Cecilia’s Sleek High-Design Kitchen

Who cooks and eats here: Cecilia, her husband and her two children
Where: Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City
Rent or Own? Own

Cecilia has tremendous enthusiasm for life, art, design and food, and her home is a testament to this. Her kitchen is incredibly sleek and blends in so much with the design of her home, that you might not even know it’s a kitchen when you first see it.

Nothing would make Cecilia happier. The kitchen is a powerhouse but she prefers that it call attention to itself only when in use. Otherwise, she likes it to be an unassuming backdrop for her various social gatherings.

This is a penthouse apartment that had very little appeal in its previous incarnation. Cecilia gutted everything including a stock kitchen replete with typical white fake wood cabinets and a cramped working space. She designed this new kitchen and had it custom built.

Because Cecilia opted out of overhead cabinets, she made sure that every drawer, shelf, and storage space is as efficient as possible. In fact, she just added shallow stand alone drawers to slide on the floor under the cabinetry. With its intriguing secret compartments and great light reflecting capacity, this kitchen is functional art!

1. What inspires your kitchen and your cooking?
My family and friends. I love to cook for others and cooking is the best relaxation and creative activity outside of my job as a designer.

2. What is your favorite kitchen tool or element?
It is my cocotte minute.

3. What’s the most memorable meal you’ve ever cooked in this kitchen?Flambéed cider chicken Normandy-style with oven apples.

4. Is there anything you wish you had done differently?
I adore gas stoves, especially when doing meat, so sometimes I have second thoughts about having chosen an induction stove.

5. Biggest indulgence or splurge in the kitchen:
Making cakes. I have had a passion for this since I was five years old and often I hold cake baking competitions with the kids, letting them create a new recipe for the event. Sometimes we have good results. Other times, they’re less memorable.

6. Is there anything you hope to add or improve in your kitchen?
I just designed invisible kick drawers.

7. How would you describe your cooking style?
Fusion Swedish / French — the Swedish part being the love for sweet and salt mixed in the taste of the food, the French because I lived in France for several years and am now raising a half French family.

8. Best cooking advice or tip you ever received:
My mother’s advice not to take cooking too seriously but just to enjoy the process.

• Miele induction stove and worktop suspendable vent
• Bosch dishwasher
• LG’s amazing space saving and superb washer and dryer combination
• Fisher and Paykel’s wonderful cooling drawer that does not need to be supported from below and can be used as a freezer or wine fridge

→ To see the rest of Cecilia’s home check out, Cecilia’s Simple Beauty on Apartment Therapy

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