What makes a good kitchen, in terms of function and design?

The design of the kitchen is rooted in function, everything else comes a close second. When designing it, I knew I wanted to see most of my ingredients and equipment, it’s essential to how I would develop recipes. Ingredients remind me of flavour and texture. Equipment recalls technique. When I need inspiration, I want the kitchen itself to jog memories of things I've cooked before and processes I’ve picked up. The limited size forced me to build upwards, with racks, shelving, and storage hooks to keep everything organised and within my eye-line.

My colour choices softened and brought fun to what is otherwise a very functional space. Function alone doesn't always make a space you actually want to work in: some fixtures went off to be powder coated red and yellow, and the frames were painted a cherry colour I was obsessed with the moment I saw it. I wanted the whole kitchen tiled (mainly to make it easy to clean) but went with blue grout rather than white. Too many memories of scrubbing white grout in professional kitchens. I also tracked down a vinyl company who'd do the safety flooring (I used to like the feel in commercial kitchens), but bright yellow.

You mentioned in your bacon sandwich video that you love things that are slow and inefficient, is slowing down important to you in the kitchen?

Slowing down isn't really the goal, if anything, it's the opposite. I want a kitchen I can move fast in. That shaped the layout: my seasoning tray sits within reach of both the prep and cooking areas, and I wanted a big sink with a waste disposal I could scrape waste into straight from the counter.

That speed is what buys me the slowness elsewhere. It means I can use the time I’ve bought to make something like a bacon sandwich or smoked salmon from scratch. Those are the projects where I learn the most through developing them for weeks, which is the goal for me. Knowing the kitchen itself isn't the limiting factor is a freeing experience.

Do you feel your methods, in both content creation and cooking, are unconventional?

I think what I do is fairly conventional, or was, at some point. I’m just bringing people into the process and talking through what I'm doing and why. I think the things that read a bit unconventional are more a personality thing than anything strategic. I don't think I could keep up a polished chef bro persona for very long, even if I tried.