Smart Kitchen: How to Create a Comfortable, Safe, Energy-Efficient, and Environment-Friendly Workspace - Softcover

Goldbeck, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0960613870 ISBN 13: 9780960613878

Publisher: Ceres Pr, 1994

Synopsis

An innovative guide to making kitchens "user friendly," energy-efficient, safe, and environment-friendly. Every element of the kitchen is discussed, including appliances, materials, fixtures, composting, recycling, low-tox building, and design. Featured in The New York Times and Fine Homebuilding. 134 pages, recycled paper/vegetable ink, 50 illustrations, tables, resources, bibliography, index, paperback.

About this title

About the Author

David Goldbeck is an internationally known food authority. He is the co-author, with Nikki Goldbeck, of five food-related books, many of them best-sellers, including, American Wholefoods Cuisine, The Supermarket Handbook, The Goldbecks' Guide to Good Food and most recently The Healthiest Diet in the World. David Goldbeck built his smart kitchen in his home in Woodstock, NY.

From the Back Cover

The Smart Kitchen is full of new ideas for creating a productive, user-friendly kitchen.

* Choose the best flooring, cabinets, countertops, lighting, appliances, and everything else you'll need
* Improve an existing kitchen
* Save hundreds of dollars a year through energy-efficient appliance selection
* Make the kitchen comfortable for one or more cooks, children, the elderly, and those with special needs
* Build a recycling center
* Protect against fire, electric shock, and accidents
* Create an "ideal cooker"
* Build a sink you can sit at
* Clean the air and water
* Make counters comfortable for people of all heights
* Hang a "democratic pot rack"
* Save water
* Make the kitchen brighter and quieter
* Grow food in the kitchen
* Avoid toxic building materials
* Protect children in the kitchen
* Install a "cool spot" pantry
* Use your computer in the kitchen
* Plus kitchen planning tools, kitchen maintenance chart, extensive resources
and much, much more.

"An important addition to the kitchen design library. Highly recommended." - Nicholas J. Geragi, Jr. CKD, designer and faculty member, National Kitchen and Bath Association

"This is the book we would have written!" - Patricia Poore, editor and publisher, The Old House Journal

"David Goldbeck has made an important contribution to kitchen design. Both professional and amateur planners will benefit from this book." - Barbara Haber, curator of books, Schlesinger Library

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 11: COOKING

The stove, or as the Europeans call it, "the cooker," is the heart of the kitchen. Almost everything else in the kitchen is there to facilitate what will eventually happen on the stove top or in the oven. And since you may have to live with your decision for quite a while - the stoves and ovens have an average lifespan of more than fifteen years - it pays to spend some time making a choice. In the past one had to decide only between a gas or electric stove, but today, with separate wall ovens and cooktops, you can have either fuel or both. But that is only the beginning of the choices; there are now convection, microwave, self-cleaning, and continuous-cleaning ovens, (and combinations) plus different kinds of gas, electric, and smooth cooktops.

Cooking experts know that there can be substantial variation in the quality of foods prepared in different appliances. Food cooked in a coal- or wood-fired oven has a robust taste and crusty exterior. When you compare the end product, electric and gas ovens are almost always vastly superior to microwave ovens. And, knowledgeable cooks almost universally choose the gas flame over the electric coil.

Because of my love of good food my preference for equipment is influenced here, more than in any other area, by performance. However, there are other important factors, such as the appliance's impact on health, safety, ventilation needs, and the like, and they, too, will be covered in this chapter.

To begin with, I believe the area of stove design needs some innovative thinking. Although there are more choices than ever before, most of the new options do not offer any great improvement over their predecessors. For example, though most professional cooks agree that a gas cooktop and an electric oven are the preferred appliances, you cannot buy a single unit that contains both features. Rather, the focus is on such equipment as microwave ovens which present new marketing opportunities but do little for the art of cooking. It is my opinion that unless the kitchen industry begins to put more emphasis on better conceived innovations, we will microwave away thousands of years of glorious culinary history.

Moreover, practicality is often sacrificed for aesthetics; professional ranges are purchased for appearance, with no consideration given to the appropriateness of the tool to the household, or its energy consumption, or the airborne pollution it produces.

Gas versus Electricity
In my estimation there are advantages and disadvantages to both gas and electricity in terms of cooking performance. These are enumerated a bit later in this chapter. But first, here is a discussion of these two most common cooking modes from other angles. You must balance these considerations for yourself.

