The IIID (Institute of Indian Interior Designers) Bangalore in association with Nolte, organised 'The Social Kitchen', event on February 23rd, 2018 at the flagship store in Koramangala Bangalore. The event was filled with spirited discussions, amazing insights, and fun around the kitchen. For “On The Grill” session, Celebrity Chef Manu Chandra (Executive Chef at Olive Bar & Kitchen Bangalore), Architect Gayatri Shetty (main coordinator and Immediate Past Chairperson IIID, Bangalore), and Architect Sandeep Khosla (Founder & Principal- Khosla Associates) were the key persons for the discussion.
Today's kitchens are much more than a kitchen, they are smart and larger part of a family's living space. Nolte's definition of The Social Kitchen - It's the place where the family gathers, where children play, and where friends are entertained. Where thoughts are shared and memories made. It's the multi-faceted heart of the beautiful home. Here's an insight into the sizzling conversations.
Gayatri: We are going to discuss, debate, converse about the kitchen being a social space, and of course, the next session we will talk about the future of kitchens.
Gayatri: I am going to ask Manu to just talk a little bit about himself and all the reference, yeah?
Manu: Well, so I think I am sure a lot of people here have kids who are growing up and want to be a chef. That's how it started with me. We had no cable TV, in fact, we had no TV at home for five years because the folks decided that we were terrible students which we were. So the refuge for me was the kitchen and when you had nothing else to do you finished your homework, you went into the kitchen and that was really where the love fair with food started. I studied at St. Stephens in Delhi. After college, I went off to New York where I studied the culinary arts, worked few years, outstanding experience. And came back under due rest to India in 2004 and became head chef in Bangalore for a restaurant called Olive. (Today is Olive Bar And Kitchen)
Gayatri: So I just wanted to get started with Sandeep saying can you just give us a couple of words, you know, since we all know now that the kitchen is the new social space. What are your thoughts while talking to families and clients about this space in a home?
Sandeep: Well, the kitchen has, of course, come out of the closet. It's come from the back of the house as we saw in the presentation to the front of the house. In the 1930s, Frank Lloyd Wright designed a kitchen with glass looking into the kitchen. It was a scandalous idea at that time to look into the kitchen, to see pots and pans. But, he designed these homes which were for the middle class and that's what spurt this kind of entire revolution of the kitchen which was brought into the front of the house which interacted with the living and dining spaces of the house and actually then that wall and that barrier also got broken and it got integrated completely into the house.
So when I got clients it's pretty much, you know, they are talking about various age groups, the nuclear family especially are the ones that want the open kitchen, the social kitchen. They want to show off to their guests, they want to entertain their guests, the kids want to do their homework on the kitchen table. They want to be efficient during the weekday and cook gourmet meals on the weekend because everyone is now a master chef and so it really has become that kind of hub, the space has become a lot more collaborative and everyone wants to cook, all the age groups want to cook and everyone wants to be together doing this activity. It's a creative activity. It's fun and it has become therapeutic to cook and a great experience for the family as well as with the guests.
Gayatri: Yeah. While we are talking about cooking let's ask Manu what his thoughts are on the food, you know, I mean how things have changed from what it used to be years ago to now.
Manu: Cuisines constantly evolve, food constantly evolves and kitchen therefore constantly evolves. And how you behave and operate out of the kitchen is basically an extension or a function of that. I look around at most of these kitchens and I am thinking I can more easily put out a gourmet meal from here than I can from some of my own because they are just so fantastically laid out (referring to Nolte Kitchens). There is so much thought and science and technology that's gone behind each one of these. It's feeding into a greater aspiration and also setting up in a fairly holistic way for the future. So it's already a kitchen of the future at many levels because the kitchens like these which were shown in that slideshow, I could actually relate to most of these kitchens as I grew up in a kitchen like that. We had the storeroom next to the kitchen which was this giant room, some of it was locked, but mostly occupied by these humongous vessels which were never used or everything was cooked in bulk and therefore then stored away. All that has fundamentally changed and a lot more can be stored today in a modern kitchen than you could in those giant stores.
Gayatri: Sandeep. I wanted to just ask you what are your thoughts on kitchen spaces really getting into offices as well. Pantries and food especially big campuses have these huge spaces. What are your thoughts on that?
