Kitchen fails

The range:
Most houses will have a 4- (or maybe 5-) burner, 30"-wide range. This is perfectly fine, however typical consumer units tend to feature just one burner capable of boiling a gallon of water or putting a good sear on meat. If you ever want to make pasta and steak at the same time, you'll need to get something more potent, probably from a pro or semi-pro line.

The island:
There's this romantic notion of mom or dad cooking breakfast using the cooktop on the kitchen island while all the kiddies sit around, or perhaps facing the living room and being engaged in the rest of family time. In practice, most islands are a cooktop with about a 12-inch countertop surrounding 3 of their sides. There's nowhere to put cooking utensils, a cutting board, or even the kids without some part of them being dangerously close to popping grease or an open flame. Just don't do this. Ranges are better next to the wall.

The vent:
Victorinox (Swiss Army as most know them) has taught us that cramming N functions into a single item has great utility. Too bad none of those functions work as well as a dedicated tool. Most kitchens will mount a microwave with a recirculating vent above the range. The vents have a charcoal scrubber built in, theoretically cleaning all the gunk that will set off your smoke alarm out. In practice the blower fans are weak and incredibly noisy, and the scrubbers don't really work; outcome: beep beep beep beep. If possible, get a dedicated vent hood and vent all the crud to the outside world.

The chef's kitchen:
How many home listings claim a chef's kitchen? What does this even mean? Our house-hunting experience says that the inclusion of a single appliance from a pro line (ex: Wolf, Viking, .. ) gives an agent the green light to make this claim. Suppose I put one such appliance in a 6'x6' room with a mobile island as the entire counter surface. Chef's kitchen? They say yes. I'll let you decide, but will suggest that a real chef would like to also prep ingredients, have space for tools and maybe even invite another human being into their bubble.

The knife set:
There are few things in a kitchen the average consumer knows less about than their knives. How do I know this? Most kitchens feature an enormous collection of individually crappy knives. The problem is that people go for more choices, in this case the 17-piece set with everything from a chef's to filet to serrated utility to specialized boning knife. To offset having 17 of these, each knife is of lower quality so the set can be priced between $100-300. And when's the last time you used that boning knife?

So what's so bad about these knives, anyways?
1. They are frequently not sharp from the factory, nor do they hold an edge well (cheaper steel, cheaper manufacturing process).
2. They are poorly balanced. The blade tends to be too heavy, meaning you have to actively put energy into keeping the knife's tip up. Your hand gets tired faster, you can't maneuver it as well and coupled with the dull blade you are left struggling to do anything in the kitchen with them.

Ok fine, how do I pick a good knife then?
Numerous brands (Henckels, Wusthof and Shun are 3 common ones) make good knives, but they all have some things in common:
1. The knife is a single piece of stainless steel from the tip through the end of the handle (though decorative/comfortable wood or plastic handles can be molded around the steel)
2. The center of mass (balance point) is right around the transition from handle to blade.
3. They are forged (rolled/formed from a single piece of steel)
4. Sharp enough to slice your finger off in one stroke (don't try this at home. Or anywhere)
5. Will cost about $100 and up. Each.

But that's gonna cost like, $1700 and up!
Nope. You never use that boning or filet knife, remember? All you need to cover almost all applications are an 8" chef's knife, a bread knife (if you eat bread) and a paring knife. A sharp knife will slice cleanly through a tomato so the serrated tomato knife is out. An 8" chef's knife will cut through stuff just as well as the 6" one, making the latter redundant, and so on.

To help keep the blades sharp, don't throw your knives in the sink with all your pots and pans (just wash them after each use, I put a bit of soap on the blade and wipe them clean with my fingers under the faucet), use wooden cutting boards (preferably end-grain) and keep them in a knife block. Various retailers periodically discount high-quality knife sets with the basics, plus a block and a honing steel for $300 or less. Keep an eye out, buy them, and enjoy them for a decade or more.

The pots and pans set:
After reading my knife rant, you should be familiar with the idea that a single well-chosen item can perform many duties. Most people go out and buy the 10 or 12-piece pots and pans set. Why would you need a 3- and a 4-qt saucepan? Anything the 3qt can do, the 4qt can as well. Same with the 8" and 10" omelette pans. A good pot or pan should be heavy enough to ensure good heat distribution from your heat source (they should probably be at least 2lbs each). I recommend an 8qt multipot (with strainer and steamer insert), a 12" non-stick omelette pan and a 3-4qt stainless sauce pan to cover most of your needs. If you frequently sear meats, a good enameled cast iron pan is worth getting.

Another upshot of spending your money on fewer good items is that they take up less space. Enjoy!