Martha Stewart had the lovely Kristin Chenoweth (co-star in the new movie RV) on her show last week. Martha usually asks her guests to help cook, bake, garden or do crafts. On this particular show, she and Kristin made Pink Grapefruit Sandwich Cookies.
Kristin is a petite person and she needed an apple box to stand on to reach the worktable. I was amused as she moved around the apple box with her as she helped Martha bake. “Kitchens are not built for short people,” she said.
I can only agree.
I am also a petite person and I keep a step stool in a corner of our kitchen. This blue Rubbermaid product has been a permanent fixture in our kitchen. The kids use it to reach the sink when they wash the dishes. But I am the one who uses it the most.I use it when I put away food and dishes in the cupboards. I use it when I need to get same food and dishes from the cupboards. I use it to open the window in the morning. I use it to close the window and draw the blinds down at night. I use it when I cook pancit (fried noodles) in the large wok or when I boil pasta in the deep pots. I use it when I mix ingredients for cookies. I use it because I am a short person and kitchens are not built for short people.
The other night, I googled Kristin Chenoweth and found out that she is also a Broadway star and a Tony winner. I also learned that when she was twelve, she performed a song called, “I’m Four-Foot Eleven and I’m Going to Heaven.” That is a title that's also appropriate for me (I hope the last part, too). Now, if I could only find the lyrics of that song.
10 comments:
Haha... how apt! I'm facing this problem as I'm renovating our home and seriously considering lowering the kitchen tabletop and the dish storage-cum-drainage cabinet for my convenience.
I don't usually need the stool in the kitchen, unless I need to reach for stuff at the top of the cabinet. Being the lazy me, I would climb up onto the countertop to reach the top... haha. It reminds me of climbing up trees when I was a kid. I love "monkeying" around sometimes.
Ha ha, the woes of us short people. You know what Ange, I also climb up onto the countertop, and I still need my stool to do that. DR, won't your kitchen look like a playhouse if the tabletops were low? :)
Haha! I have that footstool too... very useful around the house. When I'm too lazy though, I just ask hubby to hand me things from the top cupboards. :)
Your post reminds me of two things:
1) Alan Watts, a scholar and proponent of Zen philosophy in the States, once argued that the kitchen ought to be be deemed the most important room in the house since our nourishments/meals are prepared in there.
2) I believe it was in Discovery Channel where they featured a culinary school in China which requires their applicants to be of a certain height so as to be physically comfortable with the height of the work tables, sinks, stoves, and etc.
the woes of short people! i am beginning to believe that height is an advantage.
I remember seeing GMA during her meeting with the cabinet members. She has this special presidential chair, a little bit higher than a normal one.
Bing, I think height and the lack thereof both have their own advantages and disadvantages. Right, Toe? ;)
So you see, Eric? That requirement in that Chinese school just proves that kitchens are indeed not built for short people. :)
The president has a custom-made chair, Ann?
Yes! I can't remember the title of the show but it was featured in tfc.
Just browsing the internet, very interesting website.
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