by Amanda Olsson

Ours does.

When we lived in Australia we had a large kitchen big enough to eat in. We had a high- benched area so that any guests who were visiting could sit in the kitchen and talk to the person cooking. The cook would not feel isolated from the rest of the guests and could join in the conversation. Guests attending dinner parties or social functions would mostly congregate around the kitchen. People would pull up a stool and chat, a glass of wine in one hand, and, more often than not, a potato peeler and some vegetables in the other.

Newer Australian houses take this concept even further and they try to integrate the kitchen with BBQ areas so that whoever is cooking outside can also be included inside. A relative of mine recently built a house and they installed their cooker halfway in the house and halfway outside. You can access it from either side. This means if you are inside you can see outside, and vice versa. They also installed a kitchen sink with the same indoor/outdoor feel. And this design is becoming more and more typical in Australia. No one wants to be stuck in a hot kitchen removed from the party or entertainment. They want to be part of the event or occasion and not closed off from it.

Yet, when we moved to Hong Kong, we were surprised to note that the kitchens were the exact opposite. They had doors which totally closed off the kitchen from the rest of the house. These doors were often completely wooden without even a glass panel to relieve the occupant from that feeling of exclusion.

Then we worked out that this was because in Hong Kong, most of the cooking is done by domestic staff whereas in Australia, most of the cooking is done by the occupants of the house. They don't have the luxury of having someone to cook for them.

Other cultural differences relate to the size of the kitchen. In Australia we found the kitchens to be large and often designed as part of a family room: they are open-plan and large areas which may include lounges, family rooms, television areas and entertainment spaces. In Hong Kong they tend to be smaller and simpler areas to work in. They also have very low bench tops to match the height of the cooks! Our kitchen benches would hit me mid-thigh. Cooking in one of these kitchens entails a lot of stooping and washing up dishes is murderous on the back!

In Australia, dishwashers are standard, as are ovens and a variety of hobs on the stove top.

In Hong Kong dishwashers are not the norm. Instead, the domestic staff wash dishes by hand. And, as far as cooking hobs are concerned, properties will generally have one or two hobs and no oven, unless they have been redesigned with the Western market in mind. Our first property in Hong Kong had one large burner (suitable for wok cooking) and that was it.

Here in the UK we are coping with different cultural features. Our kitchen has double-glazed windows to keep the heat in (as do all the windows in our property). We also have curtains on our windows (presumably for the same reason). Hong Kong was generally bare and Australia tended to feature blinds that could be angled for protection from the sun.

We also have a wider variety of ovens in our place here - grills, fan-assisted ovens and normal ovens, giving rise to a plethora of baking and grilling options.

It is not just people who have an identity; your kitchen has one as well!

Dr Amanda Olsson has been a trailing spouse for the last eight years.

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