Sandeep: As far as offices are concerned I think co-working spaces are probably showing the way because forget about campuses with canteens, okay that's a function which most campuses have to have but I think co-working spaces with the sexy counter in the center with a coffee machine and the cookies, the free cookies and the beer being served day in and day out that has really caught on and that has kind of stirred everyone's imagination and pretty much now every office you go to globally and now all the offices that you seem to be designing here have that experience of the hub, the space which is the counter, the space where you can kind of hang out and socialize and meet and have a cup of coffee or have a drink in the evenings. So the social hub has come to the office for sure.
Also, there has been a big evolution in office design and it has become more residential. People are wanting offices that are more residential and more hospitality based. So the typical corporate interior is kind of being flung out of the window. People want warmer, more engaging spaces, so I think this whole – the kitchen and the social kitchen and the lounge and the living room and the living spaces all feed into that idea of the residential office.
Gayatri: When getting back to the home, luxury homes have two kitchens, do you still see that continuing or do you see that just kind of coming into a more compact space? Next thing that I wanted to ask you was about homes. Luxury homes and kitchens and as against things which are now getting a lot more functional and lot more effective in apartments as well. So how do you see the two?
Sandeep: In India, we have this kind of complex social structure of joint families and tradition is still a major part of the family structure in a lot of families. So, when you are talking about the nuclear family, of course, we are talking about people who are more open to the idea of the open kitchen, but people are still very concerned about smells of Indian food and a lot of other cuisines. So a lot of people are opting for two kitchens, the so-called wet kitchen and then the kitchen that they kind of bake and cook their pasta. The open kitchen is collaborative, everyone is cooking in there but then the close kitchen where you have stuff unless you get rid of that aspect of our lives and it will probably – well it will go in a decade. We also have got the huge issue of Vastu in India and if you are talking about bringing the kitchen to the centre of the house it ain't happening in a lot of houses. When you are talking about these kinds of things in India and it's very complex. Dealing with joint families and all lot of the times we are dealing with these double kitchen concept where the open kitchen is for light cooking, you have got your exhaust. You are not worried about the fumes whereas a closed one is for those who are worried about smell or fumes going into the living room.
Manu: We are a country which is rooted very deeply in its traditions which I do sometimes think terribly misplaced. But functionality needs to be the key and that's a problem with a lot of what I see of and that fumes point is very pertinent, the new exhaust systems are fantastic which is what makes life just so much simpler. What causes so much odour, that's the question. And again when you are in the science of cooking you understand that there are things that are more different which cause greater smell in a kitchen and most of it now has been eliminated through technology and technology is actually solving that not only in the modern kitchen but generally even in my own kitchen.
Gayatri: How apartment kitchens have got so compact and the gadgetry that is being used. Have you used the steamer in any of your kitchens? We still have to get there, I guess the healthier options.
Manu: What's happening is now the gap has really shortened. There was a time when I could be proud of the fact that I had really an advanced equipment in my kitchen, my industrial kitchens. I had a combination oven. I had one which had combi steam etc. I had industrial everything and that's why restaurant kitchen is always just so many leagues ahead of let's say home kitchen. Thanks to these plants guys who are standing around here somewhere. They have completely eliminated that gap. And I was astounded to see that every single piece of technology that I have in my kitchen already exists at a home level. I couldn't believe it. That combination oven is already in a home.
Gayatri: What's your wacky idea for a kitchen in a home?
Sandeep: I think the refrigerator was probably introduced to Indian kitchens in the 1960s so we are talking about 50 years now you can probably look at recipes on your fridge and look at the weather on a screen and but in the next decades you are definitely going to be talking to your fridge and I think the future of kitchens is going to be led by the appliance manufacturers and not by architects in terms of smart technology but artificial intelligence is here to stay, I mean there is no doubt about it. We have got your Amazon Alexa, you are speaking to Alexa and I mean all my friends in New York when I went there, they had Alexa permanently on their kitchen table and they were ordering all their groceries with Alexa directly through the app. So your blender is probably going to be connected to your smartwatch and it's probably going to say that okay I will make you a smoothie based on your diet and how many steps you have taken today and it's probably going to link to your fridge that will order your groceries for you and the right kind of banana that will go into your smoothie and I think that's where the reality smart technology is going to – which is here to stay.
