[.ca] Great Kitchens: Design Ideas from America's Top Chefs (ISBN 1561585343)

From Amazon.com:
If envy is an issue with which you struggle daily, you may want to avoid Great Kitchens, a lavishly illustrated walk-through of 26 fabulous kitchens in the homes of some of America's best chefs. This is a Taunton Press publication--the same people who bring us Fine Woodworking, Fine Homebuilding, and Wooden Boat, among others--so rest assured the production values are high enough to raise the stakes for everyone else in the business. The one thing all of these kitchens have in common is that they didn't start out this way. There are kitchens put into Victorian houses, 1920s farm houses, swim schools (no kidding: Mary Sue Milliken of Border Grill in Los Angeles, and her architect husband, Josh Schweitzer, bought a small swim school and put home and kitchen where locker rooms and showers could once be found), old bars, upscale apartments, ancient stone houses. These are kitchens, then, that have been thought about by people who work with food, and know what they want at home. Built-in wood-burning ovens and hearths seem to be a big deal. So, too, are custom wok stoves. Seattle chef Tom Douglas put his enormous prep island on industrial casters. He also put his herbs and spices into cans that attach to bar magnets on what would be wasted wall space. He chose the domestic version of an industrial stove because it is better insulated and doesn't heat up the kitchen. And like several chefs in the book, he swears by his commercial Hobart dishwasher with its 90-second cycle. Great Kitchens is a multifunction book. You can leave it open on a coffee table as a piece of publishing art. You can use it to launch your daydreams. But most of all, you can use it to learn from the mistakes and successes of others, and gain insight from a lot of very practical information. Most over-the-top built-in appliance? Terrance Brennan's bread-warming drawer. But in this book, it makes perfect sense. --Schuyler Ingle

I'm swimming upstream on this one:
To be perfectly honest with you, I was a little disappointed in the book. I expected to see kitchens that I could only dream of. Instead I saw utilitarian efforts by America's top chefs. Imagine looking into Mario Andretti's personal garage. Would it look like a dream shop, or more like a GM assembly plant? One kitchen in this book had tall, bare cinderblock walls, that were not even finished, right in the center of the kitchen. How do you prevent dust from accumulating in bare cinderblock, and inadvertently arriving in some of the food? Their were some kitchens that were nicer than that, but nothing that inspired me. Personally, I am interested in a kitchen that is as beautiful as it is practical. I found, the book, Kitchen's That Work, A Practical Guide to Creating a Great Kitchen, a much more informative, and inspiring book, no matter what your budget. If you want to throw your pinky in the air, and poo paa your neighbors, then leave Great Kitchens on your coffee table. Their is plenty of names to drop in there. But if you want to create a great-dream kitchen, then get Kitchen's that Work. From soup to nuts, that is the book to have for the practical to the particular. In all fairness, I am not sorry I bought Great Kitchens, as I am sure I can glean information from it. If you would like to hear about some of the considerations the top chefs like to see in their kitchens, then by all means buy the book. I guess I was expecting something awe inspiring, and that is not what this book is. I gave it four stars, because I never met a man, I couldn't learn something from.

For cooks who are remodeling:
My husband and I both love to cook and we're looking at remodeling our kitchen. This book has great inspiration on how to think about your kitchen space and how you use it. It's got some great ideas on how to think about your kitchen arrangement and storage options from people who KNOW what can get irritating very quickly. The downside of this book is that these kitchens were obviously done on budgets that most of us would never dream of -- we're not going to be installing professional/commercial grade appliances, and we're not going to have granite countertops or custom-made cabinetry. However, just to read how professional chefs planned out their own kitchens to make their lives easier, and their ideas on storage and display make this book well worth while.

Excellent Kitchen Planning Book:
This is hands-down the best kitchen planning and design book I have seen. I learned so many things from it about picking materials, lighting, fixtures, sinks, layouts, etc. that my remodeled kitchen will be better because of it. I paged through endless books and magazines filled with lovely photos, but that lacked information or substance. This book stands out because it discusses pros and cons, budget tradeoffs made, the good decisions and "if-I-had-it-to-do-over-again" mistakes. These are kitchens put together by demanding professionals who won't tolerate (bad)or lightweight materials that are hard to clean. I learned many lessons about flooring, countertops, backsplashes and so on that were never touched upon by other books. Sure there are appliances to drool over, but there are also chefs who ran out of money during the remodel, or bought factory seconds tile to save money. Real-life issues and lessons.

Drool:
Never have I agreed more with an editorial Amazon review than when this one warned the envy-prone against buying this book. I want this stuff! (Particularly the industrial-grade wok and 90-second dishwasher.) If the subject at all interests you, you will not be disappointed in this book. The production values are excellent.

A great "Go By" book on Kitchens, but watch for pot holes!:
I really like this book alot! Ken Hom's kitchen fascinated me. The 90 second Hobart sanitizing machine is De Rigueuer but you still have to wash all your dishes before you put them in the Hobart. Secondly, study his work triangles and read the text. There were sink plumbing restrictions during remodeling and design focus on teaching. Su cuccina, mi cuccina? Maybe not but a great collection of design ideas, just look closely. See waht ideas would work for you and why. Some of these kitchens (John Folse)were designed for TV Production with ample room to move cameras around. These chefs will tell you some of the mistakes they made and give you the reasons why they designed their kitchens the way they did. A great read and a great drool! Kitchen Kudos to you Miss Ellen Whitaker, et al!