A Kitchen Custom Built for Entertaining
by Susan Church Gasque
Maureen and Bob Fasoli and their four children of Bradenton love to
entertain. Whether Maureen is hosting a charitable dinner for 50 or
Bob, a lung specialist, has friends and colleagues over, the kitchen is
the main attraction. “Everyone in the house loves to cook together,”
said Maureen. Although two of their children are in college and two
have recently graduated, they return frequently for family gatherings
with friends.
Maureen is active in the Manatee County Medical Society Auxiliary, the
Debutante Committee of Manatee County/Sarasota, and the Service
Club of Manatee County. Recently Maureen, who has served on the
debutante committee for 10 years, hosted the annual mother/daughter
potluck dinner for 60.
The Fasolis built their three-story brick colonial in 1987. Although they
had a large and beautiful kitchen, they knew that they needed to
replace most of their appliances and, “Bob had his heart set on the 60
inch Wolf Range with a 24 inch griddle that we saw at the kitchen
show,” said Maureen. Bob is the family breakfast expert and he
enjoys cooking omelets and bacon. His interest in griddles stems from
his fascination with diners.
In order to fit the appliances in, the Fasolis were going to have to
rework the cabinets. The kitchen cabinets were made in Germany and
no longer sold in the United States, which ultimately led to the kitchen
renovation. “It became difficult to work everything in so we decided to
junk the whole thing,” said Maureen.
Maureen and Bob went to the 2003 International Kitchen Show in
Orlando to see the latest designs and kitchen trends. The Fasolis
began working with Kitchen Direct in the summer of 2003. Designer
Arron Reidling and co-owner Tony Zanoni worked closely with the
couple. “Arron was able to adapt and fit everything in the way that we
wanted it,” said Maureen. Actual renovation work took place from
January through June 2004.
Bob focused on the appliances and researched all the new gadgetry on
the Internet. The Fasolis bought their appliances from Mullets
Appliances. “Rob LeClerc of Mullets Appliances was absolutely
wonderful. He knew everything about all of these appliances and we
had a wonderful experience working with him,” said Maureen.
Decorative and functional sink
Their previous kitchen had an island with a large cabinet above that
housed their crystal and glasses. The new two and a quarter inch thick
maple butcher block island, with a special under mount trough sink,
replaced it. This opened up the kitchen and allowed more light to fill
the space. “I like to fill the trough sink with flowers or with ice and
drinks when we entertain,” said Maureen. On either end of the sink,
there are faucets to accommodate multiple chefs. The faucets’ nozzles
extend the entire length of the trough for easier clean up. There is also
a garbage disposal in this sink.
The island size allows six to eight people to work at the same time.
This comes in handy when the entire Fasoli family is home cooking
together during college vacation or the holidays. One of the most
anticipated family celebrations is daughter Alexandra’s wedding in
2005. Although the wedding will take place in Italy, her family is
hosting a large New Year’s Eve prewedding reception at home. Fresh
from culinary school in Florence Italy, daughter Amanda plans to make
all the desserts. Knowing that Bob is an expert on the grill, Alexandra
requested that he prepare a pancake breakfast after the party for
everyone.
Because Maureen sacrificed cabinet space to open up her kitchen, she
needed additional cabinetry. She also wanted to display her extensive
crystal and china collection. Glass front and side oak cabinets with a
chestnut finish were installed. The new cabinets extend to the ceiling
providing much more storage space than the previous cabinets.
Hockey puck lights installed in the cabinets highlight her extensive
display that seems to float on the glass shelves. This also adds
another decorative element to the kitchen. “Kitchen Direct’s husband
and wife team of installers, Silvanna and Enrico Soma, did a perfect
job on installation,” said Maureen.
The countertops are emerald pearl granite, which complement the
existing green and beige checkerboard floor. Bob was so fond of the
previous kitchen’s flooring that they decided to keep it. The wall
covering is a beautiful yellow background patterned wallpaper. It
features a pink floral and bird pattern, which compliments Maureen’s
extensive collection of pink Depression glass. The collection was
inherited from Bob’s grandmother and Maureen has added to it.
The textured metal back splash is stamped tin. Maureen has a pewter
collection and chose the tin because it tied everything together. She
also felt that it complemented their traditional colonial style home. “I
didn’t want the stainless steel appliances to dominate and make it look
too modern,” Maureen said. Originally, they had planned on a tin
ceiling, but realized it would have overpowered the space.
State–of-the-Art Oven
The stamped tin beautifully frames the innovative, 60-inch dual fuel
Wolf Oven, which features a high performance, professional gas
cooktop with two, 30-inch European style electric convection ovens.
The left side of the cooktop features four gas burners and the right
side holds a 24-inch griddle (front to back) with two gas burners
beside it. The self-cleaning ovens feature technology that allows any
chef to cook fish and bread at the same time without the odor from
each permeating the other. A pizza stone is included, which makes
baking bread and pizzas much easier.
On the exposed brick wall, a microwave, convection oven and warming
drawer are stacked on top of each other. The original kitchen had a
microwave oven there and the brick wall space was opened up to
include the additional appliances.
Since the Fasoli’s Sub-zero refrigerator and freezer were relatively
new, they chose to add new stainless steel front panels and use the
appliances in their new kitchen. They wanted to use stamped tin on
the front of the refrigerator and freezer, but the size of the tin panels
would have created a seam down the front of the appliances. “We
made certain that the existing appliances were the same size as the
newest models in case we have to replace them without reworking the
cabinetry,” said Maureen.
The primary sink is actually two single bowl sinks placed together to
form a double sink. Although the Fasolis had a double sink in their
previous kitchen, by using two separate sinks together they created a
larger and deeper sink space. One sink includes a garbage disposal.
Since the Fasolis are at the empty nest stage, they decided to install a
regular dishwasher for entertaining and a single drawer dishwasher
when they were dining by themselves. Because Maureen does a
tremendous amount of baking and cooking, she finds that they usually
use the dishwasher. The single drawer dishwasher is camouflaged
with a wood cabinet front. It is conveniently located next to the
regular dishwasher to the left of the sink. The Fasolis use it for extra
capacity dishwashing after parties.
The renovation gave the Fasolis the opportunity to include a media
station and wine cooler in their new kitchen. “I try to never cook the
same meal twice,” said Maureen who uses her kitchen computer to
surf the Internet for new recipes. The media center also includes a
television. Below the media station is the 50-bottle wine cooler with
dual temperature settings for red and white wines.
The large adjoining breakfast room has two sets of french doors, which
open up to a brick back porch and a brick patio/central courtyard with
a gazebo overlooking the backyard pool.
The Fasolis are thrilled with their new kitchen. “Even if we are having
a formal dinner party, it seems everyone ends up in the kitchen before
and afterwards. We knew exactly what we wanted, we had everything
picked out and we were just looking for someone that we felt
comfortable working with, which we found in Kitchens Direct,” said
Maureen.