Zurich - Cooking in Someone Else's Kitchen

My Kitchen in Zurich

When it comes to looking after the flat, I think it’s the kitchen that causes me the most concern.

For instance, I seem to burn something most nights as I just can’t get used to the hob and the way the pots retain the heat; Denise has left me very high quality pots and pans that would cost a fortune to replace, so each time I make my evening meal, I’m sweating – not due to the heat, but due to my nervous tension! Fortunately, so far, high quality seems to mean that burnt materials are removed without too much elbow grease, but it’s stressful each time and it can’t be good for me or for the pans.

Denise was excited to tell me that she had absolutely everything in the kitchen. It was true, she had things I’d never ever heard of before. She showed me something to put over the frying pan to stop it from spitting and marking the wall. Unfortunately, I didn’t identify it properly afterwards and used something else instead that promptly melted all over the frying pan. Consequently, the frying pan now has melted plastic burned onto it all round the rim. I did manage to yank most of it off using a sharp knife, but some black patches currently still remain. I hope I may be able to remove these over the course of a year.

It turned out that the thing I’d used by accident was actually some kind of mat for the sink; its precise purpose still escapes me. Fortunately, I discovered that she had five spares (??), so I’m hoping she won’t realise that she has one less now.

She may have everything, but I think there are cultural differences. She didn’t have a potato masher, which, when I come to think of it, is probably quite a British thing (although they do have them here). I dug out something else amongst all her utensils – it looked like a large netted spoon – and made do with that. It was surprisingly effective and gave me a beautiful, smooth mash. When I went into the shops later, I found it was supposed to be used to make foam. I guess it’s for those cappuccino soups? I’m really not sure. Anyway, it did a good mashed potato.

Another thing she didn’t have that I really missed was a microwave. Again, this is probably the contrast between the Swiss desire for culinary perfection and my British background of slobbishness. I never really cook with a microwave, but I need it constantly for defrosting food that I’ve forgotten to take out, reheating food that I’ve already cooked, and reheating my cup of coffee when I forget to drink it. I’m just not Swiss.

Denise had also left me her herbs and spices. Although she had a huge variety – including all those Swiss special seasoning ones that they have here – she didn’t have mint or cinnamon. I’ve since decided that this must be a cultural difference too, since it was difficult to find these in the supermarket. In fact, I ended up buying a mint plant that I’ve put out in the garden. I just couldn’t find dried mint at all. I had a mental blackout when I tried to buy cinnamon and couldn’t remember clearly what it was called or what it smelled like, so I ended up with some nutmeg that I will never use. I did manage to get some in the end, though.

Another problem with using someone else’s kitchen for a year is that you forget exactly what it looked like at the beginning. She has a Roemertopf, which I’ve used multiple times for roast chicken now, but I can’t remember if the crack down the side was there from the beginning (I hope it was!) and whether the blackened rim had already instated itself before my arrival. I do know it wasn’t new-looking, but I didn’t pay enough attention to the details.

The same holds for the ceramic hob, where I am less optimistic about flaws that I am suddenly noticing. There seem to be white water marks on it now, which actually I’m pretty sure weren’t there before. I’ve tried scrubbing, but they seem to be permanent. I’ve only been here six weeks as I write this, so it’s a bit disturbing. If I keep on destroying the kitchen at this rate, I’ll have to buy a new one by the time I move out. I think an internet search to solve this problem is in order!

Alternatively, maybe I should just give up on the idea of cooking altogether.