Kitchen Fen Shui - My Way
By: Laura O’Rourke

Everybody knows it. Twenty-first century humans gather in the kitchen. No matter how small the space. No matter how hard you’re trying to get dinner on the table or appetizers prepared. No amount of comfortable diversions such as overstuffed chairs and cozy lit fireplaces in the family room will reverse the overwhelming gravitational pull to hang out in the kitchen. We just can’t help ourselves.

Since everyone and everything seems to end up in the kitchen, I wanted to know what principles exist to guide one when designing a kitchen space to create a comfortable and inviting area for people to gather. Whether you’re building from scratch or remodeling, what rules should you follow to make your kitchen worthy of such important life activities?

Before we get into the rules though, let’s talk about my house so we can have something to which we can apply these rules. I live in a stately old turn-of-the-century house with its requisite small kitchen. IÕm talkin’ “not even enough room for a table” small kitchen. In those days, the families had servants who cooked and served dinner in the separate dining area. Kitchens were meant as staging areas for the real show in the other room. Well, times have certainly changed and I’m not holding my breath for a home culinary staff any time soon. We remodeled to maximize the kitchen space but it is still meager (or as we like to refer to it - unpretentious). Anyway, my point is that even though it’s small, I have learned that my kitchen had better be efficient and a comfortable place for my family and friends because this area will continue to experience high levels of concentrated “living”. It will remain “all-purpose.” From a venue for homework to a complex clearinghouse for every piece of paper that enters our home to a functioning appetizer bar to its intended purpose as a venue for preparing food.

To find some guidelines, I consulted the ancient Chinese philosophy of feng shui which believes that the positioning and physical characteristics of a home affect the fortunes of the owner. Whereas tai chi and acupuncture modify and balance chi (or “life force”) within the body, feng shui balances the chi in one’s surroundings. It is a complex practice grounded in thousands of years of thought processing by those much smarter than myself. The result is a set of guiding principles that are applied differently by each practitioner to each unique home and the unique people living in it. Let’s take a look at these guidelines and see how and if we can apply them to our modern American kitchens, including mine. Here we go.

According to feng shui the kitchen comes first and represents nourishment and prosperity. They (whoever “They” are) say that how you design and decorate your kitchen can influence your health and success. Well, we’ll see about that.

The first guiding principle of feng shui involves “kitchen placement”. Ideally the kitchen should be in the back of the home, at least behind the centerline of the house. It is optimal that you don’t see the kitchen upon entering the house. I can’t think of too many homes that don’t fit this guideline so I’d say we’re doing a pretty good job in the home design department in this country. However, I can see that I’m in big trouble because I actually cut a hole in the wall between the dining room and kitchen so that I COULD see my guests coming in the front door and to create the feel of a larger more open space. Silly me to think family and guests might actually like the feeling of immediately catching the look, feel and smells coming from the kitchen. Strike One! And 30 lashes with a wet Chinese egg noodle to me for wanting to feel like I’m part of the dinner party in the other room if I find myself putting the final touches on dessert in the kitchen. (And I thought I was being so clever in designing the perfect method for getting dishware and platters of food back and forth from the kitchen to the dining room?)

Apparently if your guests can see the kitchen when they come in the door, this can portend digestive, nutritional and eating problems. Hey! My cooking is not THAT bad. I usually like to give my guests the opportunity to actually eat my food first before they make that kind of judgment. Or perhaps “They” mean that if your guests walk in the door and catch a glimpse of your “lived in”kitchen they won’t want to eat anything that is prepared there. Ok, part of me agrees with this philosophy but part of me doesn’t and here’s why. I’d like to think that if someone entered my house to the site of a milk carton and a half-eaten bowl of Cheerios left on the counter from breakfast, they might just think that real, live human beings actually lived there. And further, I would submit that they might just feel a little more relaxed upon seeing this kind of faux pas and enjoy themselves in my home even more.

Feng shui principles say that having the kitchen at the entry point can also mean that guests will come over and eat and then leave immediately. Now, I can think of several specific examples of why I don’t think this is such a bad thing to have happen. But I will admit that for the most part I wouldn’t want my guests to feel like they should leave right after dinner. Further, the kitchen placement at the front of the house is said to encourage the inhabitants to eat all the time. Oh, so that’s why that happens! Well, I guess you can’t buck thousands of years of discernment and wisdom. I think I’ll have a cookie.

Let’s move on to the kitchen itself. Feng shui practitioners will tell you that it is very important for the cook to be in a “commanding position” when at the stove. Now I truly don’t want to sound like a smart alec because being in the culinary business myself I do appreciate this guideline for many reasons. But I do have to admit that this rule immediately spoke to me in a different way. I’m thinking that it’s about time the home cook received some props. I’m seeing a hook on the wall next to the stove on which is hung some sort of imperious military hat for the cook to wear while “commanding” at the stove. “Bring me my glass of wine you scurvy-ridden contemptible deck hand!” Hey, I’m liking this feng shui stuff better all the time. All hail the commander! Seriously.

Your kitchen is vital to your success and wealth according to the ancient philosophy. It should be clean, clutter free, exude abundance and have wealthy characteristics. Apparently bowls of fresh fruit on tables and counters give the illusion of wealth. One practitioner suggested that if you aren’t sure what wealth looks or feels like, visit a posh hotel and bring that feeling into your home. I can understand the philosophy behind this one. That’s why people pore over design magazines and visit beautiful placesÉto be inspired. However, maybe I’m crazy but it seems to me if you don’t know what wealth looks like, no amount of fat apples in a bowl is going to help your sorry derriere. But that’s just me. This author went on to suggest that a simple way to exude abundance in your kitchen is by pouring milk and juice from crystal pitchers instead of plastic juice containers. Right. Like that’ll happen in my house. Finally the author suggests that if I listen to my intuition it knows the way to success and wealth. Now she’s talkin’. My intuition tells me to make reservations at a posh hotel so I can get the heck away from my ill-positioned, non-abundant kitchen.

A popular trend that is supported by feng shui principles is the concept of “group cooking”. Picture the movie “The Big Chill” and its rousing dinner preparation scenes in the kitchen and you’ll understand what I mean. Instead of isolating the cook, families and guests can gather in the kitchen to participate in the meal preparation. Couples can also use dinner preparation as an important time to relax and unwind together after a busy day. But whatever you do, just don’t look at the doorway - or something like that.

Laura O’Rourke is the owner of The Culinary Center of Kansas City in Overland Park, Kansas (913-341-4455) and does, in fact, recognize the legitimacy of feng shui principles. She just likes to have fun with things sometimes. You can reach Laura at cook@kcculinary.com