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Comment by moduspol | Hacker News Reader

Even in nicer houses in the US, they’ll have a range hood but no intake air! And then I’ll hear neighbors complaining about it not working well because nobody tells you that if you don’t have make-up air, you also need to open a window for it to work well.

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I think that's because people don't cook as much as they used to. And when they do it's rarely proper cooking and more assembly of prepared stuff, often just reheating.

In France too, most kitchen are optimized for looks with an island and fully opened to the living room. If you use noisy equipment, it makes both places uncomfortable. But I think that's the point, it doesn't happen that often.

There are not a whole lot of people who actually cook anymore and those who do deal with the annoyance or have their house choice influenced by that requirement.

I think complex home cooking is a vestige of the time when there were middle class housewives with a lot of time to actually do that. Nowadays with both parents working, cooking has been relegated to an activity that has to be fast, easy and efficient; which is why those multifunction cooking appliances are so popular. You never get something great out of it but it works decently enough to have the person responsible take care of some other errands simultaneously.

I have plenty of million dollar plus houses around me selling without any exhaust at all, just a cooktop on an island in the middle of the kitchen, and most of the times it is a gas cooktop! And in 80% of the houses, it's just a shitty microwave exhaust above the range.

So right off the bat, you're down $20k at least to remodel the kitchen so it has proper ventilation, assuming you cook.

Forget the health effects and whatnot, but are people not bothered by cooking smells pervading the house?

Sometime in the last 30 years builders learned how to build something that looks like a house, but isn't- no vent to outside in kitchen, 'two-car' garage that cannot fit even the smallest cars, etc. You don't notice these things as a kid, so you don't look for them when you buy your first house, by which point it's too late.

This is exactly my situation (cooktop in an island with nothing above it). Our solution (because we cook a lot and often it's Chinese food with the attendant oil) was to just stick an existing rolling island in the garage with an induction hotplate on it and do our messiest cooking out there. Not ideal but it keeps the house cleaner and we didn't have to spend much.

Personally I would prefer a Chinese style kitchen with a fully enclosed cooking space (sliding glass doors to leave open if desired) and exterior ventilation. It keeps the worst of the aerosolized oil contained and away from the rest of the home.

> Forget the health effects and whatnot, but are people not bothered by cooking smells pervading the house?

Being very honest, no, not really. From all the issues I can encounter in a house the smell of a meal cooking is not one of them.

The issue isn’t odors during the cooking process, the issue is odors pervading the walls, fabrics, and other fixtures all around the house such that it causes an odor at all times.

Odors are spread this way through oils. All lingering odors mean greases have permeated the tissues of the building. It's quite foul, but I have observed many people to live this way.

Or if you by accident just burn something.

I think it also depends how much people cook and what they cook. I suspect most here are thinking about that roast in a crockpot that has a pleasant aroma.

On the flip side I am thinking about anything with high heat, meats and oil. The food will be delicious and the smell of the food is great but the smell from the cooking process is miserable and will linger.

Good cooking smells delicious. Let it permeate!

Cooking really spicy food can cause everyone in the house to start coughing, even those who love eating spicy food, and even with a decent venting system. Then there is sea food, many preparations of which are going to smell like sea food no matter what you do. Or there are just recipes that involve lots of fish sauce (or any other heavily fermented sauces).

Baby octopus fried in fish sauce stink, even with a vent fan.

Plenty of dishes, and entire cuisines, need good ventilation.

I don’t want to be smelling food when I am not eating, or about to eat.

Have you ever smelled a room permeated by Indian food?

Yes, it smells amazing. One of the best things about Indian food tbh.

Maybe you're making really mild "Indian" food haha. I'm Indian and if we're making anything remotely spicy, we're dumping lots of hot stuff in a tadka or pan frying it, which is not only unpleasant elsewhere (read: eye watering and cough inducing), but sometimes prohibitively much for the person doing the cooking, if the ventilation is inadequate.

Yes it's the absolute best. Right up there with roasted pork or chicken thighs.

Cumin, Turmeric, hot onion and garlic just fragrant, butter, creams...

What do you think food should smell like? Boiled chicken? Do you have sensory issues?

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