ABOLISHING THE KITCHEN.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 216, 5 June 1908, Page 5

ABOLISHING THE KITCHEN.

' There are many people who think that the solution of'.the servant difficulty'is to be found, if found at all/ in the abolition of the kitchen; that the time will camo when peoplo'will live .in their own homes, but have all their'cooking done outside, and even have the washing-up done at a central establishment. According to tho London "'Express," the experiment has already been tried in America some years ago, but without success. \ Tho "'Express"' may•; be misinformed, but it. is interesting to read what it says. A j happy' idea : that spread like influenza was'nothing less than-the abolition., of tho kitchen. ; \ Architects ■ flew nobly to work ■ building houses and flats without kitchens, and turning existent' ones into smoking- ' rooms or boudoirs! ' Kitcheners wont' to .tho scrap-heap.:- And that awful 'person, the Irish cook, v as found in America, got a long, salutary" holiday, that almost put', her in' her 'placol catering firms burst into being. " ■■■- For; a time it was like.a Socialises dream.. All was blithe and bonny. Three timis a day. a caterer's van left on the, happy doorstep what looked like a large,dress-box with, trays. These were really ■ meals, .with linen, silver, and glass, all packed in a' sort of enormous Swedish oven, ■ a contrivance dosigned for keeping things warm ' But, alas}' poor human nature. After a season brief as love's young dream the new plan palled.. People ceased to be grateful for piping-hot, table-cloths and wellroasted knives ; and . forks. f The fluency' of ice-cream was as nothing to the language they used in complaining of it. Appetites were lost and never found again. -, Yet, rather than seem pculiar, 'people paid for food they refused # to unpack. . Rebellious wins and, /daughters were found cooking chops on shovels over, drawing-room fires. There was no .help for it. Architects began to do; an exclusively kitchen business, caterers dissolved like their .own ice-cream, and the cooks came back. .