When it comes to designing a kitchen fit for some serious cooking, the real professionals are the chefs and cooks who call food their business. Practical storage, plenty of bench space, and kitchen islands designed to draw others to the cooking hub are all high on the list for seven top cooks and chefs.
Take a peek into Karen Martini’s spacious contemporary kitchen designed for entertaining, Matt Moran’s Sydney architectural home where the kitchen is very much at the heart, Khahn Ong’s restrained cook’s nook where simplicity reigns, a dreamy Paris kitchen owned by a pastry chef with an eye for antique finds, Palisa Anderson’s Byron Bay bungalow featuring salvaged hardwood, Adam Liaw’s covetable kitchen where the family can come together with ease, and more.
HOW TO CREATE A CHIC KITCHEN USING SECONDHAND FINDS
Palisa Anderson can often be found haunting auction houses, and her beautiful finds are on display in her home kitchen in Byron Bay. The teak slabs that form the tabletop, the kitchen chairs (all are different) and cushions are all auction buys. “We bought the tie dye cushions at auction: 16 cushions for about $50,” she says.
DESIGN INSPIRATION FROM CHEFS’ OWN HOME KITCHENS
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ADAM LIAW, CHEF AND TV PERSONALITY, NSW
Adam Liaw – lawyer-turned-chef, MasterChef winner, author, TV presenter and even podcast host – did a small renovation to his Sydney home when they first bought it. “It wasn’t a bad kitchen, it just wasn’t exactly the way I like it – I’m a bit particular with that kind of thing.” With a double height ceiling, beautiful finishes and carefully selected features, the kitchen, naturally, lies at the heart of the home. By shortening the kitchen island, Adam and wife Asami made room for a dining table at the end (pictured here with daughter Anna in her clip-on high chair.
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Adam’s kitchen features a modular stove to allow him to enjoy the best of both induction and gas, plus an eat-in dining table. The table itself is a thing of beauty – a solid slab of timber with ‘live’ edges and an uneven finish that offers an organic softness to contrast with the hard surfaces of the kitchen.
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KHAHN ONG, COOK, TV PRESENTER, AUTHOR, VIC
Two-time MasterChef and Survivor alum, Khahn Ong, says he loves his kitchen. The simple, open-plan room features a stone island, wide pale oak floorboards, and elegant matte oyster grey cabinet doors that don’t steal the show. There’s a bonus to it being a more restrained space, says Khahn. “It’s smaller than my past ones, but it’s just made me more organised. I have to really think about what I need when I cook, which means more efficiency and creativity.”
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Khahn’s chic kitchen is able to showcase a few items he loves and uses regularly, such as his pop-star-name engraved knives, which he displays on a magnet knife bar. He loves his kitchen, but admits his dream kitchen would be an indoor/outdoor space. “I would love to be able to cook over coals, and have a wok burner and cook ingredients that I’ve grown myself, which means I’ll probably have to think about moving further out [of the city] sometime in the near future.”
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PALISA ANDERSON, CHEF AND RESTAURANTEUR, NSW
Chat Thai restaurant owner Palisa Anderson enlisted interior designer Genine Noakes to help transform her Byron Bay bungalow on a tight budget, and using as much salvaged material as possible. In the kitchen, old timber fences were repurposed to front cabinets and the extractor hood, and floor tiles were stripped back to reveal concrete that was then polished. “The renovation didn’t change the footprint of the house,” says Palisa, “but it did expand the kitchen into the living area to accommodate our lifestyle of cooking and entertaining.”
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In Palisa’s Byron Bay home, furniture is a mix of investment pieces, affordable items from IKEA, West Elm and Pottery Barn, and the handmade. Fencing posts were used to clad the original kitchen. Storage was a must (Palisa also collects ceramics) as well as a large sink, sturdy cooking element and commercial oven. “Bench space is incredibly valuable to prep on, and when that runs out we spill onto the kitchen table, where often I enlist guests to help shell peas or some such job,” she says.
