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Building a Kitchen for the Instagram Chef
The way we cook has always changed over time. In the 1800s, making meals with naturally seasonal or preserved ingredients was an all-day affair, and without refrigeration everything had to be made from scratch.
Diets, too, change over time: low-fat diets, high-protein eating, intermittent fasting, carnivore diets, plant-based diets have all had their moments in the spotlight.
So what about the way we cook today?
While the majority of us see cooking from scratch as an essential life skill, research carried out by Tom Howley found that nearly a quarter of people cook only twice a week or less, with half those people saying they just don’t have the time.
This paints a picture of many people who want to cook and think it is important to cook from scratch, but just don’t feel like they have the resources to do it regularly.
So, how do we adapt a kitchen to make cooking in 2026 feel like a pleasure rather than a chore, and to feel easy, rather than an insurmountable task?
Let’s explore it together.
What Does the 2026 Kitchen Look Like?
Fifty percent of people in our survey said that the amount of time they spend cooking has changed in the last five years, and the social media algorithm is reflective of this shift. The average person spends only 31 minutes cooking their main meal as of 2024, a continuous decrease over the previous five years.
Thousands, if not millions, of recipes online and on social media position themselves as quick, easy, nutritious, and delicious all in one, and 71% of us say we use social media as a source of new recipes in the kitchen.
As life gets busier, everyday chores like cooking can feel harder to stay on top of, and quick hacks to get nutritious meals on the table are a valuable commodity, and one that Tom Howley client Charlotte Stirling-Reed knows all about.
How Charlotte Stirling-Reed Makes Modern Family Meals Feel Easy
Baby and child nutritionist Charlotte Stirling-Reed is well-acquainted with this shift toward quick, easy recipes. On Instagram (@sr_nutrition), online, and in the media, Charlotte shares her knowledge of child nutrition, weaning, and helping kids develop a positive relationship with food to 425,000 followers.
As a busy mum of two herself, Charlotte knows the value of a quick meal that can feed the whole family, and of the chaos that can sometimes ensue when it comes to dinnertime with young children!
In her kitchen, she needed space that she could use flexibly to work and to cook for her family, including on those busy days where you just need to throw something together.
Charlotte says:
My family’s favourite meals to share together would normally be something like a curry, or a really simple pasta sauce, where it takes me ten minutes to pop it together. I love to do what I call a ‘prawnzo’, which is orzo with prawns, which the kids love. It takes about ten minutes to make, and it means we all sit down to a nice warm meal together.
The other thing I love to cook as a family is anything where you can have lots of sides added to it, so it’s something everyone can pick and mix.
Because for me, having a little pick and mix meal can really help take the pressure off those mealtimes and everyone having to eat exactly the same thing, so we all get what we want in one quick, easy, nutritious meal.
Making the Kitchen Work for Today
The way our kitchen works is about more than just which appliances we use. It’s about how the kitchen is laid out, how each appliance and area interacts with the others, who uses the kitchen and the storage systems that feel intuitive.
The ergonomics and layout of a kitchen are key. There is no point in having multiple appliances if their usage journeys overlap each other. As an example, if you have your fridge on one side of the room and your breakfast station the other, with everything else in between, you’ll just bump into each other – imagine busy mornings trying to make a coffee whilst someone else cooks and someone else just wants to grab cereal while your paths keep crossing over the kitchen!” – Rupert Colwill, Tom Howley Designer
Similarly, having the things you use often close to where you use them can smooth the cooking process – herbs, spices, butter and oils all in arm’s reach might not seem like much, but it makes more of a difference than you might think.
Cleaning as you go is also made easier when your kitchen has been designed for busy modern life. Keeping a food bin or in-built bin close to your cooking space makes getting rid of those peelings and tops-and-tails just a quick wipe, while a double dishwasher set-up means no dirty pots and pans have to be left languishing in the sink when dinner is over.
Modern appliances like air fryers and steam ovens can preheat and cook much more quickly and using healthier methods than conventional appliances as well, while induction hobs and boiling water taps save you time boiling large quantities of water for big family meals!
All this comes together to make a kitchen for the Instagram chef – the busy chef who enjoys cooking, but sometimes just needs to get a nutritious, delicious, family-friendly dinner on the table as quickly as possible, so that you can get on with the more important things.
Cooking today is all about ease and efficiency. With intuitive layouts, smart storage, and time-saving tech, your kitchen can take the pressure off mealtimes.
Visit a Tom Howley showroom today to design a space made for how you live.