The Globe and Mail
June 23, 2006

A fine mix of ingredients goes into the home of a master chef

By Lisa Stevens

Imagine the intimidation factor: You consider yourself relatively competent in the kitchen, and your dinner parties are well-received, but you invite friends for dinner who are "food people," professionals even. What to do? Pour the wine and invite everyone into the kitchen so they can offer their experience and even a little labour!

Here is the interior design twist on that. Now, I love creating kitchens because it combines two of my favourite things: design, and food and cookery. And I might add that I have been the person described above.

But designing a kitchen for David Lee, highly regarded chef and co-owner of Splendido? Again, the answer is to listen and learn from those who know the most, and work in collaboration.

The design work at David Lee and Jennifer O'Brien's home in North Toronto was necessitated by the addition of a new kitchen and family room. The grand new room is visible from the front door, along the central axis of the home. Although the kitchen is almost always considered the heart of a house, this one's elevated prominence is most suitable given the owners' backgrounds and vocations.

A charming, unpretentious kind of guy, David displays brilliance in the Splendido kitchen, borne of a combination of talent, focus, and the hard work of a perfectionist. Eating his creations is to engage all of the senses.

His wife Jennifer is not only a bright woman with a clear sense of personal style, but she, too, has trained and worked in professional kitchens. Both certainly had clear ideas of what they wanted in a kitchen, from both a functional and a stylistic point of view. My job was to listen and bring it all together.

It all started with the range. As you might imagine, any old range was simply not going to do. Entering into this project, Jennifer and David had done their research and decided to purchase a 60-inch Lacanche range cooker. (Despite the limited space for the range, they had to be talked out of an even larger model.) A bespoke range cooker, designed according to the owner's specifications and requirements, the Lacanche is not only favoured for its professional-level performance, but as a work of art in itself. The kitchen was designed to frame and showcase the traditionally styled, black enamel range with nickel and brass detailing.

The room, built by Den Bosch & Finchley Design Build, is approximately square, with an additional bay of windows and doors looking out to the backyard garden, providing an area for a window seat and antique refectory table. Half the room, adjacent to the dining room, is devoted to the kitchen. The other half has a fireplace, millwork and lounge seating.

The kitchen area could be described as having an augmented galley style, considered by many to be the most efficient design, with a line of perimeter cabinets housing the Lacanche, the pantry and the requisite Sub-Zero fridge, concealed by cabinet fronts. Across the working aisle, a large, furniture-styled island contains the apron-fronted stainless-steel sink, fully concealed dishwasher and pull-out trash and recycle bin.

An archway leads to a small servery between the kitchen and dining room, and to a side entrance, imperative for carrying in the groceries from the side drive. The servery sees daily action, with the cappuccino machine and wine fridge finding their home here.

In order to unify the room, we designed consistent millwork for the kitchen cabinetry and opposite family room fireplace, cabinetry and bookshelves. The cooker is framed by a mantel-style range hood that reflects a simpler version of the fireplace opposite. The proportion and simplicity of the cabinetry style provide a timeless backdrop.

A simple archway entrance announces the importance of the kitchen as soon as you enter the front door. Applied plaster coffer detailing on the ceiling adds interest to what could have been a large flat expanse. The plaster mouldings help unify many functions in one space and add a level of detail that elevates the room beyond the usual.

All of the finishes were selected according to Jennifer's sense of classic style, and in keeping with the direction we were taking in the rest of the house: clean white cabinets (evoking the shell of a free-range egg), creamy statuario marble countertops and backsplash tile, floors stained a chocolate colour, and an island topped with chocolate-coloured granite. Stainless-steel detailing in the pilasters of the bottom cabinets saves the paint finish at the floor from overzealous mopping.

But God and greatness, as it is often said, is in the details. Here, David and Jennifer's ideas and experience informed the design. Not only is the kitchen classic and lovely to look at, there are tricks built in to conceal the functional requirements.

On either side of the cooker, the range hood conceals pull-out cabinets that hold, on the left side, easy-to-reach shelves for bottles of oil and condiments. To the right of the cooker, the cabinet has hooks that allow the chef to select his cooking implements as he needs them.

The pot filler at the cook top was installed at a height specified by David for his large stock pot. A flip-up garage door opens at the pantry to reveal everyday appliances for breakfast and baking, keeping the breakfast mess away, and peace in the house.

At the island, narrow display rails hold Jennifer and David's latest, favourite cookbooks, and often the latest magazine cover story about chef Lee.

I consider myself a specialist in kitchen design. It is one of the tasks I most enjoy, and one in which my everyday experience in my own kitchen comes in handy. But designing a kitchen for a chef of David's stature and sheer talent was a new — and initially somewhat intimidating — experience.

Like all the best experiences that stretch your imagination, this one allowed me to learn more about cooking, food and kitchen design, raising my own game in the kitchen as a cook and as a designer.

As a competent home cook, I learned from David's restaurant creations the value of using all five senses, and of perfected restraint in flavouring, so your palette is not bombarded but awakened.

As a designer, I learned a few new tricks, and the value of perfected restraint in creating a kitchen that works.

Lisa Stevens is principal of Lisa Stevens Design, a Toronto-based residential planning and design company that specializes in integrating interior design with an architectural environment.