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KAREN MARTINI, MEDIA PERSONALITY, COOK AND AUTHOR, VIC
Author, chef, food writer and TV presenter: Karen Martini has a kitchen to match her admirable achievements in the food industry. There are four (yes, four) customised ovens, slideable track lighting and plenty of storage. “When we were designing the kitchen we decided that we didn’t want any above-bench shelving, so the line of the kitchen was all waist height and below,” she says.
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Karen Martini has three dishwashers in her kitchen. “A large Siemens dishwasher for all the heavy-duty pots and pans, and then two Fisher & Paykels with drawers that are going constantly. We talked about having one of those whiz-bang amazing glass washers that do a 90-second wash,” says Karen.
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MATT MORAN, CHEF AND TV PERSONALITY, NSW
Matt Moran is a cook first and foremost – his chef and restauranteur roles follow close behind – and so it makes sense that his kitchen is the heart of his home. Taking centre stage in the Tzannes-designed three-level property he shares with his family, Matt’s kitchen carries all the hallmarks of its owner’s trade. There’s a massive concrete island that was poured and formed on site, a commercial extraction system; vast stainless-steel work benches; four ovens; a formidable Lacanche five-burner stovetop; and – wait for it – a purpose-built two-metre by three-metre coolroom. “I often come home at night with boxes of food and, rather than unpack them, I put them straight in there and worry about them the next day,” he says.
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The 4.5 metre concrete bench in Matt Moran’s kitchen is the centre of his home in Sydney’s Eastern suburbs. It’s where he films the YouTube cooking series Kitchen Tales with Matt Moran and it’s where his family and friends come together. “When we’re entertaining, there are four or five people hanging around that front bench and watching me cook, or helping me out a bit – I have a lot of chef friends that come over – so I’m still part of the entertainment, which is really important,” says the chef.
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JACKIE KAI ELLIS, PASTRY CHEF, AUTHOR AND DESIGNER, PARIS
Jackie Kai Ellis, is founder of design consultancy studio APT La Fayette and the owner of this sublime Haussmann-style apartment. Jackie was a creative director at her own design firm when she left to pursue her dreams and study pastry in Paris. “I blossomed there, I found my place in the world,” Jackie says. Her kitchen features French brands including Margot tapware and a Lacanche oven. She invested in Mauviel cookware and collected the crystal glasses at Paris flea markets. The cabinets are prefabricated. “I wasn’t so concerned with adhering to a certain style or era, I just wanted to surround myself with things that gave me joy to look at.” Jackie loves visiting flea markets and vintage forums to find items with history and describes her style as a balance of old and new; classic with cheeky twists.
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The entire space in Jackie’s Paris apartment was redesigned in five months, “except for the architectural details that I originally fell in love with”, she says of the chevron hardwood floors, rose-shaped mouldings and marble mantles. Furnishing her two-bedroom home took more time. “I wasn’t in a rush, which is why I had many dinner parties on the floor,” she says.
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ANNIE SMITHERS, CHEF, VIC
Du Fermier chef Annie Smithers tends to a huge country garden and family of farm animals close to her restaurant in Central Victoria. Settled by Richard Babbington in 1846, the country property is today home to a three-bedroom cottage (built in 1910), a 140-year-old shearing shed and a restored old church. It’s within this church that Annie runs her wildly popular cooking masterclasses.
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Copper pots hang in the kitchen pantry and laundry. Annie and partner Susan also grow their own produce on the property. “We have heritage tomatoes, beans, carrots, witlof, eggplant, peppers, chilies, chard… At first we weren’t sure what we could grow in this soil but we have this legendary potato soil a metre deep!” says Annie. Her book, Recipe for a Kinder Life, sets out to help readers reconnect with the land.
WriterKate Gibbs
Kate is a food, style and travel writer and editor based in Sydney. Her work and wanderlust centres around a restless drive to explore and tell remarkable stories, whether she's covering new ideas in global food, style and travel or the best way to clean a cast iron pan.
