Ever walk into a kitchen where eighteen different people cook, friends pool money to save up for major appliances, chore fines are dealt out if you forget to wash dishes and when all the pot-holders are in the laundry, a 20 year old dude just takes off his shirt to lift the piping hot kettle?
Today we tour the Biko House cooperative's kitchen in Isla Vista, California with Katy McCarthy. Join us as we explore this unique kitchen space.
Katy is the food shopper and kitchen organizer (and amazing cook!) in the Biko House Co-op. She's an art student with a flair for home cooking and recipes that are easily adaptable to scaling way up or subbing ingredients she has on hand. The Biko house kitchen feeds eighteen university students three times per day, with breakfast and lunch as 'open fridge' meals (i.e. prepare the food yourself with the stocked fridge and pantry) and dinner as a sit down affair served between 6 and 9pm.
The co-op is essentially subsidized housing/eating, with a strong sense of community. The friendships and bonds formed Katy said have a lot to do with the 'family dinner' served every night. "Cookers" (students assigned to food prep duties) are praised for ambitious recipes — velvety butternut squash soup as well as mussels sautéed in wine sauce were two main dishes that flew off the table, without any leftovers. Farmers markets and cooperative groceries are the mainstays of where the shoppers buy food, sometimes they receive donations of fresh produce.
The kitchen's crown jewel is the industrial grade Wolf Stove, complete with eight burners and two ovens. The sink is a typical restaurant, stainless steel operation with a high-pressure hose spray nozzle. It gets the job done when dishes for eighteen or more (lots of guests/friends are invited) are frequent dinner numbers.
The cupboards hold an ever-changing selection of cooking equipment, appliances, plate and silverware. As students come and go, they add to the collection, often adding to the kitchen for the time they live there, then taking their pots and pans with them as they graduate. I spotted a beautiful, large Le Creuset Dutch oven in the midst of thrift store cookware and beat-up work horse pots. This ebb and flow of ideas, amount of students eating and using the space and the rotating list of equipment make this kitchen the most dynamic I've ever visited.
Read on for Katy's take on keeping up such a remarkable endeavor.
10 Questions for Katy (and Her Kitchen)
1. What inspires your kitchen and your cooking?
I am inspired by the idea of cooking en mass. Family style to the nth degree. Gallons of soup and pounds of quinoa. I love using the big pot — its volume inspires me to fill it with goodness.
2. What is your favorite kitchen tool or element?
The painted ceiling and the stereo.
3. What's the most memorable meal you've ever cooked in this kitchen?
I don't know, it's been a busy quarter (I'm in school) and someone makes dinner every week night. We've had some pretty memorable meals as a house: three course fondue, local Santa Barbara mussels in white wine with homemade whole wheat bread, roll-your-own vegan sushi. We have some incredible vegan chefs here. Keep in mind those dinners are for 18 people. Every dinner here is a dinner party. Personally, when I get a minute to cook I've been perfecting my curry.
4. The biggest challenge in your kitchen:
Sharing the avocados.
5. Is there anything you wish you had done differently? [if renovated]
We're getting renovated in the summer! New windows, more counter space (hallelujah), a whole slew of updates.
6. Biggest indulgence or splurge in the kitchen:
Our tool set of kitchen equipment is just a big potpourri of great things left or donated or shared: three Crock-Pots, a few dehydrators, a heap of pots and pans.
7. Is there anything you hope to add or improve in your kitchen?
Maybe a miniature mural.
8. How would you describe your cooking style?
Reckless, grainy and experimental — like a good film.
9. Best cooking advice or tip you ever received:
Always cook with wine.
10. What are you cooking this week?
Finals week style menu: Quinoa & kale & tofu.
• Check out Katy's work: Katy McCarthy
Resources
• Stove: Wolf
• Dishwasher: Our hands
• Pots/Pans: eclectic mix of things left behind and what new residents bring
• Food processor: Cuisinart
We're always looking for real kitchens from real cooks.
