BRIGHTER KITCHENS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20137, 24 December 1928, Page 5

BRIGHTER KITCHENS.

THE COOK'S INSPIRATION

1 wish with all my heart 1 could live in mine, writes Mrs. Stanley Wrench, the novelist. When friends come to my flat in town wo always show them the kitchen, but it is not the spring green of its walls, or ihe autumnal tints in the fruit and flowery curtains that calls forth ecstatic comment. It is the view from the window, tin' we look into tree-tops and gardens and all the year round got a panorama of real beauty.

"Why don't you make tins your study .' they cry. "If this were mine 1 would live in this kitchen." Well, there are days when the pcarblussom is uut and lilacs drench the air with sweetness when I forswear book11ncd walls, ga/.e long and take my (ill, for the lioiiiely kitchen is very alluring. A (|iute important part ol the work of my win Id goes on here, since feeding one s family is an art and a great deal depends (in the woman who is the home-maker. It always puzzles me, however, to dis-i-ovol why in so many instances, the kitchen is"a diab and unlovely room, all uninspiring, destitute not only ol pictuies, but of pleasant and cheerful things. You may remind me that model houses are springing up everywhere and care is exercised that the kitchen is bright and light, equipment modernised and every labour-saving gadget introduced. \ on may remind me, too, that of necessity steam from cooking will blur glass of pictures, that draperies are out of place where culinary operations go on and that light paint or colouring quickly grows dirty in a room that 's used every day and all the dav More Colour I agree, but paint and colouring arc taiily cheap, so that even if one had to do over one's kitchen twice a year it would not be such a terribly serious matter. Compared with tho discomfort of a spoiled meal, multiplied a few score times, it fades into insignificance. When Jane burns the joint or sends a stodgy pudding to table, can you altogether blame her if day in, day out, she gazes upon smoke-grimed walls and a dresser painted in that most depressing shade," known, I oelieve. in the decorating trade, as putty ? If Jane had the inspiration of a picture of bluebell woods in May, hung not too far from the cooking stove, I rather fancy sue would whisk eggs with a song in her heart and the souffle she sends to table would be as light as the walls, if you paint vour kitchen to resemble sunshine. 1 am not talking ol something 1 do not understand. For the most part my day's work lies in my study, but often, need be or not, I will cook a meal atid enjoy doing it. Nevertheless, frankly,- were I condemned to cook in some kitchens and have to spend my days there I should work rebellion among pots and pans. We are constantly hearing British cooking decried and comparisons are made with our Continental neighbours. British cooking is sometimes bad, but I do not wonder, viewing the. deadly dullness of some kitchens. British food is good enough, there is nothing to beat it, and we are as good cooks here as in Franco when we like, but we certainly might improve the surroundings of the cook. So many meals come to table wholly uninspired and small wonder, when there is nothing from which to cull one iota of inspiration.

There is plenty ot lomar.re in culinary matters if one chouses to look in the right direction and it must lie a colour-blind person who cannot admire still-life pictures at whiles on the kitchen tahle, or feel a thrill, remembering the caravan routes of spices or the eclio of some nigger croon as one unpacks tlie sugar. Imagination is a wonderful handmaid to competence even in the kitchen.

I feel certain, too, that when the cook is acknowledged as artist as well as artisan, and when cooking is studied as a science, we shall have contented homes and a healthier race. But we must drop the dictum of domesticity being dull and housework monotonous and make our kitchens places to live in. joyous and inspiring.