Order and chaos in Andy Baraghani's kitchen

“There are some moments I want chaos for creative inspiration. But I don't really like the idea of a kitchen being chaotic, whether it is the layout or prep that feels messy.”

Collection: PROFILE / Variant: PROFILE Malet i Sand / Countertop: Rustfrit stål

WHO: Andy Baraghani, chef, food writer and video personality
LOCATION: Brooklyn, New York City
KITCHEN: PROFILE collection

For a chef, food writer and video personality - among many things - Andy Baraghani has an increasingly diverse range of projects, from writing cookbooks (his first, “The Cook You Want To Be: Everyday Recipes to Impress”, is a James Beard Award-winning bestseller) to creating the perfect kitchen to cook, entertain, and work on recipes. Alongside his husband Keith Pollock, Senior Vice President of Creative at furniture company West Elm, he recently finished renovating their New York apartment — an altogether different space from their eclectic country abode upstate.

Here, we talk about table essentials, experimenting at home and the healing potential of Sichuan white fish soup.

The pair did not bring a single piece of furniture into the home, ultimately starting from scratch, even with glassware, flatware and cutlery. Long and curved spaces allowed a lot of white space, which was not typical to their usual tastes. A clean slate, a challenge and an exercise. The American interior decorator Ward Bennett became a sort of North star for the project, the spaces he inhabited and designed to be functional with a natural sense of simplicity and layered story.

A kitchen is a place for both business and pleasure, and theirs is a space that combines Baraghani’s long experience in restaurant and test kitchens with personal quirks and preferences. “It has an industrial foundation but feels softer. I added a really tall backsplash in brushed stainless steel as a nod to the kitchens I’ve worked at and the Italian kitchens that are so impossible to find on this side of the Atlantic,” Andy says.

It is tidy in all the right places. He chose the PROFILE collection in Sand with a brushed stainless steel countertop, mixing and matching full-size fronts for pantry storage with plenty of workspace. There’s no hardware; even the fridge is outside the space. Everything blends in. Baraghani admits, “There are some moments I want chaos for creative inspiration. But I don't really like the idea of a kitchen being chaotic, whether it is the layout or prep that feels messy.” A ledge atop the backsplash holds their glassware, bowls, plates, and candlesticks all exposed. These create an interesting backdrop for cooking, inspired by objects they collect, love, and use frequently.

Much like Baraghani’s cooking, it needs to feel right. Organized in a way that feels natural and good to use. It’s considering the small details that make it enjoyable for you. As Andy says, “The cooking tools that I use most are on the counter. Most of my utensils, pots and pans are hidden here, unlike in our country home. I have plenty of stuff, so how I use it dictates its placement. Heavier things in the pull-out drawer, things rarely used stowed away all the way up. A pantry dedicated to dry goods only, and so on.”

When it comes to cooking, his process has changed over time. He no longer works at restaurants, but describes his mission as thinking about how to empower the home cooks, how to make them better and more curious. What he himself likes to eat is at the back of his mind when he starts thinking about a recipe. “I have honed in on what I like, what feels me and what I want to eat. I think a lot about how we should be eating.”

Often, he thinks in complete meals. Making multiple dishes is the stuff of restaurants with its chefs, line and prep cooks, and dishwashers. It easily overwhelms home cooks. Baraghani’s meals are elegant and soulful, nourishing and interesting - something for the body and mind, whether shared or enjoyed in solitude. When we speak, he has just celebrated his 34th birthday. He is at home with a cold, craving something potent and restorative, “If I didn't have to cook for myself, I would get something brothy like a Sichuan white fish soup, the one with pickled mustard greens. That’s something I really crave, which has three dominant flavors that are very present in my cooking: salty, sour, and heat,” says Andy.

Setting the table at the Baraghani-Pollock residency means bringing out objects that mean something, objects that tell stories or direct our way of dining together. A small bowl for the salt ‘because you shouldn’t be shaking it’, an interesting, even sculptural pepper mill because there are so many well-designed ones out there. A beautiful candlestick, wine key or stool to reach the highest shelf, according to Baraghani, these everyday objects could and should be good-looking.

Going back to the idea of creative chaos or, rather, the lack of order, his cooking encompasses the very same intuition with which he crafts a beautiful home. Non-hierarchical, personal and textured in a way that feels made-to-measure.

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“What is essential in any kitchen, large or small, is the flow of the kitchen. I try to make my movements in the kitchen as natural and effortless as possible. Placing the dishwasher next to the sink, because you’re rinsing dishes and putting them in.”