Submit your kitchen here.
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this makes me really happy to no longer be in college.
This is really awesome. I would struggle with the vegan menu choices though. Obviously its not all vegan but there seems to be a lot of vegans there and I would want to be considerate.
@almostcrime: This makes me want to go back to college.
Different ideals! :)
Looks like fun, but not my kind of fun. I can totally appreciate its appeal, though.
I'd prefer it if no one used their sweaty hipster deep v tee to handle the food ;-)
Oh, and I think I need that "what chew want?" board at my house!!! Love it.
Seriously, boys, wear a shirt in the kitchen! Ew.
I'm impressed. No way could I cook for 18 on a (semi) regular basis. Seems as if this works well for this house and it's nice to see a different kitchen tour. Also glad I'm not in college anymore. I'm too OCD.
This seems like a really happy home. And the Compost/ Not Compost sign totally made me smile!
ditto almostcrime... The messiness drove me a little bonkers but then again, I'm pretty far from 20 years old.
I did love the compost sign, the painted ceiling and the green table. Also would've loved to be a part of something like this when I was in college, many eons ago (like oh my god.. look at my awesome spiral perm and my new acid wash jeans).
LOVE the ceiling :)
Yay! Someone else uses "spatulae" as a plural!
This revives my regret of not living in the hippie dorm at college.
I really want to take a mr clean magic eraser to the back of that stove. It would skeeve me out to cook on it with that much latent grease hanging around.
Hahahahaha! Gussiebuns, you read my mind. Dirty baking pans... messy shelves... Yuk. A good deep cleaning and decluttering before taking photos would have made for a lot more compelling story, but as is, I'm really turned off by the clutter and the dinginess of this place.
Grubby grub anyone? I'd pass on the dinner invite.
It is full of charm and interest for me. A lot more interest (and for me, honest) than most of the sterile, too magazine-perfect kitchens we see on here most of the time. When you're cooking for eighteen, I assume you have time to keep things sanitary, but not spotless.
I wouldn't mind the shirtless college guys either, although I might ask them to put on clothes when prepping food.
Agree with dancedancekj - very interesting post. That stove is nearly as dirty as mine.
Aww, it takes me back to my college co-op days! Our house had 15 residents and we cooked dinners 6 nights/week. Good times!
Oh Glerg! I can almost smell the incense wafting in from the next room!
Okay I'm just a few years out of college but am glad to be done with the grubby college house days! A few friends of ours still have this type of kitchen going on and trust me, it is not clean! It's that kind of place where there's a *stick* or a thin layer of grease over most surfaces. It skeeves me out to have to cook at their places and I want to bust out the 409 so bad! I'm sure these kids are all having a ball living and cooking here and that's awesome! I'm just glad I'm not living there! (although I envious of the industrial stove and fridge!)
Wow... This is ridiculously amazing! Vegan meals for 18 people? One kitchen for 18 people! Holy cow! I'm a college student myself living in a household for 7 people (6 right now, but once a new tenant moves in, it'll be 7 people again) and I absolutely cannot stand living with these people (it's mostly because they either never clean up after themselves, they never clean during their assigned week unless I remind them to - I ain't yo' mama! -, or both), let alone cook and eat together! I guess it's all about who you're living with and how well you fit in with these people. This kind of living environment would be an amazing place to live in. Major props.
Totally rockin' concept this! When I remember the non-stop crap I ate in the name of food in college, I wish we'd had something like this, or people so enthusiastic about food to share college with. Cleanliness is in its own place but loving the shared community here. Great job college people!
I went to UCSB (the University they keep referring to) and everyone knew about the BIKO house (because BIKO was written in huge letters on the side of the house)! I went to a party once there and thought the place was a bit dirty, but the people were nice.
