How I just spent £12,000

[Rickymjam]

Lovely kitchen mate.

I couldn't see how much work space you've got. I hope it's enough.

So what Italian did you cook. A lovely Risotto perhaps?!

[tenneral]

@Rickymjam Thanks. I made Penne with Salmon & Dill for me & a few neighbours. Great success!

[practicalmagic9]

you had me at stephen fry! *(sniff!)*

[TacticalAtheist]

Looking at the layout the appliances & spec in the pictures I fear you have paid rather to much money for your new kitchen.

Nevertheless enjoy!

[BadScienceForFools]

There was a time when the British Pound was much more worthy. Even a penny was too big an amount so it was cut in half.

[niriop]

You're an excellent raconteur

[T0X0PHILUS]

Is it an induction hob?

[tenneral]

@T0X0PHILUS Yes, and it is excellent. I can recommend this highly for your own cooking!

[T0X0PHILUS]

@tenneral We bought one 5 years ago. They are fantastic. Nearly as quick as gas and the surface is so easy to clean because the surface does not get very hot. Have fun experimenting - I did.

[AnonEyeMouse]

This is what you need to know about italian cuisine: Garlic, tomatoes, olives, cheese, pasta, meat (chicken,lamb,beef, fish) oregano, basil, pepper, peppers, mushrooms, wine, vinegar, onions and courgettes.

Mix any four of these together (one must be tomato) in any method you like and the italians have an 'ancient' recipe for it. Seriously...

This does not cover desserts, clearly.

Try mastering traditional British cookery. Any pre (first) war cookbook is a fascinating read.

[tenneral]

@AnonEyeMouse Brilliant comment. I have several books on Italian cooking and it seems that you have compacted all the recipes in a few lines. Thanks very much : I am making Pasta alla Tennerala today!!

[juliuschas]

We did a kitchen makeover a few years ago. Our 1967 Flintstones-era facility was not only worn out, it must have been horrible when it was new. The sink, the square foot of counter space, and every single appliance could be rendered inaccessible simply by opening the door of the Lilliputian oven. Of course, the lighting was so poor that you didn't want to make any sudden moves anyway. Congrats on your Kitchen 2.0!

[srki22]

Money well spent. We live only once so we should spend the money on the things that you we every day as soon as possible.

[tenneral]

@srki22 Just my thoughts, although when I discovered how much it would all cost, I was truly astounded.

[sirnubenegra]

Lol. Price beauty

[CorndogMaker]

Wow tenneral, a house of the future!

[TheCaptainLulz]

Heres a great recipe thats quick. Cook some elbow pasta, fry up some ground beef, and add 1 or 2 cans of campbells (if you have that there) tomato soup. Do not dilute the soup from the can. Mix together and you have a beefaroni that noone will dislike.

[tenneral]

@TheCaptainLulz What a great idea : I shall try this one directly. And thanks for the interest.

[LAnonHubbard]

Just watched QI earlier. Difficult to not catch a repeated show these days...

[ProfMTH]

Congratulations on the kitchen. It looks gorgeous. My partner and I have been putting off getting ours redone for a while, but the last estimate we had for it was about the equivalent in American dollars to the figure you quote in the title. It made me gasp, but my partner (who does the cooking--in the main, Italian, BTW)--is about ready to lose his mind from frustration with the antiquated equipment in there.

I've seen clips of Q.I. here on YouTube. It looks like a great show.

[tenneral]

@ProfMTH I was horrified when the estimate was given to me. A lot of old investments had to be realised in a hurry. But - hey - I can't take it with me, so upgrading from the stone-age kitchen seemed worth it in the end.

[brianthemayan]

Cheerio from The States... I LOVE your videos... and get quite giddy when I see one of them in my subscription box.

Hoping that you make the best of your new kitchen.....

[tenneral]

@brianthemayan Thanks. I will - and greetings from this side of the Ocean.

