For the super-rich, one kitchen is rarely enough: as well as the family kitchen - which is often only used for making coffee - there is usually a back-of-house professional kitchen, where most meals are actually prepared. Many of the high-net-worth individuals that we work for have properties all over the world, and their own private chef who travels with them. In such cases, the chef will know the family’s personal preferences and requirements better than even they do and always offer very strong opinions on the arrangement and facilities of a new kitchen. Which is why, when it comes to kitchens, we always take the detailed brief from the client’s chef, who ultimately is the client for that particular room.
A chef-designed kitchen will always function better
More often than not, a premium home will have a commercial-grade kitchen, something akin to that in a small restaurant, where their personal chef and their team can prepare meals for the family or, when entertaining, for large numbers of guests.
A smaller, more conventional family kitchen is always included too, where the family can make themselves a coffee or a snack and might consist of little more than basic utensils and appliances such as a coffee machine, microwave or toaster. That said, it will still look and feel like a top-end kitchen: icemakers and wine fridges are usually included too.
A plush family kitchen can make any house a home
Such high-end kitchens always boast premium-quality materials and fine details. This includes custom-made joinery and fixtures, tying the look of kitchen in with the rest of the home. A luxury kitchen is also all about exceptional space planning and lighting design.
But the real work and the challenge for architects is what happens in the back-of-house professional kitchen. Accommodating all of the state-of-the-art equipment and high-tech appliances that are guaranteed to cook, freeze or steam everything to perfection, is the easy bit.
Because these are similar to commercial kitchens, consideration also has to be given to providing quality hard-wearing components such as cooktops, ovens, deep fryers, dishwashers and glass washers.
A back-of-house kitchen still impresses with state-of-the-art appliances
Far more difficult is the need to fit industrial extractors into conventional homes in order to prevent food smells and other powerful aromas from permeating into other rooms. This can often involve a two-metre-long extractor hood (see the image above by way of example!) and an equally large fan that often has to be housed remotely in a room or space nearby.
This in turn creates additional problems and challenges such as how to reduce noise, particularly when we may have to extract air from a basement kitchen up through several floors of a listed building, all the way to the roof, which is of course some distance away.
Having such large extractor fans can also create other issues. Modern doors are well sealed, which means that the fans could quickly starve the kitchen of air unless additional make-up ventilation is provided – even if it means cutting a little more away from the bottom of a door. But keeping the kitchen under negative pressure in this way ensures the movement of air is only in one direction, and smells are contained.
Retaining an informal family kitchen dining area is vital for social gatherings
Just because it is a professional kitchen does not mean that it has to look like one. Some high-net-worth individuals are happy for stainless steel units to be installed, similar to those in restaurants and hotels, but many others prefer something that looks similar to a domestic kitchen.
In the end it all boils down to good design, because these days the kitchen really is at the heart of every home and that means making the best use of space and ensuring easy traffic flows around the rest of the house – and of course fitting in with the professional kitchen.
The kitchen is increasingly the heart of the home, no matter what your price bracket.
As always, our principal objective is to exceed our clients’ wishes and expectations - when we are dealing with the world’s wealthiest high-net-worth individuals, we have to consistently be at the very top of our game.