Pesach Kitchens

[ckmk47]

My small Pesach kitchen is in my dinette kind of continuous with my regular kitchen.
In advance I cook meats, some kugels and cake.  A few days before Pesach, in my large regular kitchen, we empty a few choice drawers & several pantry shelves and line them. Then we kasher the granite and sinks, cover the porcelain of the stoves, put on Pesach grates, and I have enough room for several cooks to work simultaneously. For 2-3 days.

[yosefsv]

Game changer. An absolute must (after a master bathroom). We turn over our kitchen in about 30 minutes flat (put on countertops, kasher the sinks, change the oven grates, and line the fridge and 2 cabinets) the night of bedikas chometz. None of the 1-2 weeks of prepesach pesach food that we grew up with. B"H

My Pesach kitchen is in the playroom. A week or so before Pesach we move over the toys to one of the bedrooms, and it is such an ease to prepare the Pesach food, while we enjoy the chometz in the regular kitchen.
I purchased my home in Jan 2020 and did not plan to install a Pesach kitchen yet. But then Covid came, and I realized that we need to prepare the whole Yom Tov (for the first time), while all kids are home from school... So I installed the Pesach kitchen, and I am grateful that I did.

[EliJelly]

Good pesach kitchen tip, should really be posted next year. Many people like to have additional counter space, especially when cooking and preparing large scale, so they use lifetime tables etc. for additional space. The most ideal is to have counter height tables so some buy adjustable height tables, but if you already have regular tables then you can just buy these furniture risers and you'll get counter height tables.

We make double use out of these as we use it with the sofa we use for the היסב bed to get the desired height with the seder table.

[mevinyavin]

I enjoyed reading the thread.
Now, for a little bit of perspective:
When Rabbi Berkovits discusses kashering keilim for Pesach, he always says the same thing. In Europe, they used to kasher everything because they only had one of everything they had. In the States, people started having extra keilim for Pesach and it became unheard of to kasher ("the SAME pot you made your pasta in!?"). However, in Eretz Yisrael, they had just shrugged and said they can't afford extra keilim.
R' Berkovits concludes, "Keilim are cheap now and there are those who say the Israelis should get with the times and buy Pesach keilim. But they are only taking into account the initial cost of the keilim. Who can afford the 85 shekel a month it would take to STORE them?" (Price based on average rent divided by the meters it gets you, and is probably way out of date. And for those who buy houses, an extra meter is at how many more shekel?)
And you fellows are talking about extra kitchens. It reminds me of when I was a day-camp counselor, and one of the campers was from out of town. I took one family of kids home for the afternoon before the camp banquet (camp ended at 3PM and the banquet was at seven - they lived 45 minutes away by car. I know, totally not advisable today...). The first grade camper sees my two-floor Brooklyn house and says, "Your house is TINY!" (His house has five floors.)
I'm American enough to have Pesach keilim, for the record...

[Sam Finkelstein]

Rav Dunner zt”l of London always insisted on kashering one pot so the minhag of kashering for Pesach wouldn’t be lost.

[JMHO]

I'm American enough to have Pesach keilim, for the record...

*and storage space for them

[JMHO]

Rav Dunner zt”l of London always insisted on kashering one pot so the minhag of kashering for Pesach wouldn’t be lost.

Bechers?

[SSLPhD]

I'm curious if most people with Pesach kitchens only use it for fleishigs.  Every description in this thread (with the exception of the attached houses) sounds tiny.  For Pesach prep, we need even more space than year-round, and the dining room is integrated into the kitchen.

[Moshe123]

I'm curious if most people with Pesach kitchens only use it for fleishigs.  Every description in this thread (with the exception of the attached houses) sounds tiny.  For Pesach prep, we need even more space than year-round, and the dining room is integrated into the kitchen.

Yes for who I know.
We eat very little dairy on Pesach.

[Sammy82]

Yes for who I know.
We eat very little dairy on Pesach.

Same here.

[Moshe Green]

I'm curious if most people with Pesach kitchens only use it for fleishigs.  Every description in this thread (with the exception of the attached houses) sounds tiny.  For Pesach prep, we need even more space than year-round, and the dining room is integrated into the kitchen.

Was shmoozing with my sister (who lives in the US) before pesach and i mentioned that we have a parve deep fryer. She asked why i don't make it Fleishigs so i can do Shnitzel, etc. I then realized that Israelis can have only 2 days of YT and 5 days of CH"HA and therefore it was impractical to make it fleishigs. But for someone who, like this year had 5 days of YT and Shabbos and only 2 1/2 days of CH"HA, milchigs is almost unnecessary.

[dealfinder11]

I enjoyed reading the thread.
Now, for a little bit of perspective:
When Rabbi Berkovits discusses kashering keilim for Pesach, he always says the same thing. In Europe, they used to kasher everything because they only had one of everything they had. In the States, people started having extra keilim for Pesach and it became unheard of to kasher ("the SAME pot you made your pasta in!?"). However, in Eretz Yisrael, they had just shrugged and said they can't afford extra keilim.
R' Berkovits concludes, "Keilim are cheap now and there are those who say the Israelis should get with the times and buy Pesach keilim. But they are only taking into account the initial cost of the keilim. Who can afford the 85 shekel a month it would take to STORE them?" (Price based on average rent divided by the meters it gets you, and is probably way out of date. And for those who buy houses, an extra meter is at how many more shekel?)
And you fellows are talking about extra kitchens. It reminds me of when I was a day-camp counselor, and one of the campers was from out of town. I took one family of kids home for the afternoon before the camp banquet (camp ended at 3PM and the banquet was at seven - they lived 45 minutes away by car. I know, totally not advisable today...). The first grade camper sees my two-floor Brooklyn house and says, "Your house is TINY!" (His house has five floors.)
I'm American enough to have Pesach keilim, for the record...

Rav Dunner zt”l of London always insisted on kashering one pot so the minhag of kashering for Pesach wouldn’t be lost.

there is a big difference in halacha between a kli that gets hot and is "boleiah taam" and a kli that does not.  Hence the minhag that some have to kasher a becher and not kasher a pot.

Bechers?