Safety
Anything that produces high heat can obviously present safety problems. The open gas flame is a potential cause of fire; gas leaks are not only inflammable but can sicken and even kill. Electric stoves can start fires from both the coils and electrical malfunctions. Furthermore, you can burn yourself on a gas flame or hot grate or on an electric coil. In fact, electric coils practically invite trouble if the unit does not warn that a heating element may still be hot, though switched off. (The most dangerous models do not give warning even when an element is on.)

Since fire and personal safety are a concern with all units, proper installation, maintenance, and operation are essential.

Avoiding Indoor Air Pollution
The cooking of food itself, by any method, creates unwanted vapors and other airborne substances such as grease. Both gas and electric burners also cause indoor pollution through the incineration of airborne particles such as dust. In addition, cooking with gas creates a unique problem that should not be ignored. Burning gas generates significant indoor air pollution. This includes most particularly, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and to a lesser extent nitrous oxide (NO), aldehydes (including formaldehyde), and particulates - all of which can cause or aggravate a variety of ailments. Emissions are the greatest from poorly adjusted burners.

Animal and human epidemiologic studies have linked nitrogen dioxide (NO2) to greater risk of infectious respiratory disorders. According to Brobeck and Averyt's Product Safety Book, published under the auspices of the Consumer Federation of America, (and other authorities) concentration of exposure is more dangerous than length of time of exposure. Even a very short exposure to a large amount of nitrogen dioxide may "significantly increase susceptibility to nose and throat, as well as breathing irritation and disease . . . Higher levels of exposure [to NO2] also increase airway resistance, and over time produce emphysematous lesions in the lungs." People already suffering from such respiratory disease as asthma are more seriously affected. Nitrogen oxides are also extremely irritating to the eyes and lining of the upper respiratory tract.

Carbon monoxide (CO) has no color, odor, or taste but is very dangerous. Even small amounts in the air diminish the level of oxygen in the blood. As the amount of carbon monoxide increases, those inhaling it can experience "shortness of breath, a slight increase in pulse, tightness across the forehead, headaches, and flushed skin." If the levels of the gas further increase, "breathing difficulty, coma, convulsions, and death can occur." Even low levels of carbon monoxide make the heart pump harder, so heart patients, anemics, and infants are extremely vulnerable to this pollutant.

Exposure to formaldehyde (the most common aldehyde) irritates the eyes, nose, and throat and causes "nausea, headache, dizziness, memory loss, and many asthmalike symptoms." Asthma or emphysema sufferers and those with allergies can have more serious reactions. Some people become sensitized to formaldehyde, and thereafter contact with products containing even a minuscule amount of the chemical become a problem. Formaldehyde emissions are not a problem unless the appliance is not properly tuned. Laboratory studies have also linked formaldehyde to cancer, although the effect of long-term exposure to low levels of the chemical is unknown.

Because of these combustion by-products, it is important to address air quality, particularly if you use gas, live in an energy- efficient home or poorly vented space such as an apartment, or are susceptible to environmental pollutants. Some segments of the gas industry are unwilling to admit there is reason to be concerned. The Gas Research Institute and some appliance manufacturers, however, are searching for ways to reduce emissions, even though they don't feel they are "threatening." This research is reportedly aimed at burner inserts and new-type burners that would reduce combustion by-products; their introduction to the market will be welcome. One European company may introduce a ceramic-topped gas cooktop; if vented, it could mean the best of both worlds. Another innovation is the "infrared jet- impingement" burner which are about 50 percent more efficient than conventional ones and emit much less nitrogen dioxide. In the meantime, as you will see in Chapter 12, there are ways to vent air even from energy-efficient homes, as well as cleaning the air of those toxins associated with gas combustion.

Even electricity has its health effects, since there are a small number of people who complain that they are "electrosensitive," experiencing headaches and other physical discomforts from the small amount of electromagnetic radiation emitted by electrical appliances (such as electric stoves). This is not as far-fetched as it may sound. Dr. Robert Becker, co-author of The Body Electric, and other researchers are warning that "electropollution" - the excessive electromagnetic background that surrounds all of us from appliances, TV, radio, microwave signals, major power lines, and the like - is as much of a concern as air and water pollution.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ceres Pr
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0960613870
• ISBN 13: 9780960613878
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Cosgrove Merle
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 134