by Martin Field

What do kitchen designers know about wine and food storage in the kitchen? Not a lot it seems. Sure, they can make a new kitchen look like a snazzy ad in a glossy magazine. But I’m not convinced they know or care much about users’ needs.

For example, the recently modernised kitchen in our new home came complete with lots of stainless steel, gleaming stone bench tops, 2-pack cupboards and drawers and an open wine nook right between the fridge and the pantry. Ranging from chest height to above head height, there was space for a dozen and more bottles on gleaming stainless steel racks. What’s wrong with that? Well, good wine needs careful cellaring. Preferably in the coolest, darkest part of the house.

In contrast, modern kitchens are bright and busy and hot. Hot from hundreds of watts of halogen downlights, the fridge, the microwave, the oven, the electric jug, the toaster, the espresso machine, the [enough hot examples already! Ed.].

Anyway, I unscrewed the no doubt expensive racks and tossed them out on the nature strip for the hard rubbish collection. The space came in handy for the rice cooker and a pottery crock we store the rice in. The wine stays in the cellar. PS Tossed out all the high wattage bulbs too and replaced them with lower powered bulbs.