How our kitchen evolved to the present stage

How our kitchen evolved to the present stage

Kitchen is an area or part of a room where food preparation and consumption of the same is done.  Basically, a middle class kitchen consists of a work area, cooking area, a sink, refrigerator, and other kitchen appliances. In today’s modern world the kitchen also consists of some necessary electrical appliances. The kitchen area may also contain the dining area also. This is a place where the family gathers to discuss the daily happenings an also for planning for the day.

Modern residential kitchen are very small.  Commercial kitchens are found in restaurants, hospital, educational and workplace facilities and similar establishments. These kitchens are generally larger and equipped with bigger and more heavy-duty equipment than a residential kitchen. For example, a large restaurant may have a huge walk-in refrigerator and a large commercial dishwasher machine. In some instances commercial kitchen equipment such as commercial sinks are used in household settings as it offers ease of use for food preparation and high durability.

In India, a kitchen is called a “Rasoi” (in hindi\Sanskrit), and there exist many other names for it in the various regional languages. Many different methods of cooking exist across the country, and the structure and the materials used in constructing kitchens have varied depending on the region. For example, in north and central India, cooking used to be carried out in clay ovens called “Chulha”s, fired by wood, coal or dried cowdung. Whereas in south India the use of clay oven is prevalent, but with a slight variation with regards to what they use as fuel. 

In households where members observed vegetarianism, separate kitchens were maintained to cook and store vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. Religious families often treat the kitchen as a sacred space. Indian kitchens are built on an Indian architectural science called vastushastra. The Indian kitchen vastu is of utmost importance while designing a kitchens in India. Modern-day architects also follow the norms of vastushastra while designing Indian kitchens across the world.  We have reduced usage of natural material for fuel. We are now mostly dependent fossil fuel

In the days before the concret and cement constructions were invented most of the houses in India were made of mud with exception to people with wealth.  Most of the time the kitchen were situated in one corner of the house as they were only a single room.  Mud  vessel were used for the preparation of the food. The clay stove would be fired by wood, or dried cowdung.

While many kitchens belonging to poor families continue to use clay stoves and the older forms of fuel, the urban middle and upper classes have come a long way from using firewood and cowdung for fuel. They usually have gas stoves with cylinders or piped gas attached. Electric cook tops are rarer since they consume a great deal of electricity, but microwave ovens are gaining popularity in urban households and commercial enterprises. Indian kitchens are also supported by biogas and solar energy as fuel. World's largest solar energy kitchen is built in India. In association with government bodies, India is encouraging domestic bio-gas plants to support the kitchen system. We are looking forward for the reduction of the usage of fossil fuel as way of reducing our carbon footprint.