A record of your labours

I look at kitchen tables and work surfaces and judge a person by the state they are in.

Not whether they are cut with deep marks from repeated knife usage, or whether there is grubby dirt in the corners, and strange ring mark stains, but whether the surfaces are pristine and unmarred.

If they show no signs of wear and use, I don’t think much of the person who owns that kitchen or how much they profess to cook.

Work surfaces in kitchens should be cleaned, but they should express character, they should show that through years of usage and hard, diligent work, the cook that used them, and the family that dined at them, loved them through their expressions of labour, work and the food produced.

Kitchen work surfaces are a visual record of everything the cook has achieved.

This is a metaphor for every endeavour we pursue.