediterranean, she lives and works in a thoughtfully designed, colorful and comfortable Grand Victorian house in San Francisco. The kitchen is an intensely personal space, much of it designed by her. Here she hosts spirited dinner parties, drinks wine with her fiancé, and whips up her morning smoothie. But her kitchen is also the set for one of her television show and her laboratory. It is a work/live space that works.



Kitchen Organization Tour: A Visit With Bento Expert Biggie of Lunch In a Box

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Apparently we were a little late to the party last month when we predicted that Bento was a coming trend. We get it now: Bento is already a popular way to pack your lunch (or any meal), get your kids to eat, have some fun and express yourself, and help save the planet with a little less waste.

One of the most popular and comprehensive bento websites is Lunch in a Box, where you’ll find photos, top-tips and recipes, an online store for bento gear and an amazing list of bento links. We stopped by recently to visit Lunch in a Box’s Biggie for a mini-kitchen tour.



Kitchen Tour: Robert and Elizabeth's Soulful Sterling Place

2008_6_06-Tour.jpgEarlier this week I toured the Park Slope, Brooklyn kitchen of Elizabeth Crowell and Robert Wilson, the owners of the Sterling Place fine home décor and specialty gift stores. Robert and Elizabeth live in a beautiful four-story 1897 brownstone that they bought four years ago and live in with their two small children and two cats.

The current kitchen is in the back of the first floor (the former “men’s smoking room”) and features a large, sunny bay window overlooking the back yard. The kitchen is a generous size and is fully utilized by Robert and Elizabeth, who cook and eat in regularly. Robert grew up having dinner with his parents by candlelight every night – a tradition that was at times burdensome to a teen, but one that he now sees great value in and shares with his own children.



Kitchen Spotlight: Kyle's Colorful Boston Perch

2008_06_03-Tour2.jpgWhen Kyle realized that she wasn't getting enough light in her Jamaica Plain apartment office, she did a very sensible thingl. She moved her office into the light-flooded pantry. Why not work in close proximity to the kitchen? We are obviously much in favor of this idea, especially when the kitchen is as colorful and lovely as Kyle's. Take a closer look - more photos below.

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Kitchen Tour: Eric Gower's Breakaway Kitchen with Annex

2008_05_30-Gower.jpgWhen I asked Eric Gower how often he cooks in his kitchen his answer was "Three times a day! At least!" Eric also teaches cooking, works as a private chef, is the author of two beautiful and innovative cook books, The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen and The Breakaway Cook, and maintains a wonderful food-centric blog on his website. In short, he is a man obsessed with food, which is good news for us.



Looking For San Francisco Kitchens

2008_05_28-SFKitchens.jpgWe love talking about kitchens. In fact, we'd love to talk about your kitchen.



Kitchen Tour: Dan Kluger's Brooklyn "Real Chef" Kitchen

I recently had the great privilege of touring the Park Slope, Brooklyn home kitchen of Dan Kluger, the executive chef of Core: Club. Core, located on East 55th Street in Manhattan, is an exclusive private club with a restaurant that offers members a gourmet dining experience and extensive wine list. Dan started the 90-seat restaurant with advice from consulting chef, Tom Colicchio, and now oversees the operation, including numerous private events. Prior to Core, Dan spent seven years at Danny Meyer’s Indian-fusion restaurant, Tabla, where he also met his wife, Hannah. Before that, Dan worked at Union Square Cafe where, in his words, he got his start in the kitchen as a prep cook.

I was so curious to find out what a “real” chef’s kitchen looks like. Is it teeming with gleaming appliances? Is it organized alphabetically? Does the chef turn out seven course meals? Are there secret accouterments that only a chef would have? No – no – no – yes.



A Tour of London's Bookshop Café Books for Cooks

bookscooks1.jpgOne of the best ways to spend a Saturday afternoon in London is to crowd into bookstore/café Books for Cooks, a Notting Hill institution where you can browse thousands of international cookbooks and grab one of a handful of café tables to sample daily changing light meals cooked up in the open test kitchen in the back. By the time we got there at 2 pm on a recent Saturday, they were down to their last slice of coconut cake. But French owner Eric Treuillé, who runs the place with his English wife Rosie Kindersley, poured us a glass of biodynamic wine from his small vineyard in the Southwest of France, and talked about this irresistible oasis for the cookbook lover that it seems to us every city should have.



Swedish Kitchen Tour: Chez Larsson

benita-cover.jpgThe Kitchn reader Benita Larsson wrote in from Sweden to share some images of her sparkling white, inviting, immaculately organized family kitchen. After the jump, we catch up with Benita to hear about the kitchen renovation in her cheerful, charming house.