Forgive this letter being a few days late, I was buried under my bookkeeping spreadsheets as I worked out my tax return. Thankfully it is done, and I can now return to something infinitely more enjoyable…
Kitchens are a place of pleasure for me, spaces filled with light, colour, and wonderful smells. There are kitchens in my memory that are strong, powerful parts of who I am. My grandfather’s kitchen, with the blue AGA, kitchen island, and smell of homemade damson jam. My childhood kitchen, with the turquoise cupboard doors and perfect galley design that allowed the tiny space to feed hundreds over the years we lived there. My mother’s kitchen in Devon, with its warm marble sides and enough cupboards for everything one could ever need. My first kitchen, part of the glorious flat offered to me by Paul and Anne Marie, true angels in my life, whom I then spent years torturing with the smells of cookies and cakes (though I did always give them some!). These kitchens are where I learned to cook, where I learned to bake, where I discovered a love for language and power of food. They were spaces in which a fundamental part of who I am was nurtured, grew, and flourished into being.
Our new home in Cornwall is proof that my love and belief in the power kitchens, my bone deep knowledge of their importance at the heart of any home, is because of my Mumma’s ability to transform a kitchen into something gorgeous, practical, and enticing.
A van conversion obviously requires a kitchen, but what that means varies hugely depending on the design of the van and what any given individual requires of it. I require a lot from my kitchen, even in a space as tiny as the van. It must be more than a space in which to make food, it must be a space in which to create, share, and love. The kitchen was one of the biggest questions in my mind when I designed the floor plan, and its importance hasn’t wavered once.
To me a kitchen needs certain things: a fridge and freeze, a proper oven with hob, a sink, enough cupboard space, and a large enough side to roll out pastry. I need it to function as much like a home kitchen as possible, even if that means compromising on other areas. My desires and needs made choosing from among the hundreds of sinks, fridges, and ovens out there a simple but expensive process.
I was lucky enough to find one of the best fridges around at a huge discount on ebay. It has been sitting in my van ever since, waiting for the joyous moment that the kitchen could begin being built. That moment has come, and though much of the van build so far has been fun and satisfying, nothing has filled me with as much pure pleasure as constructing the first simple frames of the kitchen.
It was bitterly cold in Cornwall today, with a crystal blue sky and bright winter sun. The floor remained icy all day and my fingers got redder and redder, but I didn’t want to stop. The frames don’t look like anything much yet, they certainly don’t look like a kitchen. But they will, and I can almost taste the food and memories to come.
After hours of building and designing, cutting and measuring, questioning and testing, I came in, too cold to keep going. I was overcome by the need for something warm, and so I moved away from my kitchen to make myself pancakes. A wise choice to which I am going to return now that I have written to you all.
Wish me sunshine for the weekend so that I can keep building.
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wow, can not wait to see your kitchen. Wonder what the first thing you cook will be?
oxxoxoox