Freedom around the campfire

The most honest discussions happen around the kitchen table, where everyone is equal. Observations by Peter Würth.

Everything seems much lighter in the kitchen. Gossiping, telling jokes, falling in love, chatting, eating, drinking and even fighting – it all happens in the kitchen. Things that can seem complicated or difficult at first become much clearer at the kitchen table. It’s almost like all barriers, differences, limits and distances disappear. Around the kitchen table there is a real democracy, genuine equality, everyone can be or do whatever they want.

A place of trust

This is exactly why the kitchen is a place where decisions are  made. A place where negotiations are held. No conference, meeting or trial is more important or productive. For example, no cabinet has ever been as effective as the Kitchen Cabinet that American president Andrew Jackson established in 1831 because he didn’t fully trust his official cabinet. The freedom to speak openly but in complete confidentiality leads to new ideas being formed and real, workable results. It all starts and ends in the kitchen.

Everything begins and ends in the kitchen

From the wildest fantasies of party-goers, their tongues loosened by alcohol, grow imaginative projects and new alliances, friendships for life, marriages or careers. All parties and celebrations start and end in the kitchen.

The exuberant hyperactives, the melancholy and the happy, the singers and story-tellers, the quiet listeners, the permanently hungry and perpetually thirsty, the insatiable, those that don’t want to go home and those with a zest for life, all come together around the modern-day equivalent of the campfire.

Toward new pastures

The kitchen table is the last strong hold of the late-night revellers – where they get happy and full, drunk and jolly, and where even the ones that start to feel a little melancholy just enjoy being together. And if someone should shed a few tears over their ex, the others are there to comfort them, wrap them in a cloud of compassion and, if necessary, offer a drink or two to help them wash away the past and move on to new pastures.

At the round table, where life is so full and exciting, issues and relationships are dealt with more openly during the wee hours because inhibitions and fears can be hidden behind joie de vivre, creativity, inspiration and the desire for a brief, carefree moment.

Tonight nothing matters. Tonight people are living in the kitchen like there’s no tomorrow.

More of Kitchen Love columns:

The king of chopping

The sweet smell of memories