Camp Kitchen Tour (Commercial Kitchen vs Home Kitchen)

Hi, everyone!

I’m so glad you stopped by.  Come on in, and I’ll give you a little tour of where I’m  spending lots of time these days.  It’s quite a bit different than the kitchen I’m normally found in…

Here she is.  The camp kitchen.

The past few days, I’ve spent some time cleaning and organizing in preparation for a busy fall and winter season…with some wonderful help, as you may recall!  In fact, at one point, it  looked like this!

This kitchen has been in service since 1979.  If these walls could talk, they would have many a story to tell.  They would tell stories of preparing meals for kids’ camps, family camps, weddings, memorial services, and family gatherings. It is also the site of many a late night “food raid” by kids who don’t think we know what they were up to!!

It has also been a schoolhouse of education.

Many lessons of humble servanthood and working together with joy have been learned at this pots and pans sink.

It is the place where adults and teens have put their hands to work chopping and slicing and arranging beautiful platters of fresh vegetables and fruits for the nourishment and enjoyment of others.

The marks and scars of the surfaces  shows that vibrant life happens in this space ~ in contrast to the beautiful pristine “show homes” that are only used for looking at.

As I plotted and planned and organized,

I was struck again with the fact that this kitchen is not “my” kitchen.  It is a kitchen in which so many people have a part. It takes a small army of individuals working together to make things work smoothly.

In contrast to putting together my home kitchen, I saw a vastly different approach as I thought through the details of this one.  Decor isn’t the focus in a space like this.

Wipeable, scrubable, streamlined, organized, and having a good work flow is.  Items need to be placed in spaces that make logical sense, as many people will be washing and putting them away.

As we’ve watched many cooks come and go over the years, we’ve noticed each one has specific requests as they set up their work space.  Thanks to them, I believe there is a really good basic plan.

I just had one request.

Paint.

{Are you surprised?}

Our maintenance department is going to do what they can for me.  I’m trying to save my muscles for the actual cooking job ahead, or I would have whipped the rollers out myself!

Problem is, our first group arrives in just 6 days.

The painting project may have to wait until December, but I’m excited just knowing it’s coming!!

Now that the cleaning is almost finished, it will soon be time to get baking.  Oh…what to start with??

The possibilities are endless!

{Yum!}