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Comment by irrational | Hacker News Reader

>I want to cook for an hour without being alone.

I'm the opposite. Nothing drives me up the wall more than people trying to talk to me when I'm trying to work, whether on a computer coding or in the kitchen cooking/baking. I can't concentrate at all when someone tries to talk to me. I can communicate, or I can cook/code, but I can't do both at the same time.

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Cooking has always been a social thing to me - chopping vegetables for 20 minutes is a lot nicer when you have someone to talk to.

Eating for me is absolutely social, cooking, I wont say --like others, I like to be left alone in the kitchen, because I enjoy having someone there to banter with while I'm whisking the hollandaise but at the same time there's only so much "ope[1], lemme just reach around ya for the cayenne...ope, sorry lemme get by ya...ope watch the burner there, ope, ope" before having someone in the kitchen with you starts getting in the way.

But to each their own

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[1] HN is a big crowd, so if the "ope" thing confused anyone reading this, behold: https://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/May-2018/Ope-The-All-Pu...

Chopping vegetables, yes. But when the fire is on, or there's a frying pan, I wish everyone would leave the kitchen. I don't want to be responsible for any burns or accidents. Now that I think about it, when I'm holding a sharp knife I also want everyone away. My fear is that a chatty guest who's not paying attention will walk into the point of my knife (and yes, because of that fear I'm constantly worrying about where the knife is pointed, but still... that's brain cycles I'm not able to spend on actually cooking).

Huh. I used to be 12 years old kid who was cooking his lunch and dinner while a 3 years old brother and 5 years old sister were in the room, with zero problems. Do you have a really tiny kitchen or what's the problem?

There are a lot of people talking in this thread about the dangers of cooking in a kitchen that make it sound like a cheesy infomercial...

"Scalding your loved ones? Tired of shutting the oven door on your cat? Isn't there a better way? Closed floor plans!"

I've got kids. My number one complaint about my house is that I am shut off from everyone when I try to cook.

I’m imagining something to do with frying bacon, tossing things in a wok, or transferring a cast-iron pan to the broiler. Or maybe even torching creme brûlée!

Not every cooking task is a nice, safe, contained-in-an-appliance chore. Sometimes you’re playing with open flames, hot oil, red-hot metal, and other delights that you wouldn’t generally imagine in the proximity of an infant.

Of course, only some cuisines have cooking tasks that look like that; this whole thread is people from different cultural culinary traditions talking past one-another because they have totally different ideas of what goes on in the kitchen.

Yes but the GP has wrote that they even prefer different floor plans because of this very issue, pointing at its generality

Or do you think their regular everyday kitchen tasks are that different? I was also using frying pans to make steaks, fries, schnitzels, ... baking oven for strudels or chicken...

I wouldn't trust 12-year old me with a knife or a frying pan. And 40+ year old me has cut and burnt himself enough times. And I know of enough terrifying accidents to be wary.

Also, yes, those of us living in apartments often have small kitchens.

I also lived in a small-ish apartment (65 sqm for a family)

You were more skillful than me then, or less prone to accidents, or knew of fewer kitchen related accidents (I know a woman who had her face scarred for life when her mother accidentally splashed her with scalding water).

I know I wouldn't let 12 year old me handle a sharp knife or a frying pan.

I really liked the older home and apt I lived in as a kid that had a distinct kitchen. It could get messy and then cleaned all in one go when convenient. With a kitchen in view of an entire floor you want to keep it tidy at all times. It made much more sense to eat right after cooking and then clean at 8PM while watching something on TV. I also helped my mom aunt and grandma cook, certainly three-four people fit.

I've seen some open floorplan designs where the kitchen was still the focal point, but all the functional areas could be hidden, usually by some large sliding feature. This, I think, is the best of both worlds. You can cook and eat in the open kitchen then pile everything in the sink and slide it shut till you're ready to deal with it later.

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