I was a guest chef at Ikea Supper Club in Stockholm
Imagine showing up at an undisclosed location, sitting with undisclosed guests, and eating undisclosed food. I may skydive and snowboard, but I dare not be that adventurous. This phenomenon, however, is the supper club concept, which has recently become popular in Sweden.The supper club gives people a chance to socialize, often with those they don’t know well (if at all) in a casual, vibrant atmosphere. The venue could be a restaurant; someone’s private home; or, in this particular case, a random urban flat in the center of Stockholm.This supper club had been in the making for several months, but my being the guest chef wasn’t publicly announced until I’d set foot in Stockholm. I worked with Ikea Sweden (which, in Sweden, they pronounce with a short "i" sound rather than our American English long "i") to design my ideal kitchen; I wanted a kitchen that had lots of storage space, was intuitive to organize, and aesthetically pleasing. (Yes, even vision impaired people care about appearances!) Ikea Sweden did an amazing job with this kitchen, and I was able to host dinner for two evenings, twelve guests per seating, without a hitch.
A neat and well organized kitchen is important to any chef, but it is an absolute must for a chef who has to cook without sight.
My personal kitchen at home is far from perfect or ideal. Whenever press/media or film crews come into my house, they always make remarks about my kitchen: “So this is where the magic happens, eh? It’s much smaller than I’d expected.”No, I do not have a five hundred square-foot kitchen. I don’t have a Subzero refrigerator, nor a PolyScience chamber vacuum (yet!), nor even a Boos block. I have a tiny kitchen with very little storage space. My pots and pans are stacked on top of each other inside a hard-to-reach cabinet. My drawers have microplanes, thermometers, measuring cups and spoons strewn about. Oh, how I wish I could’ve tucked that Ikea kitchen away in my carry-on and taken it back to Houston with me. Perhaps the hubs will now have some DIY projects in queue.Sighted or not, what would be your ideal kitchen? Do you have any handy tips for kitchen organization?Stay tuned for my upcoming posts about Stockholm, from things we ate, to sites we visited, to more stuff about the Supper Club!