Manu: There is a new gadget which again all the chefs are picking up but I give it about a year before it becomes part of a standard kitchen is called a thermo-mix. Itblends, cooks, weighs, and steams. So essentially you just throw everything in there and it weighs it for you and you put the lid on, you press the button and put a timer on it, you can come back six hours later and your soup will be ready. So it's already happening. We are heading into future where your fridge will tell you whom to date. If your fridge told you who to date I mean that's just how quickly we are moving forward.
Today's kitchens are much more than a kitchen, they are smart and larger part of a family's living space. Nolte's definition of The Social Kitchen - It's the place where the family gathers, where children play, and where friends are entertained. Where thoughts are shared and memories made. It's the multi-faceted heart of the beautiful home. Here's an insight into the sizzling conversations.
Gayatri: We are going to discuss, debate, converse about the kitchen being a social space, and of course, the next session we will talk about the future of kitchens.
Gayatri: I am going to ask Manu to just talk a little bit about himself and all the reference, yeah?
Manu: Well, so I think I am sure a lot of people here have kids who are growing up and want to be a chef. That's how it started with me. We had no cable TV, in fact, we had no TV at home for five years because the folks decided that we were terrible students which we were. So the refuge for me was the kitchen and when you had nothing else to do you finished your homework, you went into the kitchen and that was really where the love fair with food started. I studied at St. Stephens in Delhi. After college, I went off to New York where I studied the culinary arts, worked few years, outstanding experience. And came back under due rest to India in 2004 and became head chef in Bangalore for a restaurant called Olive. (Today is Olive Bar And Kitchen)
Gayatri: So I just wanted to get started with Sandeep saying can you just give us a couple of words, you know, since we all know now that the kitchen is the new social space. What are your thoughts while talking to families and clients about this space in a home?
Sandeep: Well, the kitchen has, of course, come out of the closet. It's come from the back of the house as we saw in the presentation to the front of the house. In the 1930s, Frank Lloyd Wright designed a kitchen with glass looking into the kitchen. It was a scandalous idea at that time to look into the kitchen, to see pots and pans. But, he designed these homes which were for the middle class and that's what spurt this kind of entire revolution of the kitchen which was brought into the front of the house which interacted with the living and dining spaces of the house and actually then that wall and that barrier also got broken and it got integrated completely into the house.
So when I got clients it's pretty much, you know, they are talking about various age groups, the nuclear family especially are the ones that want the open kitchen, the social kitchen. They want to show off to their guests, they want to entertain their guests, the kids want to do their homework on the kitchen table. They want to be efficient during the weekday and cook gourmet meals on the weekend because everyone is now a master chef and so it really has become that kind of hub, the space has become a lot more collaborative and everyone wants to cook, all the age groups want to cook and everyone wants to be together doing this activity. It's a creative activity. It's fun and it has become therapeutic to cook and a great experience for the family as well as with the guests.
Gayatri: Yeah. While we are talking about cooking let's ask Manu what his thoughts are on the food, you know, I mean how things have changed from what it used to be years ago to now.
Manu: Cuisines constantly evolve, food constantly evolves and kitchen therefore constantly evolves. And how you behave and operate out of the kitchen is basically an extension or a function of that. I look around at most of these kitchens and I am thinking I can more easily put out a gourmet meal from here than I can from some of my own because they are just so fantastically laid out (referring to Nolte Kitchens). There is so much thought and science and technology that's gone behind each one of these. It's feeding into a greater aspiration and also setting up in a fairly holistic way for the future. So it's already a kitchen of the future at many levels because the kitchens like these which were shown in that slideshow, I could actually relate to most of these kitchens as I grew up in a kitchen like that. We had the storeroom next to the kitchen which was this giant room, some of it was locked, but mostly occupied by these humongous vessels which were never used or everything was cooked in bulk and therefore then stored away. All that has fundamentally changed and a lot more can be stored today in a modern kitchen than you could in those giant stores.
Gayatri: Sandeep. I wanted to just ask you what are your thoughts on kitchen spaces really getting into offices as well. Pantries and food especially big campuses have these huge spaces. What are your thoughts on that?
Sandeep: As far as offices are concerned I think co-working spaces are probably showing the way because forget about campuses with canteens, okay that's a function which most campuses have to have but I think co-working spaces with the sexy counter in the center with a coffee machine and the cookies, the free cookies and the beer being served day in and day out that has really caught on and that has kind of stirred everyone's imagination and pretty much now every office you go to globally and now all the offices that you seem to be designing here have that experience of the hub, the space which is the counter, the space where you can kind of hang out and socialize and meet and have a cup of coffee or have a drink in the evenings. So the social hub has come to the office for sure.
