Hate Standing While Preparing Dinner? You Should Try Julia Child's Easy Solution

The prospect of having to prepare dinner after a long day may be daunting, especially on evenings when your daily tasks have tired you out. Julia Child, the American doyenne of French cooking, organized every inch of her cozy kitchen. Each knife, pot, and kitchen tool had a spot that it always returned to after she'd prepared a meal. Even design features Child didn't use were repurposed. Her efficient, practical approach extended to the physical aspect of food prep. She sat at her table to accomplish some of them. There is no rule that you have to stand up to do kitchen chores, in fact, there are very few practical reasons to. Washing dishes, yes, you need to stand at the sink. But vegetables can be peeled, onions chopped, and stew meat cubed while you're sitting at the table.

A table and chairs took a place of pride in the center of Julia Child's kitchen for both prep and for dining. In 2001, she donated her kitchen and everything in it to the National Museum of American History — it's on display in Washington, D.C. The table and chairs were imported from Norway, the pans on the wall are a mix of copper and cast iron, and a bookcase holds cookbooks and videotapes. Like many home cooks, Child liked to watch TV when she cooked; a set could be rolled into the kitchen. Using the kitchen table for food preparation kept her near the sink, the stove, and her tools.

Carrying a bowl of cake batter to the table so you can sit down while you stir isn't a big deal, but making a few modifications to your table work space makes onion chopping or potato peeling more efficient. Replacing your table's chairs with chairs that have casters makes it easy to wheel yourself over to the counter if you've forgotten the knife you need to cube stew beef. They come in lots of styles that don't look like you've pushed your office chair into the kitchen. The best overhead lighting for the kitchen table is important, and installing a small towel ring on the edge of the table keeps your kitchen cloth handy. The ultimate nod to increasing your table's utility might be replacing the one you have with a butcher block table you can chop on.

You're not completely out of luck if you don't have room for a table in your kitchen. Consider having a section of your countertop lowered to table height, and tuck a stool under it when it's not in use. Adding a fold-down leaf at the end of the counter doesn't take up any space when it's down, but you'll need a counter height barstool to use it. If you have the wall space, you can add a table that folds up and out of the way. And, of course, if you have a peninsula or island in your kitchen you can sit there. If you have no other alternatives, you can load up a wheeled cart with everything you need for food prep and roll it out to the dining room.