Abolishing the Inefficient Kitchen

1929

HEARTH

Journal of Home Economics. Volume 21, Number 7, p. 475-481

To that convenient barometer of public opinion, "the man on the street ' the efficiency of kitchens is scarcely a matter for serious consideration. At best he greets the topic with a tolerant smile, at worst with a facetious remark. To the architect and builder the subject is less amusing; they realize vaguely that something might be done to improve the kitchens which they turn out. But they prefer to leave the problem to someone else, while they devote themselves to more worthy issues.
Yet, from one standpoint at least, the humble kitchen may well lay claim to attention. It has the support of the most potent of modern arguments that of numerical magnitude. It is the workshop of the largest occupational group in the nation, a group so large that if it were listed in the Census of Occupations it would form one-third of our entire working population.
"Oh, yes, of course' it may be replied, "as far as numbers go, the twenty-six million housewives are important enough. But so little time is nowadays required for housekeeping that we need scarcely be concerned about the efficiency of their places of work. In this day of drug-store lunch counters, delicatessens, canned foods, and baker's bread, the domestic kitchen is rapidly becoming an obsolete institution. The space which it formerly occupied in the home is now usurped by the garage. And the time formerly spent over the stove is now spent over the bridge table."