Here’s my new kitchen space. It’s on a boat.
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- Опубликовано: 15 май 2024
- Here’s a brief tour of my new work kitchen. For the next couple of weeks most of my content will be about setting up this kitchen to really work for me.
I think you’ll enjoy it. The kitchen is small but very functional, and I hope showing you how I organize and work in it may help you make your own kitchens more enjoyable spaces to work in.
There’s also a very large outdoor space I’ll be setting up to work in, so stay tuned for that.
Also, it’s on a boat. (really)
I’d like to try and put together a small team this year. Just some folks to help me with some of the parts of my job I don’t love and am not particularly good at (shooting and editing video, staying on top of regular posts across all platforms, etc.) and can bring some passion and fresh perspective. I’d really love to be able to focus on editorial this year. 
Хобби
I'm glad he mentioned at the end that he has the boat because he wanted a separate place to cook. I was worried he got divorced and was starting a midlife crisis. Very glad I was wrong.
lol same
Same!
Err, this comment isn't going to age well.
There is a rift happening. He paused and had an inflection in his voice when he mentioned that at the end. Why wouldn’t he just get a commercial kitchen if he wanted cooking space?
@@kimtae858 yeah I just remembered this, and after more thought I think you might be right. I hope not though . . . :(
Kitchen studio on a house boat is extreme levels of seattle
I love the irony that the relatable kitchen is the one in the house boat
Don’t we all have second homes on lakes?
@@clippertalk What? You don't have mid 7 figures to spend on a house?
Arent house boats on the cheaper side?
Yes guys, the man with 1.5 million subs has some income we don't, why are we upset he is trying to improve content that we watch for free?
Just to clarify I'm not hating, kenji obviously deserves success for his hard work. This detail was just funny to me
Most men build a man cave or a home gym as their little sanctuary. Our boy Kenji builds a cooking boat🤣. Living the dream!
Can I make a (related) video request?
As you're setting up a kitchen... how do you set up a kitchen so that it's easy to use? So that everything flows as you're getting ready. Like mise en place *before* mise en place.
For example, how do you set up a spice cabinet so that you can easily find and access everything you need? How do you store pans and bowls so that you don't have to take 10 to get the largest and risk a cabinet o'things falling down? How do you make it so you can easily find That One Relevant Spatula but it's not in the way otherwise? And how can you do this without having infinite space or resorting to storing a bunch of stuff in the oven!
And I'm sure the answers to these are pretty obvious to an expert trained chef who cooks all the time like you, but for someone less experienced like me it can be a huge obstacle knowing that it takes a half hour to even get to the point to start prep to get to the point where you can start cooking. And I've seen other people's kitchens, so I know it's not *just* me and my parents, but... I've never even seen anyone talk about it! It just never gets recorded!
So yeah, maybe I'm a logistics weirdo, but I'd really appreciate a video talking about this, and I think other people would too!
I second this motion! Some details are going to vary depending on the person, but even having a framework for organization and ergonomics would be greatly appreciated!
Thirded!
I'm not Kenji, but I've had to make a variety of kitchen spaces work for me, and also sometimes work as a shared space (like with roommates and so on) and I have one tip about spices and one about stuff in general:
Spices. Choose an organization system that makes sense TO YOU. Like yes, alphabetical is very nice, but if you frequently use a set of spices at the same time, are they all near each other when it's alphabetical, or do you have to pick through the alphabet each time to get them all out? So for a specific example, my spices are in several 'groups' and alphabetical within those groups. The groups are:
Last minute blends - stuff you basically throw on right at the end of cooking to perk something up a bit or that you might add to a frozen meal - like Penzey's Fines Herbs which I just sprinkle on buttered vegetables, their frozen pizza blend and pasta sprinkle which you just shake on as a finish, etc. Salad dressing mixes also go here.
Cooking blends - Stuff you might mix into a marinade or a dry rub before cooking. EXCEPTION for Mexican and Indian specific blends, which we will get to.
Baking spices - Stuff I really only use when baking. Vanilla extract, pie spice, that sort of thing. (I enjoy baking so I have a bunch of odds and ends like dried citrus peel.)
Mexican - All the stuff that I reach for frequently when making Mexican, because we eat a lot of it. Cumin, dried chilis of various types, taco seasoning blend, etc.
Indian - Like Mexican, but for Indian spices and blends.
Everything else - If it isn't a blend and is something that I reach for when I'm just doing whatever, it goes here. Allspice isn't strictly a baking spice for me, so it's here. Also garlic powder, freeze dried chives (not as good as fresh, but acceptable in eggs), etc.
I *do* have duplicates in some of these groups - like cumin is used in both Mexican and Indian, so I have a 1/4 cup jar in each group. (If you have duplicates keep them small enough that they're not going to get old before being used up. I split a normal sized jar between the small ones instead of having a larger jar in each place.)
