There are some things a kitchen cannot go without. Since the first area was set aside just for cooking, there have been essential kitchen implements without which there would be no reason for having a kitchen at all. What are they?
First think about your kitchen and what you consider to be essential. First on your list would probably be a stove. You absolutely need your gas or electric stove, don’t you? It’s not likely that the first kitchens had access to either gas or electricity, so you can eliminate those from your list of essential items. However, cooking is an essential part of preparing meals, and as soon as man replaced foraging for food with hunting and gathering, he needed a way to cook food.
Your kitchen does need something that cooks, so you’re half right on that one. What would be number two on your list? You probably immediately think of the refrigerator. A quick look, though, will tell you that it’s not as high on the list of priorities as you might think. You can always buy your food fresh daily and survive quite well.
You can live without a dishwasher, but what about the kitchen sink? That’s got to be a necessity, hasn’t it? If you suddenly found yourself without water in the kitchen, you could get by if you went outside and fetched water and washed your dishes elsewhere.
Now that we have stripped away some of the non-essentials, let’s take a look at what is absolutely necessary for preparing food for cooking. We need vessels to hold the food in and cook it in. You need a way to make the food hot. The other thing you simply cannot do without is a knife. A knife set would be preferable, but you can’t prepare food for cooking and eating without a knife for cutting.
Out of necessity, the first kitchens had only a roof. They needed all the ventilation they could get because of the smoke created by the cooking fire. The first luxury those early kitchens had was most likely a knife block set, to make access to the knives easier. Having lots of knives to work with would have been a big time saver.
Over time, kitchens became more and more elaborate. Benches were added so that food could be cut up and cooked standing up. An area was set aside for water, for convenience. The last thing to be added to the kitchen was no doubt the icebox and that was probably only for royal kitchens, at least at first.
We must have some sort of collective memory of what the original kitchen was like, because even today, one’s collection of knives is a sign of a well-equipped kitchen. A good Wusthof knife set gets pride of place in the modern kitchen. Having one says that this kitchen prepares fine food.
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