Meneghini Mini-Kitchen
7 September 2009
“Bombs Away”
When my partner and I first started this website some 399 blogs ago (I just checked the figure, and I’m frankly astonished!), one of the things I wrote about was second kitchens, which, when I began that series of blogs, I thought was such an unnecessary thing. I had read somewhere that those with the money for such things have a glorious kitchen that is really more of a place for entertaining guests than anything else. The actual cooking is done in a second kitchen—hence my disparagement, born, no doubt, of a certain amount of envy!
But as my partner correctly pointed out, second kitchens come in all sizes and shapes and have functions my bias had not yet let me explore. His own home had one, really, because he has a large enclosed patio that he often uses for business meetings or to entertain guests. And the sink and microwave oven he uses out there in the custom cabinet he designed and built himself is actually a second kitchen, because it makes it easier for him to provide his guests with the hospitality he and his wife are known for.
I bring all that up because my wife and I were talking the other day—fantasizing, really—about what we would do with the money for a major remodeling of our home. She wants a huge kitchen on the other side of the house, and enlarged bathrooms which would pretty much wipe out the existing kitchen. And that, in turn, raised the question of what we would do for munchies and the like when we’re enjoying our big screen TV in the family room. Well, as a blogger who deals in such matters, finding a second kitchen we could place in what would then be not much more than a passageway was really not a problem. So that, at long last, brings us to the subject of today’s blog.
Actually, Meneghini is an Italian company that took an equally convoluted route to the manufacture of the Mini-Kitchen we’ve featured here. They were founded in 1949, focusing their attentions, in the early years, on furniture, especially that used in kitchens. In 1995 they expanded their output to refrigerators that were actually modern ice-chests with a great deal of character, and this, in turn, led to the manufacture of an ice-chest that included everything a body would need for a kitchen, up to, and including, the kitchen sink!
The Meneghini Mini-Kitchen is neatly housed in a cabinet that looks like just another piece of furniture. Open it up, though, and there are two electric plates for cooking, a sink and faucet, and two storage drawers, one with six glasses for soft drinks and six for cocktails. It is available in solid cherry and a number of stained finishes; they also offer a lacquered finish that comes in a wide variety of colors.
The Mini-Kitchen is a concept that was originally designed for use in hotel rooms, but because it is so complete a kitchen in so compact a space, it serves quite nicely as a second kitchen, or as we’d surely think of it if our home were large enough to necessitate such a thing, da bomb.
Joseph
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