It depends on how much help I think you’ll be. If I think you can cook as well as I and to the same standards, by all means grab a knife and start chopping some celery for me. If you think you’re a good cook because you can brown meat and throw in taco seasoning, get the fuck out and watch the show.
Sometimes, if people really want to help and won’t take no for an answer, I’ll make some pudding or rissotto and say “ok, you sit here and stir this” which is actually helpful and can be done by anyone.
Similarly, if you can’t cook, I will be more than happy to eat your food but do not want to watch you cook it. I’m a horrible backseat driver in the kitchen.
Type B. Get the fuck out. Unless you’re hot, and I’m going to sweep everything off the counter and do you right there.
If there’s a bar you can sit at separating you from the kitchen but you can sit there and watch and chat, that’s more than welcome. I might let you stir something for less than a minute. I’d welcome you doing some chopping or peeling, as long as you can sit on the other side of that bar while you do it.
Oh, you said cook. I’ll accept help on minor things such as pre-prep, cleanup, and other non-creative matters. I chop, I season, I cook. Unfortunately, my current kitchen is close to microscopic in size, so any “help” invariably gets in the way.
Type B for sure. I think of cooking like I do sleeping–do not interrupt me unless it’s an emergency. Also, I have a tiny kitchen and there’s hardly room to breathe, much less work, if there is more than one person in there.
…but you’d better be prepared to help. I love to have a bustling kitchen. Our house has a “great room” that is supposed to be half kitchen half family room. It’s pretty much all kitchen now with a butcherblock table where a sofa might be. Plenty of room for lots of people to hang out, mix drinks and help.
Type A. It helps that since I live in a dorm, any cooking is done in the lounge where there is plenty of room for everyone. I learned to cook by asking questions and “helping” my parents and other relatives. I extend the same courtesy to others. I also don’t make a lot of things that require carefully coordinated maneuvers to end up right. So I’m not too concerned if I have to stop with one thing to help with something else. And then my friends feel good about themselves and I’d rather eat humdrum food with happy friends than fantastic food by myself.
Definitely B. I’ll happily accept help with cleaning up and if you’re willing to sit on the stool in the corner, you’re welcome to hang out with me, but do not attempt to help. I have no qualms about shooing people out of my kitchen.
Type B. Stay out of my shrine unless you’ve been invited in.
Daddy doesn’t need a 42" flat screen TV to watch football on (Mamma needs that) or a wetbar in the basement mancave (Mamma needs that). My place is in the kitchen, tread the tiles with respect and fear, and only when invited.
I’m a control freak and planner when it comes to cooking for guests, so I’m a B. Except I wouldn’t still be cooking, other than keeping things warm, when people got there, since I’d have planned ahead.
Polar opposite of a friend who hasn’t even started when you show up for dinner, and thinks it’s great fun to all help. If I get invited to dinner, I expect dinner to be ready and served by the person who invited me, but that’s the way my mom did it.
I also don’t want people to help clear or do the dishes–that’s my job as the hostess. Somehow this actually almost offends a couple of my friends.
Get out of the kitchen, because you keep taking everything I’m cooking with and putting it in with dirty dishes. Also stop[ wiping everything down with a dirty stinky rag, so I have to sanitize everything while I’m cooking. I’m almost to the B, but I won’t purposely knock somebody on their ass, because they were near me. If people could leave my stuff alone i could have them in the kitchen, but they don’t.
It’s not a distraction issue. When I have people over I generally serve the appetizer or salad course at the kitchen counter/bar and converse with them as I finish the mail course.
It’s a space and ability to move quickly and accurately issue. If I need to grab something from my mise en place, which I have arranged in exactly the location I want / need things to be exactly when I want / need them, you’re going to seriously screw up my game if you’re standing there reaching for a glass in the cupboard, particularly if I’m at the point of finishing a sauce or something else intricate.
In my kitchen? Definitely B…although I don’t mind if you park your butt at the kitchen table and visit while I fix dinner. Too many of my apartments have had one-butt kitchens for me to be tripping over someone else. I do make exceptions when teaching the occasional kid though.
In your kitchen? Well, that depends on how familiar I am with it…in my Mom’s or SIL’s kitchens, we’re perfectly comfortable doing the dances around each other. I will gladly assist with assigned tasks in friends’ kitchens, but am careful not to overstep my boundries.
B. My kitchen is tiny, and due to the setup I have to move back and forth across the work area a lot. Having another person in there helping could actually be dangerous.
I don’t mind someone standing in the entry to the kitchen and talking with me, but don’t even bother me when I’m, say, making Thanksgiving dinner for 16 in that little space. Half of my inlaws insisted on entering the kitchen while I was zipping back and forth madly, asking if they could do anything (thanks but no thanks, I appreciate the offer but it’s just not physically possible in that kitchen), trying to hug me hello (god no, not right now), and otherwise getting in the way!