Right now I have YouTopia spice drawer thingies that are meant to go in a cabinet (I just have them sitting on my counter in a corner) so each 'group' is basically a drawer, but in the past I've used a basket per group, or a section of a spice rack, or a section of a kitchen drawer, whatever works for your space. The goal is just to make your life easier when you're cooking by having everything easy to grab and easy to put away. (I apply the same concept to pantry ingredients - Mexican specific stuff is together, Indian-specific stuff is together, etc. I don't cook a lot of any one particular asian cuisine so all the asian stuff is together because that's still a manageable number of items in total to look through if I need to pull out stuff for Thai or Chinese, etc.)
General stuff: Biggest thing. Remember that stuff DOES NOT NEED TO BE STORED IN THE KITCHEN. Obviously you do not want to chase all over the house for a pan that you use daily, but if every time you go to get out the one mixing bowl you use frequently you have to juggle a bunch you only use a couple times a year when hosting a big group, do those extras need to be in your way all the time? Basically for me, anything that requires extra planning anyway (party, big holiday meal, intense cookie baking session, complicated pastry) is a candidate for eviction to somewhere else.
I normally cook for only 3 people, so most of my larger pans and trays live on a shelf in the basement where they aren't hard to find, but aren't in the way daily. Exception is the one huge cast iron pot I have that I use when I'm making a large batch of something like pasta sauce or chili to freeze, because I do that every couple of weeks and it'd be annoying to drag the pot out every time.
I think the most important thing for this method is having your secondary storage still be somewhat sensible - you don't want to end up with stuff tucked all over so you have to go on a scavenger hunt, you want to be able to find things. That said, you can apply the grouping concept here, too, if you don't have any one large secondary space for storage - extra stuff for baking can go in one place, extra stuff for holiday dinners can go somewhere else, that sort of thing. (Note that I do exactly this in our RV, which has a tiny kitchen - anything that is used 95% of the time when we grill outside lives in an outside bin with the grill. I very occasionally bake in the RV so all the baking stuff is in a smallish plastic tub that lives under the bed to be gotten out only when needed, etc.)
Finally, if you're super overwhelmed by your current kitchen and don't even know where to start, a drastic option is just - take everything out. Unless it needs to be in the kitchen for food safety reasons (like fridge and freezer stuff) remove it to another nearby room. (You'll end up taking over your dining room or living room or something, but this is temporary for a couple of weeks.) Now go about your normal cooking and eating habits, and every time you fetch something to use, when it's time to put it away, that is when you stop and think about where it makes sense for it to be. When do you reach for it? Do you get it out at the start of prep so it needs to be near your primarily prep area? Or do you grab it only when you're standing at the stove so it should be near the stove? Does it need to be quick to grab (like hot pats/oven mitts) or can it be in a cabinet or drawer?
I like to use a lot of post it notes at this stage (the extra-sticky ones stay best in my experience) to make temporary labels to remind me where things go and to make notes to myself if I'm not sure if I've found a good spot. (Ex. "Small frying pan goes here. Might be better on other side?") That way you can remember what you were thinking as stuff migrates in and you have to occasionally shift stuff around to make it all fit. :) Then at the end of a couple of weeks (or whatever period of time it takes before you're not really having to fetch stuff from your temporary storage anymore) you review whatever is left and decide if you need it at all, if it needs to be in the kitchen or can be somewhere else, if it's something you'd actually like to use more but keep forgetting you have (in which case you need to find a home in the kitchen for it where you will be reminded to use it), and so on.
In a shared kitchen (with roommates or caregivers or even family who are bad at remembering where stuff goes) the post-its will strategically turn into nicer looking labels - sometimes on the inside of the cabinet door, not the outside. Like we have cereal bowls and smaller fruit bowls, and pasta bowls. They all fit on one shelf in a cabinet, but it works best if you put them on that shelf in a certain way so you can access all of them without having to move anything else. So the inside of that cabinet door has a little 'map' of how they should be arranged so if they all got used and the shelf is empty, anyone can put them back properly.
Sorry for the exceptionally long comment, but I have worked out a lot about kitchen organization the hard way. :D
@@TrappedinSLC I arrange my spices the same way--grouping Indian/Mexican/Asian and then others by frequency of use. Thanks for your in-depth description!
@trappedinSLC this is an exceptionally good answer. The only thing I would add on is to say you should try and have more room than stuff in your kitchen. Being able to relocate things without needing to empty out an entire cupboard or move something else to make room in the space you want will make it easier to execute changes and improvements as you realize you need/want them. Also, just follow your intuition. I know some people might balk at that or think they don’t have intuition, but everyone does. When you feel annoyance, frustration, confusion, that’s your cue that something needs to change. When you open the fridge and breathe a sigh of relief or start feeling inspired or notice you’re finding it easier to get in the kitchen and do things, you’re doing something right. No such thing as right or wrong answers, just start trying stuff out and iterating, see how it feels and works for you.