[apfejes]

I look forward to seeing you on Iron Chef episodes on Youtube.

[amazingbollweevil]

Wow, that's quite the kitchen!

[angryislander56]

Kitchens are heinously expensive. I see you have avoided the cliche of granite counters. I am jealous of the induction cooker!

[tenneral]

@angryislander56 Yes; the work-surfaces are called 'Jura Marble' effect and perfectly adequate. I can never understand people who get slabs of stone in their kitchen : for one thing it makes work there so noisy.

[lurkio77]

two 70's houses for the price of a 2011 kitchen refit - shows how much the robbing b**tards have devalued our money !

[tenneral]

@lurkio77 Yes. Don't get me started on the rocketing price of houses in my country and throughout Europe. No wonder young people find it so hard - even impossible - to get onto the housing ladder.

[equallyeasilyfuqyou]

is that a drier in your kitchen? :O

[tenneral]

@equallyeasilyfuqyou No, just the washing machine. Like all the other gadgets, it's German in manufacture. At least nothing (so far!) has Made in China on the label. But no doubt that will happen soon enough.

[GodlessIrish]

Check out Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals on 4OD. Its brilliant!

[tenneral]

@GodlessIrish They are marvellous programmes - just about my level of competence in the kitchen too.

[Widgetas]

I apologise, but when you said "micro wave" I laughed quite a bit.

[extion]

Great! Now you're going to have to spend the same amount of money on all new cookware! =P

[hgryphon]

Cooking is very satisfying. Enjoy learning the art. :)

[martialme84]

You are cool.

You really are. :-)

[KCatch22]

I wish we had QI in america. I've only seen YouTube clips of it but it's an awesome show!

[Mozza314]

We get QI here in Australia. I must watch it more often.

[johncrwarner]

Work your way through the Silver Spoon and you can make videos of your efforts - perhaps you can make a Julie & Julie style video LOL

I get DVD packs of QI for birthdays and christmas and so always look forward to those times to get the latest fix of comedy and education.

[KrisBlueNZ]

Oooh an induction cooktop... you jammy bugger!

[tenneral]

@KrisBlueNZ It really is the 'bee's knees' as an appliance. None of my neighbours have ever seen one!

[ozmoroid]

You need to invite us all over for dinner after you master the culinary arts. ;-)

[tenneral]

@ozmoroid Your name is duly noted for future dinners!

[x246869]

A future question for QI

Stephen: Do you know how many 4.00 pizzas you could order for supper for 12,000.00.

Alan: 3,000

BEEP/BONG..

Stephen: Minus 25 points Alan Davies, You forgot to include the compounded interest. That is unless you were going to eat them all at once, which interestingly enough is..... :)

[myjizzureye]

Hmmmmm

[jazzx251]

I just bought a new "executive" chair to watch this on.

Cost me £99 - the most I've ever spent on a chair in my life.

But new things are worth the investment most of the time. Especially when they replace something with an annoying quirk that should have been replaced ages ago.

[soulsanctuarymusic1]

@jazzx251 Funnily I have exactly the same dilemma myself, my computer chair clunks really loudly every time i shift position, need a new one, what did you get?

[jazzx251]

@soulsanctuarymusic1

I went to Staples and got a "Darcy". Very quiet on the swivel - clunks a bit if you like rocking backwards and forwards and set it too loose. Otherwise nice and quiet. Just discovered that the curvy, cool feel of the spider legs feels really nice with bare feet.

Material feels like a plasticy-leathery thing - but plush, not cheap. Lovely padding!

But my last one ... lol, I had to sit on the edge, otherwise it would drop me onto the lowest level with an almighty THUNK!

[soulsanctuarymusic1]

@jazzx251 ah, I'm looking for something really quiet, my GF often sleeps in the same room while i'm working in the early hours of the morning, means i have to sit still as a statue and risk waking her up if i get out of the chair for any reason. :)

[TheCaptainLulz]

@jazzx251 replacing an internet fart chair is like losing a smelly friend. Still its well worth it if the new ones got better padding to absorb more of the byproduct of an internet filled life. May your new chair bring you much happiness.

