Second Kitchens (One of Five)
21 April 2008“Money to Burn” 
F. Scott Fitzgerald has been quoted as saying, “The rich are different than you and me.” To which Ernest Hemingway is said to have replied, “Yeah, they have more money.” Of course what we most love to hate about the rich is all those shiny things they get to own, which brings us to the current discussion.
In the last few decades kitchens have become incredible showplaces for those with the room and money for such things. Even the very rich, who have staffs to prepare and serve their meals, find themselves commissioning kitchens so large and so welcoming that they end up becoming a sort of meeting place for their guests. The problem with that, of course, is that when Chef Fancy Pants is preparing his meal, the evening often degenerates into a cooking demonstration, which, unless your name is Martha Stewart, may not be the direction you wanted the evening to take.
In recent years, though, a fair number of those with luxurious vacation homes in places like the Hamptons and Palm Beach, Florida, have decided to take their conspicuous consumption to the next level. The latest rage, I’m told, is the second kitchen, which because these people are richer than God, tends to be a great deal more elaborate than anything I am ever likely to get for my FIRST kitchen. But I digress.
There are sometimes problems with zoning regulations—because local governments are ever on the prowl to make sure that only one family lives in a home—but where it is possible to get the plans approved, second kitchens are increasingly popular with the rich.
Public reaction to this has been mixed, and it is something I would like to explore further, because I do think it is a subject that lends itself to what CFT411 is all about: the new, the different, and for me especially, anything that gets the old juices flowing!
Joseph
NEXT: “Why a Second Kitchen?”
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