Room for dinner – and breakfast, and lunch
sir – What’s all this nonsense about getting rid of dining rooms (report, October 18)?
My wife and I have three meals a day in ours, sitting together over breakfast and sorting out the day, then a light lunch discussing the afternoon jobs and a leisurely, satisfying supper to round off.
Where else would we entertain our two daughters and their families? What would our dinner guests think of us all crammed into the kitchen, surrounded by cooking clobber?
I would bet that Mary Berry’s dining room is there, ready and waiting – whatever she may say.
Ron Giddens
Caterham, Surrey
sir – My wife and I are keen cooks and are looking to downsize in Poole, Dorset.
Every new property we view offers a huge combined open-plan lounge, kitchen and dining area. Some even have a staircase to the first floor in the middle of all this space.
This means that the smell of fried onions or garlic can permeate the whole house and there is nowhere for guests to be free of the noise of food preparation.
When we cook we often leave a mess in the kitchen that we don’t particularly want to look at or clear up until later. The obvious answer would be a large lounge-diner that could accommodate a decent-sized table. Alas, this seems not to be in vogue at the moment.
Peter Stevenson
Poole, Dorset