[jazzx251]

@TheCaptainLulz

and yours also

[srki22]

@jazzx251 ...and the question emerges: why was that not replaced ages ago? we live only once so it is better to start using new things as soon as possible if we plan to eventually buy that new thing anyway.

[jazzx251]

@srki22

... because, there's better things to spend £99 on. I managed to delay the purchase for about 3 years - lol - that means, the old chair had 3 years more value squeezed out of it.

It wasn't a bad chair. If you sat on it the right way, it was perfectly comfortable!

[TheAtheistPaladin]

That comes to 19,532.32 USD. That is quite a good sum to pend on the kitchen. You must REALLY love to eat for to spend that much...

[LordProfBear]

Don't forget to let us know how the cookery goes.

[diraso12]

You had me at QI.

[AnomalousDataPoint]

You know, whilst some of the content on QI is, well, quite interesting, I' was rather disappointed to hear of the degree to which comedy panel shows like this are scripted and rehearsed, and I now sense it with QI all the time and find it very irritating,.

[tenneral]

@AnomalousDataPoint You obviously know more than I do about the pre-scripting of the show. That's a pity indeed if the witty answers are prepared beforehand. I can't imagine that Alan Davies would give in to such a temptation!

[KrisBlueNZ]

@AnomalousDataPoint Yeah I think this is common nowadays. The last "improvised" show that I'm pretty sure was not pre-planned was the British Whose Line Is It Anyway.

Re QI, I enjoy it a lot, but I was disappointed by their "How many moons does Earth have?" question, the "correct" answer apparently being TWO - "the moon" and some other celestial object that (IIRC) doesn't actually orbit Earth. But I would listen to Stephen Fry read a shopping list, so I forgive them for their commercialism.

[AnomalousDataPoint]

@KrisBlueNZ Yes, one which really made me groan was 'What does this chemical equation represent?' The 'correct' answer given by one of the panellists (after a few witty diversions) was 'explosion in a custard factory', queue Stephen Fry's humorous tale of some unfortunate industrial accident. However, the equation in question simply showed either the combustion of glucose, or respiration, and would have been readily recognised as such to anyone who took either Chemistry or Biology O level..

[KrisBlueNZ]

@AnomalousDataPoint Yeah, they sacrifice a lot of accuracy and completeness in the quest for a good soundbite or amazing-sounding headline. Like a superhero movie, they show us something more exciting than reality because we are bored with reality.

[TheRottieRobb]

Congrats on the upgrade, it looks great. I I just recently discovered QI and love it it. It is not shown here in the states but thanks to the internet, bitorrent and newsgroups it can be downloaded. cheers

[dannybambino]

I am jealous of your induction cooktop. I'd love to have one, and am currently only buying compatible pots and pans in preparation. Congratulations on your new kitchen.

I started watching these just the other day, and thought of you... it's funny that you should be taking up other enterprises in the same way.

youtube.com/user/YaleCourses#p­/c/6A08EB4EEFF3E91F/0/P3FKHH2R­zjI

[tenneral]

@dannybambino Thanks for the address of the Yale lectures - always of interest and hugely authoritative too.

[nekedemus]

Nice kitchen, indeed.

12,000£ !

That´s about the same I had to pay for my house back in 84.

But then again. You would probably had to add a zero to the back of that sum in today's money.

[AlphaCentCom]

More than *twice*!!

[skinnyjohnsen]

Looking great! But I'm sure your old kitchen is more like what old ladies in Italy use when they cook! Still, I must admit that I too want an induction top. The milk doesn't burn when it cooks over ;-)

[thatsnotagoodidea]

Wow that's nice looking. It looks like it will be worth it.

[Proletariat12]

That's... quite the purchase.