But we'll miss your doggies! 🦮
a highlight of the video is watching the dog get to sample a bite. especially the dog who when offered a veg will think for a second and then just eat it up...
Doesn't he only have 1 now?
@@itspodin yes, I believe Shabu passed away... I keep forgetting the name and gender of the current dog...
@@galaxy_mosaic3587 I believe his name is Jamón. RIP to Shabu!
As a relatively new dad I can say both me and mom value our separate workspace from our little one. I'm stoked you got a workspace that will fit for what you want to do for you videos and also gives you the ability to keep your home kitchen a place for you and your family. Cheers!
So relieved at the end to confirm that dad moving the kitchen onto a houseboat wasn't you moving out!
@@kozhevnikov Can people stop with this weirdo stuff?
💯, same. "I'm on a boat in the middle of Lake Union and we're going to figure out what that's going to mean at some point" is peak divorced dad talk. Turns out it's just stressed dad talk 😂
@@tallkywhat weirdo stuff?
@@AC-cl7tl I think he means the parasocial aspect. To be clear I don’t think it’s that out-of-pocket to be glad this father of two isn’t getting divorced
@@AC-cl7tl I think the person deleted their comment. Someone was analyzing Kenji's words to try and figure out his home situation
How cool! That roof top space is amazing. Will you still occasionally bring us on the “I was making this and thought the viewers would like to learn” journey you do sometimes? The spontaneity of those videos is always fun
Yes probably!
Very cool, Kenji. It makes a lot of sense to have your own separate workspace, especially as the kids are getting older and you don't want to have to worry about them wandering in or getting into any of the equipment.
Also, technically, aren't *all* of the shelves on a boat going to be 'floating' shelves? :D
lol nice one!
now that's just good clean humor right there
Kenji: "i'm on a boat!" ⛵🤣
beat me to it 😂😂
Obligatory.
Everybody look at me im on a mf boat!
@@MikeListon-tk8ir from the less popular band The Pedant Island...
Never gets old! 😂
I was just driving through Seattle this weekend admiring all the boats on the water. Such a cool spot! Thank you for the sneak peak & excited for future videos in the new space ❤
How very cool. That top deck outdoor space is going to be amazing. Can’t wait to see it all set and settled!
Pretty cool. Kitchen, studio and office. The roof views are stunning!!
Kenji, your such a joy to watch! The boat kitchen, roof cooking will be fabulous! ❤
ah now with the fixed landscape width. nice setup kenji! looking forward to how it shapes up. very unique having it on a boat
Lovely space Kenji, excited to see it when completed. Have fun!!
Such an awesome space! Separating work from home is the best.
Congratulations on the new crib!
Kenji this looks so awesome!! I've been in a tiny "2 butt" kitchen (as my Nana would call it) throughout my early adulthood, so I'd love to see how you work in a similar space!!
If you're looking for ideas, I think it would be great to see the DIY work you're bound to do!! Even things like installing the pot racks or installing new drawers would be neat imo. I thought your old housing/prep area you built around the kettle grill was awesome and would be curious to see your process/methods. Hell, I think lots of us would enjoy watching your take on a straight-up woodworking project like your old picnic table!!!
Overall, I'm really hyped for this space and can't wait to see what you're able to do with it!!!
Wonderful, I'm excited to see how it develops!
So happy for you! Definitely exciting.
What a FANTASTIC work space!! Congrats. Can't wait to see what gets produced out of there. Very cool!
when he holds the camera at the end its like his hand's on my shoulder lol
Man you’re living the life..!! What a dream job, cooking for fun on a boat 👍🏻
Exciting stuff and sure you gets lots of energy from the new kitchen both on sunny and stormy days!
The space looks great. I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.
Getting to see how you make the most of this small space as you set it up would be very helpful for many of us!
Congragulations! And thank you for the amazing meals. You never let us down.
This is why I follow you because, your cooking style and kitchen is so relatable to an everyday home cook. I have a small kitchen and I like that it’s easy to maintain.
Such a great view ❤
Wow! What a beautiful view!
Happy for you, Kenji!
So jealous! It’s going to be amazing. Can’t wait to see how it all turns out.
That's really cool. Thank you for your content.
Wow, just awesome! Seattle dream boat.
Beautiful. Well done!
What a great update! Looking forward to the first cooking video in the new space!
That's super fun. I've always wanted to live in a houseboat and was looking specifically at lake union as well as a couple other places a couple years ago. I looked at a lot of zillow listings, wouldn't be surprised if I looked at that one at some point.
So So cool, I love lake Union
Hi Kenji!
I've been watching your videos for years now, ever since I found your late night cooking vids a while ago.
