Kohler Stages Kitchen Sink
6 August 2009
“Everything in the Kitchen Sink”
The Stages™ Kitchen Sink from Kohler is the most inclusive sink that absolutely ever was because everything a body could possibly want in a sink is included. It’s a sink, but it’s a lot more than a sink because it easily doubles as a food preparation area, which is something that a kitchen I often cook in sorely needs. I haven’t the power to remodel that particular kitchen, but from time to time when I write a blog on an item that would help that particular kitchen, my wife and I fantasize about somehow incorporating it in the kitchen. But the Stages™ sink is really the easiest “fix” for that kitchen I have ever seen. Take out the existing sink and install this one, and suddenly a kitchen with almost nothing in the way of food preparation space becomes a kitchen a body would actually enjoy using!
Many years ago I read a humorous essay railing about the ineffectiveness of so many designed items, one of which was a tea pot the author actually liked until he used it and found that the stylish short spout resulted in steam roiling up and scalding his knuckles, but the point he made is still valid. The problem with so many designs is that the people who design the product never use it. Well, man, let me welcome you to the Stages™ Sink from Kohler, because these people actually developed the sink in collaboration with professional chefs in order to meet the needs of the serious home cook. And they have succeeded mightily.
It’s a single basin sink that has been designed for all of the “normal” functions of a kitchen sink along with a lot of food preparation aides that are really pretty slick. What they’ve done is improve on the idea of a single basin sink, although that’s almost like saying a Saturn 5 rocket is an “improvement” on the original Chinese rockets used in fireworks displays! What they’ve done, though, is provide a large, deep basin for cleaning large pots and pans along with a stepped side platform that can be used for any number of things from cleaning produce to drying dishes. They have also provided a large number of accessories that have been designed for use with this sink—which means everything fits like a champ—and that will allow you to use the sink as an added food preparation area that will quickly become THE food preparation area.
This sink comes with a walnut cutting board, bottom basin rack, six food preparation bowls, a flip tray, utensil tray, and accessory storage sink, all of which are well-designed, and which would add immeasurably to just about any kitchen, but especially those that are crying for the extra space. And because these items become, at your command, part of the sink itself they have an incredible utility about them. Anyone who prepares 
produce prefers doing it near the sink, right? Well, they have a chopping board that is fitted to actually go on top of the sink and slide back and forth, so it can never really be in the way. Want a place to put the chopped onions? Use the flip tray, so called because it can be used as a preparation or serving tray or flipped over and used as another cutting surface. And along with the flip tray, there are those six preparation bowls, which are double-sided with a deep side and shallow side, all the better to neatly hold the desired amount. There is also a plastic utensil tray that can be used to hold utensils during cooking or to soak knives and other utensils after the meal.
When the meal is finished, if you decide to use the sink for washing dishes, or simply want that paraphernalia out of the way, the stainless steel accessory storage rack easily attaches to the underside of the sink, giving the user a convenient place to store the many accessories. And cleaning up is made all the easier because both the side platform and basin bottom are angled to direct water and waste directly to the drain.
“Everything but the kitchen sink” is an old cliché denoting, frankly, a bit of excess, but I predict that as the Stages™ Kitchen Sink from Kohler is increasingly used in the better kitchen designs, there will come a time when “everything in the kitchen sink” is going to mean well-designed, well-thought out—and eminently practical.
Joseph
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