Dining In, Living Large

Throwing a seven-course sit-down dinner for 18 doesn’t faze Karen Bobo and Alan Grosbard. A business manager and attorney, respectively, they love to prepare and share dinners with close friends in their elegant but comfortable kitchen/dining suite.

Formal soirees such as their annual black-tie Halloween party are legend. Guests are given long-sleeved lab coats to protect their frocks and tuxes, then invited to participate. While some may sit at the bar sipping one of Grosbard’s specialty drinks--Rob Roys, Cosmos, Manhattans (“all the classics,” he says)--others gather at the long trough sink to cut and wash vegetables or prepare plates for serving. Venice architect Lise Matthews of Lise Claiborne Matthews and Associates, who designed the couple’s $170,000 kitchen, recalls chopping garlic in her blackvelvet dress. “Everyone chips in,” she says. “It’s really fun.” Between courses, guests may help out or sit in the living room and chat, and occasionally someone plays the piano, Grosbard says. “The kitchen is really the center of our home. It’s where everything happens.”

Based on an open restaurant kitchen design, the room features a long galley with a central island. On one side of the island, Matthews placed a stand-up bar with a cantilevered marble counter to separate the kitchen from the living room. To handle the messy dishes issue, she tucked the cleanup zone at the far end of the kitchen, adjacent to the garage--a space hidden from the living and dining area. “We loved the open restaurant concept,” Grosbard says. “Of course, in reality, open restaurants aren’t really open. You never see any heavy cleanup--just the fun part of chefs cooking.”

With almost military precision, the couple strategically planned every detail of the kitchen with Matthews--from appliance placement to drawer height. They selected a dishwasher for each work station. Each has a different function: a Miele in the center island is prized for its china setting and separate rack for cutlery; a Bosch in the service kitchen scours large pots and holds oversized plates; two Fisher & Paykel dishwasher drawers in the bar handle glassware.

Flanking the kitchen, a tall built-in china cabinet features a 36-inch Gaggenau oven, where Bobo cooks thin-crust homemade pizzas. She proofs the dough at 85 degrees in her Gaggenau steam oven, which she also uses for cooking a variety of dishes from risotto and vegetables to soft-boiled eggs. “It’s the most versatile appliance in the kitchen,” she says. A flat panel Sony TV extends out from an upper shelf when they want to watch the news, while an area at the opposite end of the cupboard holds a pair of wireless laptop computers and serves as their home office.

The back wall of the cooking area is lined with handsome mahogany cabinets and drawers, each with a specific function: spices for making curry in one, baking ingredients in another. Three of the drawers handle different size frying pans. A pair of Thermador gas cooktops--a total of 12 burners--allow them enough room to cook complicated dishes side-by-side. “People always ask if I’ve ever used all 12 at once,” Grosbard says. “We haven’t yet, but someday we might.”

Not to be outdone, the bar area is outfitted with every conceivable gadget and amenity. At one end, Sub-Zero freezer drawers chill their homemade gelati and hold frozen stocks and small game. Refrigerator drawers at the other end keep cheese at 36 degrees and a variety of drink mixes and garnishes chilled. Also included in the area under the counter are a wine cooler and ice maker. Gadgets include professional barware--from shakers, stirrers and squeezers to a special lime masher that Grosbard uses to make caipirinha, a Brazilian cocktail.

For large parties, the couple use the garage adjacent to the service kitchen, where they installed a sink and keep several commercial stacking racks. “It’s our staging area,” Bobo explains. “For a seven-course meal we have each of the plates, cutlery, glasses--whatever we’re using--set up and ready to go. After each course, we take dirty dishes out to the racks. We don’t have to look at the mess.” Bobo says it can take up to two days to put everything back in its place after a large dinner--even with three dishwashers. “The cleanup is just as much fun. It gives us time to talk about the party. It’s all part of the process.”

Resource Guide:

Lise Claiborne Matthews and Associates, Venice, (310) 399-7108; Miele, Beverly Hills, (310) 855-9470; Sub-Zero refrigerators available at Snyder Diamond, Santa Monica, (310) 450-1000; Thermador cooktops available at Universal Appliances and Kitchens, Sherman Oaks, (818) 380-9999; KWC commercial-style faucet available at Boffi Los Angeles, Santa Monica, (310) 458-9300; Le Creuset 12-quart enameled-steel stockpot, $85, at Kitchen Outfitters, Long Beach, (562) 434-2728; Le Jacquard Francais Isba runner, $65 at Windows, Pasadena, (626) 356-7502; Asiaphile rice-bowl candles, $34 each, at Zero Minus Plus at Fred Segal, Santa Monica, (310) 395-5718; Vic Firth pepper mills, $35-$49, at Bristol Farms stores; Elba martini glasses, $60 each, Elba pitcher, $295, Candida silver tray, $150, and Dakota Etamine linen towel, $120, all at Armani Casa, Beverly Hills, (310) 248-2440; George Nelson wallclock, $250 at Vitra, Santa Monica, (310) 393-9542.