So Your Kitchen Is Tiny. So What?

[kevin m]

OK, the article is about cooking, not photography, but if the shoe fits....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/weekinreview/14bittman.html?_r=1

No calls came from chefs, either, or from fellow food writers. They, too, know that when it comes to kitchens, size and equipment don’t count nearly as much as devotion, passion, common sense and, of course, experience. To pretend otherwise — to spend tens of thousands of dollars or more on a kitchen before learning how to cook, as is sadly common — is to fall into the same kind of silly consumerism that leads people to believe that an expensive gym membership will get them into shape or the right bed will improve their sex life. As runners run and writers write, cooks cook, under pretty much any circumstance.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Thanks, Kevin! This applies to a number of things, indeed. I never had a large, and "well-equipped" kitchen in my life, and have eaten at homes where I saw them (food didn't taste like the kitchen looked). In short, it's not the gear, but then hand that uses it.

Take care!

 

[bmattock]

Yes, the point is taken - you can be a photographer with whatever you have to hand that will record light. Got it. It's the photographer, not the camera. Quite.

However, the often-drawn conclusion is that because you CAN do things in a minimalist fashion, you SHOULD. I've never agreed with that.

I could live in a tent - I've done so. There is nothing noble about it, and it didn't make me a better person. In fact, it pretty much sucked, 24x7. I like tents fine. I think they make lousy permanent living arrangements in North America.

So I like houses, and big kitchens, and lots of cameras and lenses.

And I don't care who has a problem with it. I'm not a minimalist.

But the funny thing, I've never told minimalists that they're wrong. I figure they can reduce their kit to a box Brownie and have at it if that's what blows their skirt up.

They love to tell me I'm wrong. Why is that, do you suppose?

 

[rbiemer]

I'm not sure I see this article as an argument for minimalism so much as an argument for skill.
I've been cooking for a living for most of my working life and have gotten well past the idea that better equipment will make up for my lack of skill and/or knowledge. At the same time, I have no shame in buying something new and shiny if it will make me more productive. New gear in my kitchen is there mainly for two reasons: either to replace something worn out or to free my time up to do something else.
Had I been a working photographer all this time, my relation to my cameras would be much the same. But I'm not a pro which gives me the luxury of being a dilettante in my hobby.
Rob

 

[Fred Burton]

I've had a chance to meet a lot of very talented and successful photographers over the years, and none of them were gearheads. They bought equipment to meet a specific need and replaced equipment only when it broke or became obsolete. And spent their time shooting.

I don't think buying expensive equipment as a beginner is help or hinderance. But moving from camera to camera and lens to lens constantly will almost certainly get in the way of progress toward making great images.

 

[kevin m]

You think that kitchen is tiny... You should see my studio!

Wow, I like your roll dispenser for paper; does B&H stock that?

If it's possible, I think it's a good idea to keep a minimalist mind-set no matter how much gear you own.

Anyway, here's another quote from the article:

I asked my friend the chef Mario Batali what he thought about all this. “Only bad cooks blame the equipment,” he said. “I can make almost every dish in my restaurants on four crummy electric burners with a regular oven — as can just about anyone else who cares to.”

 

[kevin m]

Minimal is good, but it takes a certain level of commitment and determination.

I find that's true. Struggling with limitations seems to spark creativity, whereas struggling with a plethora of stuff can have the opposite effect.

Tennessee Williams wrote a great essay that touched on this subject, too, I think it was called "The catastrophe of success."

 

[ferider]

I asked my friend the chef Mario Batali what he thought about all this. “Only bad cooks blame the equipment,” he said. “I can make almost every dish in my restaurants on four crummy electric burners with a regular oven — as can just about anyone else who cares to.”

Somebody should ask him again what knives he recommends ...

 

[kevin m]

Ah, found it:

...not privation but luxury is the wolf at the door and... the fangs of this wolf are all the little vanities and conceits and laxities that Success is heir to — why, then with this knowledge you are at least in a position of knowing where danger lies.

Then what is good? The obsessive interest in human affairs, plus a certain amount of compassion and moral conviction, that first made the experience of living something that must be translated into pigment or music or bodily movement or poetry or prose or anything that's dynamic and expressive — that's what's good for you if you're at all serious in your aims. . . . [P]urity of heart is the one success worth having. "In the time of your life — live!" That time is short and it doesn't return again. It is slipping away while I write this and while you read it, and the monosyllable of the clock is Loss, loss, loss, unless you devote your heart to its opposition.

 

[.ken]

I don't know about any of you, but this article just made me really hungry...

 

[dave lackey]

Thanks!
When I was a kid, the person cooking didn't have to do the dishes after...When I started cooking for a living, I did a lot of dishes...and now I train my dishwashers by showing them what I want and expect. So that theory didn't quite work out. Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday and I cook for my family at my parents house. Usually about 20 of us (this year there were 29). Not only is the folks' kitchen very basic--2 electric burners and never enough cold storage or counter space. So I get the minimalist approach. And it does work.
I worked at a restaurant whose owner went bankrupt mainly through buying every gadget the sales reps showed her. Gear can certainly get in the way.
Rob

Hey, now there is an idea. I enjoy cooking around the house, especially breakfast! A job just waiting...

Maybe I can hook up with the local Waffle House? Nah....maybe Starbucks (*$$)...nah...I would be better with homestyle country cooking! Eggs, ham, sausage, bacon, grits, biscuits, gravy, hash browns, ...hmmm...I'll be back in an hour....for a long nap!!!