Eaten up with kitchen envy? Don't be, says Edel Morgan
KITCHEN envy is a common and insidious condition. It doesn't matter how much you spend on that slick, designer cutting-edge fitted kitchen with the pull out panniers and pop-up recycling bins, it's only a matter of time - and I mean months rather than years at the speed at which manufacturers come up with the latest labour and space saving ideas - before there's a bells and whistles version on the market and yours is left looking like a bit of an old relic.
The same goes for appliances; you might think you're a cut above with your self-cleaning double oven and double-sink but somewhere in a kitchen near you someone is having a three-bowl sink or a supersonic convection cooker installed or a range so big your cooker looks like it belongs to a family of hobbits.
It's a no win situation and for those of us who can't afford to replace the kitchen every few years or afford the latest in labour-saving appliances, the only recourse is to be slightly disparaging about anyone with a better set-up. And it's not a new phenomenon. It was even worse in the old days when Irish households were fairly rudimentary in design and there was a very limited choice of appliances compared to some countries abroad. An archive article from July 13th, 1957 in the Irish Times Digital Archive - interestingly, by male journalist John J Dunne - was more than a little disparaging about American middle class women and their swish kitchens full of labour saving devices that freed up their time to have far more colourful social lives than their European counterparts.
Under the heading "Mrs America" he says the average American housewife is surrounded by gagets and not tied "as securely to her kitchen as her European counterpart and she is helped considerably by the highly developed mechanics of her kitchen where labour saving devices have been brought to a fine art." Mrs America has the latest thing in gas or electric cookers and "the refrigerator is as much a part of the American kitchen as the window or door and the kitchen sink is "an elaborate affair that demands the minimum of cleaning". So far, so informative until he mentions the "comparatively small preparation that goes into the average American meal does not mean that it is not an elaborate spectacle when it appears in its finished state on the family table."
Well Miaow!!! The result of all these labour saving devices is that she has "a great deal of leisure time: "No matter what she is about, she apparently likes to dress for the occasion and she does not consider any day perfect that does not demand three or four changes of wardrobe." Putting the boot in further he says "She is an animated talker though not always a good conversationalist," and frequently seeks "a social outlet that will take away from her husband and indeed, from all male company."
In another archive article from October 15th, 1921, a Mrs Oliver Strachey, speaking at the National Council of Women in Sheffield, pleads for an abundance of well-designed cupboard space in kitchens . The journalist who attended the meeting asks "What Dublin housewife does not hail her suggestion with enthusiasm? She has to cope with a home entirely devoid of these essentials." This time around Irishwomen are apparently "filled with envy" at "her Scots sister, in whose house many useful cupboards are always to be found".
Maybe after reading what Irishwomen had to put up with years ago, instead of kitchen envyI'll start practising some kitchen gratitude.