I've finally got to buy and bring to my country The Food Lab and Im loving it!
Much love from Uruguay!
I love that Seattle view so much. Very nostalgic for me as someone who grew up in western Washington.
Very cool Kenji. Living the dream 😁
Hell yeah congrats. Such an awesome space!
Stunning!! Kenji, such a great space!
Wow! This looks so versatile! And the windows! Looking forward to seeing it working.
Wow! That’s really exciting and what a great spot! Look forward to seeing you setting things up and then seeing you cooking! Love your videos 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Wow that is so cool, the view is beautiful!
Congrats, looking forward
Looking good Kenji! You sound happy 🎉
It’s a lovely space! Really useful! And the size is similar to a home kitchen which we can all relate to.
Yes! Having a separate space for Work Stuff is such a good idea. And that VIEW!😮
Can't wait to see when it is done!
Looks full of exciting potential Kenji, and no doubt will just add one or more dimensions to your wonderfully entertaining and educational content! Look forward to seeing it come together and in full use.
The cook always survives
Congrats on the new space. Looking forward to new content once it's ready. Glad you're able to choose additional privacy for your family.
Excited to see what comes next for you!
Congrats on your new kitchen, Kenji. That rooftop is fabulous!
Sweet! Good for you, man! Love your work and congrats on the new space.
congrats on the boat, that's just awesome!
very cool, kenji! excited to see it when it's done
love it! i think most of yearn to have a dedicated work space even when "working from home".
Congratulations on your new space! It looks amazing!
A houseboat on Lake Union is Seattle living at its best! Looking forward you seeing your work in your new kitchen. BTW, my friend and I LOVED your Town Hall chat with Pai Chongchitnant.
Living my houseboat dream!
Very excited to see how you organize this space. I've been wanting to organize my kitchen for max efficiency and the best workflow and I know I'll learn a ton from seeing what you do with a space this size.
Love that roof view 🥰 I used to live on the other side and can see my old apartment from here haha
This is so cool! I'm excited for the new videos!
Love the new space Kenji! It looks very cozy and comfortable. Can't wait to see new content from here. Congrats on this new project :)
Man im excited to see the finish product!
Very excited for you!
Yay, Kenji-good for you! Looks like a fantastic spot- you'll have a front row seat to watch the Duck Dodge and the fireworks on the 4th!
Dude, congratulations! Awesome view, I do miss that view!
Looks cozy 😊
This is awesome!
Pretty cool. Cheers!
What a view!
Enjoy your new space.
Congratulations on your new boat!
Greetings from Redondo Beach 🇺🇸🇺🇸Nice kitchen boathouse . 🌷🌷
Congrats on the workspace
I have 4 panels of that slotted rack up in my kitchen to hang cast iron pans and some other cookware. They are awesome and there are a ton of different hooks, brackets, and shelves available.
What a fantastic space, man! Really psyched for what's in store for the channel.
Love it! Can't wait to see what you cook in your new space! What a great view to o
That looks like a nice space! I’m excited to see you make the most of a small space because I’m dealing with a very small kitchen right now. Hoping I can take some inspiration
I think the neighbors are going to love the new addition to the dock once that rooftop grill gets rolling.
Wow! Really cool! Your not kidding that view! Beautiful, awesome work/play space. You sure are a busy guy, I bet you make some really good food on the boat! It so exciting! Congratulations on your new floating studio!
How exciting!!!!
LOL when you said you liked Galley kitchens in the AMA, you weren't kidding!
much love Kenji
Glad to hear that you're getting some physical work/home separation. It's surprisingly difficult to mentally clock out when you're always at the office.
Nice. Eastlake is where I learned the craft of coffee!
Cool boat!
I'm impressed you've been able to work in the kitchen with your family around for as long as you have, especially balancing not showing them in videos. Mine are constantly under foot when I'm in the kitchen for really no reason. 😅
Looking forward to seeing how it build it up!
But Kenji, how are you going to clean that part of the ship? It’s… a mess! 😀
I visited a friend in the Seattle area a few times. It was a pleasant surprise and very interesting to see that Seattle was a city full of marina neighborhoods. Very beautiful views on Lake Union. Looks wonderful! Definitely miss visiting some of those marinas.
I'm excited for you! Given where you are located I totally understand the decision to use a floating "studio" instead of something land-based. With the unique plumbing and venting requirements of a cooking environment, it's a decision that makes sense pretty much anywhere in the US IMO.
Reminds me of Julia and Jacques's pegboards in their kitchens!
Congratulations. I lived on a boat in Philadelphia and Ft Lauderdale, it was great. Get a bike. There is a wire rack with 10 narrow shelves that hangs over pantry doors. I use mine for spices kept in small Mason jars. Good for narrow but tall containers of liquid.
Very cool Kenji...