Fixture
Trends for the Gourmet Kitchen
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| This
sink can accommodate pots and pans with it’s round basin. |
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| Farmhouse
sinks work well with most kitchen styles. |
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| More
than a place to wash dishes sinks now add high styling to kitchens. |
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| Sprayers
use in commerical kitchens are making their way into our homes. |
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| Pot
filler can save your back. |
By Dan Dolan
For the true gourmet
the kitchen’s plumbing fixtures are extremely important. Inadequate
faucets and sinks can hinder the best kitchen layout. The best cooks
have their sinks, appliances, and cabinets designed in a manner that
is efficient and makes the hard tasks easier.
Sinks
According to Scott
Foster, manager of the NW A-Boy Supply store, located at 2671 NW Vaughn
St., one of the most popular kitchen sinks is the stainless steel
single bowl undermount. There are many brands and styles to choose
from. Having the sink undermounted, or attached from the bottom, eliminates
the common “lip” that makes it difficult to wipe down your
countertop. Foster says, “Undermounted sinks are hot.” And
we can’t forget essential accessories like cutting boards and
wire baskets designed specifically for the sink. Foster goes on to
say that granite sinks are a popular choice. His personal favorite
is the Blanco brand, which is 80% granite and is heat and scratch
resistant. This line of custom-styled sinks goes very well with granite
countertops.
The “farmhouse”
style sink has made a strong push into the mainstream kitchen. With
an exposed apron front it looks like something straight off the farm
or an old English kitchen. This is just one more sign that the traditional
old country look is here to stay in the Pacific Northwest. You can
see this trend in current styles by Kohler, Shaw, and Whitehaus.
In food preparation
it is best to have a second sink in a different location specifically
designed for just that. Serious cooks desire lots of sink and counter
space. Sprayers and filtered hot and cold-water taps are a must have.
The second food preparation sink is typically a single bowl sink with
a garbage disposal. Having the two separate sinks allows the chef
to prepare meals and to clean up while cooking.
Faucets
The choices for kitchen faucets are tremendous. In the A-Boy showroom
you are likely to find a style and finish to meet your needs. Among
these styles are a variety of spouts including the gooseneck, high
spout, single lever, and pullout. The single lever and pullout styles
will free up space on the sink deck for other accessories such as
soap, water filter, and instant hot water dispensers.
It is evident
looking around the A-Boy showroom that the kitchen faucet has come
a long way with models that include ceramic disc cartridges and durable,
lifetime finishes.
One way to lessen
the amount of heavy pots carried around in the kitchen is to have
a pot filler faucet over the stove area. Pot fillers are the most
recent and welcome trend from commercial kitchens. The pot filler
should be filtered cold water. The pot filler faucet has a long spout
or is double jointed to reach even the farthest pot on the stove,
and will fold back out of the way when not in use. This eliminates
the need to haul around large pots of water, saving your back and
preventing spills. It also saves on cooking and prep time.
The gourmet of
today has the best tools of the kitchen readily at hand. The kitchen
of our era has brought the ancient art of cooking to the next level.
The innovations in sinks and faucets make food preparation and presentation
easier than ever. |
