'Flipping Out' In The Kitchen

image via House BeautifulHouse Beautiful is celebrating their "Kitchen of The Year" this week in Rockefeller Center. The kitchen was designed by none other than Jeff Lewis. I don't know about you guys, but I'm so excited for the August return of Jeff's show, "Flipping Out" on Bravo, that I've been color-coding my sock drawer and alphabetizing my spice rack in preparation. Because Jeff is anal, you see. That was a joke about me being Jeff-like.

I suppose it's hard for any kitchen to be impressive when it's full of 238 bored, sweaty tourists asking, "are there free giveaways in here?", but I was underwhelmed upon my entrance. Of course, I expected the dark wood finish of the cabinets - very Jeff - but everything felt cheap and temporary. It was hard for me to imagine the space as an actual kitchen instead of what it actually is - a pop-up display at Roc Center.

There was a Bertolli demo happening while I was there; from what I could tell, the chef was making very intricate recipe called "Bertolli Pasta With Bertolli Sauce From A Jar On Top".

I like this light fixture - it's funky and just celestial enough, without being too out there (it's from Germany!).

The artisanal fruit bowl is great, but I was not thrilled with the carved Walker Zanger backsplash tiles. Every seam showed, and it looked more like linoleum than the high quality stone that it is. I like my cheap stuff to look expensive, not the other way around.

The greenery on the outdoor patio was beautiful - I thought of it as an homage to Jeff's "prickly" behavior.

It was less successful spread randomly all over the dining table - who wants to pass the salt over cactus? Ouch.

Ding! Bonus = seeing Top Chef Sam Talbot outside. Even in his flat Tom's shoes, he's 6'6". I'm 5'10", so...me likey.

All in all, I hope that the new season of Flipping Out is more entertaining than this field trip was. Although, since it ended with a trip to the Magnolia Bakery around the corner, I really can't complain. Because my mouth is full.

+ Here's a sked of all the stuff going down for the rest of the week.

+ And way more photos.