Also, there has been a big evolution in office design and it has become more residential. People are wanting offices that are more residential and more hospitality based. So the typical corporate interior is kind of being flung out of the window. People want warmer, more engaging spaces, so I think this whole – the kitchen and the social kitchen and the lounge and the living room and the living spaces all feed into that idea of the residential office.
Gayatri: When getting back to the home, luxury homes have two kitchens, do you still see that continuing or do you see that just kind of coming into a more compact space? Next thing that I wanted to ask you was about homes. Luxury homes and kitchens and as against things which are now getting a lot more functional and lot more effective in apartments as well. So how do you see the two?
Sandeep: In India, we have this kind of complex social structure of joint families and tradition is still a major part of the family structure in a lot of families. So, when you are talking about the nuclear family, of course, we are talking about people who are more open to the idea of the open kitchen, but people are still very concerned about smells of Indian food and a lot of other cuisines. So a lot of people are opting for two kitchens, the so-called wet kitchen and then the kitchen that they kind of bake and cook their pasta. The open kitchen is collaborative, everyone is cooking in there but then the close kitchen where you have stuff unless you get rid of that aspect of our lives and it will probably – well it will go in a decade. We also have got the huge issue of Vastu in India and if you are talking about bringing the kitchen to the centre of the house it ain't happening in a lot of houses. When you are talking about these kinds of things in India and it's very complex. Dealing with joint families and all lot of the times we are dealing with these double kitchen concept where the open kitchen is for light cooking, you have got your exhaust. You are not worried about the fumes whereas a closed one is for those who are worried about smell or fumes going into the living room.
Manu: We are a country which is rooted very deeply in its traditions which I do sometimes think terribly misplaced. But functionality needs to be the key and that's a problem with a lot of what I see of and that fumes point is very pertinent, the new exhaust systems are fantastic which is what makes life just so much simpler. What causes so much odour, that's the question. And again when you are in the science of cooking you understand that there are things that are more different which cause greater smell in a kitchen and most of it now has been eliminated through technology and technology is actually solving that not only in the modern kitchen but generally even in my own kitchen.
Gayatri: How apartment kitchens have got so compact and the gadgetry that is being used. Have you used the steamer in any of your kitchens? We still have to get there, I guess the healthier options.
Manu: What's happening is now the gap has really shortened. There was a time when I could be proud of the fact that I had really an advanced equipment in my kitchen, my industrial kitchens. I had a combination oven. I had one which had combi steam etc. I had industrial everything and that's why restaurant kitchen is always just so many leagues ahead of let's say home kitchen. Thanks to these plants guys who are standing around here somewhere. They have completely eliminated that gap. And I was astounded to see that every single piece of technology that I have in my kitchen already exists at a home level. I couldn't believe it. That combination oven is already in a home.
Gayatri: What's your wacky idea for a kitchen in a home?
Sandeep: I think the refrigerator was probably introduced to Indian kitchens in the 1960s so we are talking about 50 years now you can probably look at recipes on your fridge and look at the weather on a screen and but in the next decades you are definitely going to be talking to your fridge and I think the future of kitchens is going to be led by the appliance manufacturers and not by architects in terms of smart technology but artificial intelligence is here to stay, I mean there is no doubt about it. We have got your Amazon Alexa, you are speaking to Alexa and I mean all my friends in New York when I went there, they had Alexa permanently on their kitchen table and they were ordering all their groceries with Alexa directly through the app. So your blender is probably going to be connected to your smartwatch and it's probably going to say that okay I will make you a smoothie based on your diet and how many steps you have taken today and it's probably going to link to your fridge that will order your groceries for you and the right kind of banana that will go into your smoothie and I think that's where the reality smart technology is going to – which is here to stay.
Manu: There is a new gadget which again all the chefs are picking up but I give it about a year before it becomes part of a standard kitchen is called a thermo-mix. Itblends, cooks, weighs, and steams. So essentially you just throw everything in there and it weighs it for you and you put the lid on, you press the button and put a timer on it, you can come back six hours later and your soup will be ready. So it's already happening. We are heading into future where your fridge will tell you whom to date. If your fridge told you who to date I mean that's just how quickly we are moving forward.
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