The award-winning chef discusses the kitchen qualities that he prizes in his restaurant and at home.
By Dianne M. Pogoda
Home and restaurant kitchens may differ in the volume of food produced in a single day and in the number of people working at any given time, but they share some important common qualities — among them, good flow and efficiency.
Award-winning Miele Chef Partner Kyle Connaughton and his wife, Katina Connaughton, own Single Thread, which comprises a 3 Michelin Star restaurant — the highest possible ranking — a luxurious five-room inn, which has earned three Michelin Keys (a new distinction started this year), and a biodynamic farm in the heart of California’s Sonoma Wine Country. Their journey began when they bought their five-acre farm in 2014, and soon after, moved to their current 24-acre property in Healdsburg, CA. They cultivated the farm for two years while developing a menu and preparing the inn for guests, and opened the restaurant in 2016. The farm supplies the produce and flowers for the restaurant and inn and also supplies other local restaurants through a robust Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program.
He runs the restaurant, while she is Head Farmer and runs the farm. The restaurant serves Japanese-inspired farm-to-table meals, based on the couple’s extended stays in Japan and Kyle’s experience in numerous Japanese restaurants. His favorite thing to prepare at the restaurant is “Anything my wife grows on her farm! Our menu is always changing, but I do look forward to the over 30 varieties of tomatoes my wife grows on her farm each year. We really celebrate them when they start to come in.”
At home, he says, “We love to cook Japanese hot pots — it reminds us of our time living in Japan, and it’s a type of dish that everyone shares in the experience. It’s a very soulful and communal style of eating and sharing food.” He also loves to cook donburi rice bowls — “Everything tastes delicious, piled over a bowl of freshly steamed rice,” adding, “We don’t have much takeout in Wine Country, but one type of takeout I do love is good Thai food. I strive to cook better Thai food, but absolutely love to enjoy it made for me!”
Kyle and Katina designed their home kitchen with Miele appliances for performance, efficiency, and beautiful design. He considers good flow to be the most essential element in any kitchen. “There are so many essential tools and appliances but good flow in how things function in your kitchen is a must,” Kyle explains. “If the ergonomics aren’t right, it’s hard to overcome that, no matter how good your tools are.”
For Kyle, though, the biggest luxury in the kitchen is always time. “Having well-made and highly functional tools that allow me to enjoy my time cooking and time with my family and guests, there’s really nothing more important than that.”
He discussed some key points in kitchen design that elevate the home-chef experience.
1. As a professional chef, what’s the most important design element to incorporate in your kitchen?
In a restaurant kitchen, it’s good flow…Having chefs move around and have everything they need, where they need it, is essential to creating harmony in the kitchen where everyone is in their flow state. In my kitchen at home, we designed it to work with the same harmony and flow of a restaurant kitchen — but thinking more about how I would interact with my family and guests. We were sure to place all the tools and appliances in areas where they could be easily reached while staying engaged in the conversation as we are cooking and preparing. When entertaining, it’s great to be able to both cook and be part of the conversation, so we designed our kitchen with that in mind.
2. Are your home and restaurant kitchens very different?
It’s funny because we designed the Miele kitchen in our home to flow just like a restaurant kitchen. I suppose as a chef, that’s the way we think — having a nice circular flow, clean lines, and designated spaces between cooking and cleaning. We thought quite a bit about how we would move in the space, but also how guests would experience it as well.
3. Most home kitchens do not have the luxury of space that’s typical in most restaurant kitchens. What can a designer do, from a chef’s point of view, to maximize space?
Actually, in restaurant kitchens, while they are big, every inch needs to be considered in terms of its function, storage, and use. The number of chefs needing to work in the space and the number of courses and amount of food being prepared is quite high. In a home kitchen, it’s more about creating an environment in which you can be really comfortable cooking, with everything within reach. As chefs and home cooks, we often appreciate the ability to easily reach everything in the flow of cooking, and the efficient use of space is key, no matter what the size of the kitchen.
4. How do appliances contribute to elevated cooking that can make a home cook a better chef?
Great appliances are essential to great cooking. Not only do the Miele appliances work efficiently, but they also work precisely to ensure that dishes are at their best, no matter how simple or complex. We designed our home at the farm using all Miele appliances, and we rely on them for everything we do. I always say that Miele appliances are designed for people who love to cook and love to cook well. From the MasterCool refrigerator’s ability to keep different types of ingredients at the optimum temperature and freshness, to the Combi-Steam Oven’s accuracy and precision of temperature and humidity, to the induction cooktop’s efficiency and speed, everything is optimized to prepare better food. As a chef cooking and moving through lots of steps in dishes, having such intuitive controls and reliability is essential. And then, while we appreciate all of these things on the technical side, you also can’t forget about just the feeling of cooking among beautifully designed and presented spaces. Good cooking is about achieving a flow state, and for me, a Miele kitchen is designed to make cooking enjoyable. While I cook all day in the restaurant, I still take so much pleasure cooking at home for my family and friends.
5. Anything else you want us to know about your home kitchen’s design?
We actually even considered things like the sun throughout the day and the light in the kitchen, how things would look and feel, and the proximity to the dining area from areas of the kitchen to create a bit of “theater” when cooking for friends and entertaining. I guess you can take the chef out of the restaurant, but our love for taking care of guests spills over into every aspect of our life.
Learn more about Chef Kyle Connaughton and Single Thread here, and Miele’s luxury appliances here.
