A Chef's Dream Kitchen Realized

All the details of the kitchen home; not the home kitchen; I designed for myself

the "Mainland"

I was 57 when I bought my first house. A very neglected teardown in Inverness, on the Point Reyes National Seashore Peninsula, an hour north of San Francisco. As a single mom and a hardworking caterer in Santa Barbara, I'd previously had no choice, lol! I had bought a commercial building downtown Santa Barbara that my company occupies, but the option of purchasing a home never arose. I was way too busy raising boys, paying for their college degrees, and building a beautiful catering business in Santa Barbara. My own kitchen, in a rented home, was a hodgepodge of garage sale and thrift store hard-working treasures. When I met the love of my life, at 50, Jeffrey said, "Wow, you have all vintage and antique kitchen stuff." lol, no, I never buy new things for myself.

Fast forward to my 57th year, and Jeffrey and I stumble upon a genuinely hideous house in the most beautiful forest we'd ever seen. It was - and still is - a magical fern gully just above Tomalas Bay with a year-round creek, surrounded by wilderness. We got it for a song and have spent the last 6 years constructing our home. We did not use an architect; we used a draftsman who brought my vision to life.

I studied the home kitchens of every professional chef I could find online. Taking ideas from here and there, formulating my idea of a home centered around a kitchen made for gathering and creating. I capped it with a fireplace hearth, a cookbook library and yummy leather couches. On the other end of the long room, we have a dining room with a seaglass chandelier, a dining table I painted, and outside is a wrap around deck and an endless bay laurel tree forest that goes for miles. This is all on the second floor, so it's up in the trees with lots of natural light & great views. We added a mass of eclectic bedrooms, each with its own vibrant color for lots of family & guests, a jacuzzi off in the forest, and a sauna for warming your bones.

A giant walnut cutting block joins the bulletproof quartzite counter that is always cold & perfect for doughs

A second sink provides for the beverage bar with a small frig, delicious filtered well water, a coffee station, a massive tea and sweetener selection, even with our own "bay bees" honey and a full bar & wine selection.

Custom-made, solid steel Bluestar stove & refrigerator had to be lifted in with a crane, but man, are they worth it! The broiler is a rocket engine & that hood makes grilling a tomahawk steak in the middle of the house on the optional set in cast-iron grill a non-issue, with perfect results. Bluestar makes truly professional-grade gas stoves with a 25,000 BTU flame (average household stove is 8-18,000). The under-counter microwave is great too. We did a large pantry and freezer downstairs because we are in a pretty remote area.

All of the counters and the chopping block extend past the cabinetry a good inch and a half to allow for scraping dough or chopped food into a bowl with ease.

The drawer lights are brilliant.

I did a double set of cabinets to maximize storage & I use the pretty orange Hasegawa Lucano Ladder, stored there at the end on the left to access the higher spaces.

Yards of Brazilian quartzite, which is comparable to marble in appearance but is harder and more resistant to scratching or staining than other choices, provide plenty of naturally chilled counter space. There is a total of 80 drawers, interior drawers, and cabinet shelves, all lit from within when opened. The cabinetry is all from Ikea. It was expertly and very affordably installed by a highly-rated man from Morocco; Kiko Livingstone. Over 1,000 boxes were delivered from Ikea! The contractor was cross-eyed. Kiko swept in and had it done in less than three days. Even with all the customization, we didn't use any Ikea appliances, counters, or sinks, and no one had ever installed so many lights; I wanted surgical-grade lighting. I also had eight large skylights put in & adjustable spotlights on tracks throughout the long room from New York Lighting Co.

My brilliant partner, Jeffrey Kincade, oversaw the entire Lutron smart home lighting system and got solar installed to cover all of our needs.

I chose zellige Moroccan tile for the backsplash & step faces, I just love it! It has to be installed closer together than other tiles and with a close-matching grout color to look just right, like vibrant fish scales. I saw a pool Hermes did with it & fell madly in love, it's also affordable, and a great excuse to go to one of the most fun stores ON EARTH, a massive, authentic Moroccan Marketplace, Badia Designs - trust me, bring a truck.

I had a copy of a Ricardo Legorreta door made; the glass can open separately, and the whole door pushes out onto the deck overlooking the forest. When pressed, Dante has been known to open it himself...

On the east side of the room is the fireplace, cookbook library, and yummy leather couches by Joybird that I highly recommend. The west side is home to the Mexican table & bench I've had for 30+ years, it was pretty beat up from raising children and a million meals, so I painted it. It is a botanical history of the boys and me; we call ourselves the tripod. I make seaglass chandeliers. This is my largest one, all from seaglass gathered over many years. There are some perks to getting old.

This is my son, Lucas, a talented chef. He and his wife, Ali, gifted us this incredible Barebones cowboy pit grill. The Tomalas Bay is famous for our Hog Island & Tomalas Bay oysters, which do very well on this grill once the wood burns down to embers. The local ranches have outstanding beef, pork, dairy, and produce. The forest's fallen trees keep our woodpile high & soon our orchards will fill the fruit bowls & jam jars. The mussels along the bay are abundant, the crab & fish are too. The wild berries go all summer, and the well usually gets water at just 8 feet down.

I guess the point is that a girl can dream, and those dreams can come true. I did not marry it or inherit money. I only met my father once, and I've mostly been on my own since 13. I never got alimony or child support. I'm self-educated and made by many people who loved me, and I stay very teachable, curious, and full of joy and gratitude.

With love,

Lynette La Mere

PJC Founding Executive Chef & Owner