Yigit Pura is best known for winning the first season of Top Chef Just Desserts. Most recently he is in the midst of opening his first ever patisserie, Tout Sweet, in San Francisco. His home kitchen is tiny yet colorful, cheerful, and completely efficient. Come take a peek!
Yigit spends so much time in executive-sized kitchens, thinking, eating, and practically sleeping food. At home his humble little kitchen is bright green, brand new and sleek with shiny appliances. He enjoys all brand new appliances as he is the first owner of his apartment, which just adds a fresh charm to the whole place.
I loved the cabinets that open up vertically (sort of like storage compartments in airplanes.) He noted that he hates the green, but I found the color super rad and different than anything I'd ever seen. Most of all, this is well loved and well used personal space.
1. What inspires your kitchen and your cooking?
As a pastry chef, all I cook all day is sugar...what inspires me in my home kitchen is functionality, comfort, good dinners.
2. What is your favorite kitchen tool or element?
Lately, I am obsessed with Nespresso Coffee Machine. I don't know how I ever lived without it!
3. What's the most memorable meal you've ever cooked in this kitchen?
Being Turkish and a Buddhist this past Christmas I gathered all my stray friends and I cooked a huge Turkish Festivus dinner. It was filled with love.
4. The biggest challenge for cooking in your kitchen:
Being used to being in an enormous kitchen with dishwashers and all my fancy equipment... I forget how difficult being a one man army is.
5. Is there anything you wish you had done differently?
Every time I stare at the color green in the fixtures, I wish they were red.
6. What was your biggest indulgence or splurge in the kitchen?
If a way to a person's heart is through their stomach, is there such a thing as splurging? Or is it just right?
7. Is there anything you hope to add or improve in your kitchen?
Get rid of the green, I hate the color green.
8. How would you describe your cooking style?
Tout Sweet. ☺
9. Best cooking advice or tip you ever received?
Being a professional chef every time I cook by myself in my kitchen I always have compassion and sympathy for everyone who does it on a daily basis.
10. What are you cooking this week?
We would normally let the homeowner answer this, however, as a guest in Yigit's home, he just cooked me Bhutanese red rice, sautéed butternut squash with dino kale, with Vega omega 3 oil blend. And popcorn with nutritional yeast for dessert. Very Northern California!
Resources of Note:
• Dishware - Pier 1
• Cutlery - Crate & Barrel
• Nespresso Machine - Bloomingdales
• Small appliances - Bed, Bath and Beyond
• Modern knife block - Bodum
• Pots and Pans - All-Clad ( "or Nothing!")
• Rice cooker- Bed Bath and Beyond
• Modern knife block - Bodum
• Pots and Pans - All-Clad ( "or Nothing!")
• Rice cooker - Bed Bath and Beyond
• Glassware- Japan town SF
• Colored Tupperware - Daison in Japan Town SF
• Maui's little kitchenette - Food container Bed Bath and Beyond, bowls from Jonathan Adler
• Artwork - local SF artist
Thanks, Yigit!
(Images: Bethany Nauert)
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hi - wondering what brand are the kitchen cabinets and what are the doors made of - thanks
You cant say "All Clad or nothing" and have a Calphalon panini pan in the photo.... :-)
Oh man whadda cutie!
I love your cabinets!
I love the green, that is too bad that he doesn't, since it is a large part of the design; I think they are terrific!!
Can we get a resource for the back splash tiles/material? Thanks!
@ SARA ATL - hahahaa....yeah, saw that, too...
Backsplash and cabinet resource, please. I don't need to know where he bought his pots and pans!!
ELLENW1A: I think the cabinets are a Euro brand, may be Valcucine (Aerius line?).
Actually, they look like they were mounted too high on the wall. The whole idea is that with the doors out of the way (opened all the way up & out), you can put the cabinets at eye level so you don't have to stretch or muddle around without being able to see everything. Euro styling is always ahead of us.
And with Nespresso coffee selling at $51 a pound, how did they ever do without you?
I recommend a Gaggia.
@DRGARYLGREEN, I just came back from Europe and I swear that I saw a Nespresso bag almost every 2 minutes walking in the pedestrian malls. It is not unusual to pay such large sums for things that people really enjoy and that is not to say that he does not use other grounds. Just because the espresso make is by Nespresso does not mean that he uses it exclusively.
Also @Sara ATL, I think "All-Clad or Nothing" is a company slogan as everytime I have seen a commercial for them that seems to be the tagline, so I think he meant that jokingly.
hubba hubba
such a great compact space-i think if you painted that long wall you wouldn't be so focused on the green and it wouldn't bother you so much
love.love.love.
Being Turkish also, I'm so proud of him! Such a great place.
For as obviously expensive as the individual components of this kitchen are (might the cabinets be Scavolini?), it certainly isn't very well designed. I agree with maddywho that the horizontal cabinets are placed way too high on the wall. Under-cabinet lighting should not be shining right in the cook's face. Given what that stunning back-splash must have cost, why wasn't it carried over to the side walls where it is needed just as badly? It doesn't seem like he could get in the freezer if the oven door is open. The sink is too small for washing big things that won't fit in a dishwasher. And given how many dishes and staples are out on the counter, I suspect he doesn't have nearly enough storage, which is a shame since there is certainly room for it (or maybe he just can't reach it).
The only reason to have this kitchen is because it looks cool, which seems like the last reason a chef would want it, especially since he doesn't like the color. I think the building's architect should be flogged.
A pile of shoes on the floor next to the kitchen??????
My god he's sexy. I'd do his dishes any day.