One of my guilty pleasures, as an exchange student in the UK, is to watch every possible rerun of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares online. Because of copyright issues, we don’t have that many episodes available in France, so I have found an unprecedented way to satisfy my unreasonable crave for everything Ramsay-related.
But as much as I love this show, I don’t want to have to replay it in my own kitchen. As I live in a hall of residence, I am lucky enough to have a bedroom and a bathroom of my own, but I have to share a kitchen with six other people.
Inevitably, sometimes, things do not go as I wish they would – someone leaves the cooker in a filthy state, someone’s pans get used without permission, and so on. In those cases, discussion is necessary. And let’s be honest, nobody wants to look like a psychopath by pulling a Gordon Ramsay because someone used your mug and failed to return it again. So, here are four tips to make kitchen life easier and keep things from going awry.
- 1) Stock on large sticky notesThis may seem like a surprising first piece of advice, but seriously, large sticky notes will come in handy more often than you would think. I don’t run into my kitchen mates that often, so sticky notes have become our primary form of communication. And there are some things you simply can’t explain on a piece of paper the size of a stamp. Large sticky notes will give you enough room to explain things correctly and politely, and you may even be able to add little smileys at the end of your messages. You would be surprised by the things you can get away with as long as your passive-aggressive notes have a smiley at the end.
- 2) Be prepared to stock on food, as wellCooking and buying groceries for one person is dreadful. Expiration dates have become my worst nightmare (seriously, Sainsbury’s, who thought selling only bread that expires in two days was a good idea?). I’m on my own, and as much as I love toast, eating twelve slices of bread in two days is not something I can do on a regular basis. So the freezer has become my new best friend. You should always check that your food is suitable for freezing when you buy it, and if it is, freeze it like there is no tomorrow! In order to do that, though, you will need appropriate storage containers, so you may want to invest in that. Oh, and also, eating leftovers can be a very efficient way to save time and money, as buying large quantities always seems to be at the customer’s advantage. For example, you could cook a lot of food at once, store it, and reheat some of it for your different meals of the week.
- 3) Set boundaries By that, I mean, try to figure out an organization with your kitchen mates so that everyone has their own shelves in the fridge, their own cupboards, and their own drawers. I am not trying to be over possessive here, but having that kind of organization will avoid confusion. In my kitchen, everyone seems to be shopping at the same local supermarket, so we always end up buying the same things. If we don’t keep our things separated, I feel like it won’t be long until we start confusing our food with the others’, and until our (rather) peaceful kitchen is taken over by mayhem.
- 4) Always double-check that everything is in good order as you prepare to leave the kitchenI almost set the room on fire last week (or at least, got a meal burn) because one of my kitchen mates had left one hob of the cooker on heat and I didn’t realize it until I was almost done cooking my rice on another hob (the red flashes of light that came from underneath it alarmed me somehow). So yes, running a little double-check before leaving the room is a good way to keep everyone safe.
Photos from Buzzfeed