The Prosumer Kitchen

Television these days is full of cooking shows. On channels like the Food Network, it is all cooking, all the time. This trend has bred a new kind of celebrity – the celebrity chef – and the popularity of cooking shows is at a fever pitch because of it. These celebrity chefs have helped create a renewed interest and focus on cooking and the kitchen, and people everywhere are scrambling to buy their branded cookware and remodel their kitchens to more closely resemble the professional kitchens of those celebrity chefs on TV.

And why not? Those kitchens on TV are GREAT! But in actual practice, it is not always practical to have a huge professional range or a walk-in freezer in your 2 bedroom ranch house or 3rd floor walk-up. The good news is that you can find a happy medium that lets you get in on the action without creating a full scale restaurant grade kitchen in your own home. Enter the "prosumer" kitchen.

The name "prosumer" is a combination of "professional" and "consumer," making a prosumer kitchen a professional grade kitchen that is actually practical to have in the home. In a prosumer kitchen, you may find high heat ranges, large capacity freezers, large capacity refrigerators, bigger ovens, and more. The difference is that, unlike actual professional kitchen equipment, the prosumer equipment does not usually require that you make all of the extra fire safety and prevention modifications to your actual kitchen that true commercial equipment would require.

For example, you could not take the local Italian eatery's pizza oven and put it in your own kitchen without getting it away from any wood cabinetry and having a fire suppression hood installed. With a prosumer kitchen oven, however, you can get nearly the same results without those costly modifications.

The prosumer trend extends to the visual aesthetics of your kitchen, as well. You can find stainless steel and other metal finishes at nearly all appliance price points nowadays, reflecting the public's favor towards the styles they see in the professional and commercial kitchens of the world. If you are planning a bit of a prosumer kitchen makeover of your own, those metal finished appliances are a great place to start, even if you do not have room for a large capacity fridge in your kitchen. Smaller refrigerators nowadays still offer the metal finishes, as well as other handy trappings that up the functionality, like sliding drawer freezers, and special space saving racks built into the doors.

During your prosumer makeover, you should not only focus on the appliances, though. Little finishing touches, like great window treatments and sleek dishware really help you get the feel of a professional kitchen right there in your own home. When you swap out your cabinet handles for ones that have metal finishes similar to your new appliances, then things look even more pulled together – try oil rubbed bronze cabinet pulls and other oil rubbed bronze cabinet hardware for a warm, yet modern look, and don 't forget the locksets and door knobs while you're at it!

If you are a fan of the celebrity chef, and the cooking shows are constantly on your TV screen, there is no doubt that you will be one of the many people out there that enjoy a prosumer kitchen. It's the perfect way to get a high functioning, professional level kitchen that looks great without having to go the whole commercial route.