This post makes me wish I had looked into living there, as the cooperative kitchen seems like heaven compared to some living situations I was in! :)
doesnt seem dirty to me as much as it does just OLD. We got a really old house, and we keep it clean regularly, but there are parts of the kitchen that are stained and all that, from when the previous owners were there..
This is UCSB? Such a great college town.
I agree with dancedancekj - nice to see a kitchen that actually seems used, and by people who have better things to do than polish the muffin tins and iron the shopping list!
scoff at the shirtlessness all you like, it's the only compelling part
@athanchiz: testify. people don't like sweaty hipster vnecks? fine, more for me.
Seriously, I love this. I don't wanna be all judgey, different strokes and all, but it seems like a lot of people need to get over their fear of a little dirt and use.
I'm amazed that 18 college students live there and it's as clean as it is. It doesn't make for much of a kitchen tour, though. A bowl of oats or lettuce doesn't excite me much.
That ceiling is really cool!
I'm 100% with dancedancekj and elpinko. This place looks lived in, used, and fun as heck. Loving what you cook and enjoying each other's company clearly takes precedent over how organized and spotless everything is.
Reminds me of my kitchen with my best friend in NYC. Tiniest space ever, pots and appliances stacked on top of each other, grease on the stove...I have amazing memories of delicious meals and hilariously cramped dinner parties. That's what cooking is all about!
So, I haven't ever been compelled to comment on a post here before, but reading through some of the comments I just had to clarify something.
For those of you who thought THIS was messy/dirty...you clearly didn't live in true college housing, or ever visit a frat/sorority house.
I went to a pretty big school and didn't live too far off campus, which required a BIG concession in the way of suitable living conditions. We kept it as clean as we could, but with the 5 of us there (2 being people who'd eat a bowl of cereal and leave the bowl in their room for oh...a week or so), you can imagine the nastiness that ensued.
All that being said, I think the kitchen looks great, is well-used, and serves a fantastic purpose. Love the dynamic ebb and flow, too, where students give and take as they come and go. Bravo to them!
This brings back memories of the kitchen in the co-op I lived in during college at UW-Madison - the same huge refrigerators, the banged-up pots and pans, the Hobart dishwasher - where we cooked for 40 people every night. Good times - but yeah, it definitely wasn't very clean. But it was fun at the time, when I was 20 years old!
So it's not perfectly sanitary/antiseptic. It's college and great that these people are taking the time to think about their food and their lives and their environment rather than ordering dominos. Thanks for a great post and showing another side of life besides the groomed kitchens that some of the posts seem to prefer. There is a lot of love here and it comes across in the pictures and text. Great job....I'll come to dinner here any night!
Faroreness, I was one of the commentors that noticed it was messy but also acknowledged I was no longer 20 years old. Went on to say I would've loved living there when I was at that time in my life, as is. But now, if I walked in there, I'd start organizing the cookware and scrubbing away. So sue me, I'm likely the same age as some of the inhabitant's mothers.
I lived in on-campus apartment/housing during my entire college career.
Most of the messy comments weren't negative and I'd bet good money many of those commenters did live in true college housing.
I lived next door to BIKO about 4 years ago, in a neat and tidy townhouse where each roommate had an assigned parking spot. Even in college I was way to obsessively clean to enjoy living and cooking in a co-op, but I love the idea of huge communal dinners and laundry drying on clotheslines in the garden. If you're the kind of person who can live with a little messiness, BIKO would be an amazing place to live, much like Isla Vista...
I feel a sudden onset of food poisoning after reading this post. This kitchen needs some heavy duty cleaning.
its great to see kids cooking! take control over what they eat. good habits for the future.
Love it! I hope my kids are this creative and healthy when they go off to college!
Being a college hippy is cool and all, but seriously, there's kind of a line between what's cool and what's safe. That congealed grease is a fire waiting to happen, and those countertops look nice and salmonella-y! Clutter and color are fine, but I'd pass on dinner there too. Gross.