Cooking with glass, Richard?

KITCHEN envy is rampant. Ex-Top Gear star Richard Hammond, below, has infuriated conservationists with plans for a large glazed kitchen at his home, Bollitree Castle. Architecture critics have called the design “a lumpen alien feature”.

How much of their antipathy stems from acute dissatisfaction with their own worktops and extractor fans we will never know. All I am prepared to say, as an inheritor in 2002 of the previous occupant’s ropey kitchen, is that a large, brand spanking new glazed affair sounds utterly irresistible.

Would some slabs of granite and a central island help my souffles rise and my culinary failure rate fall?

I implicitly believe the answer is “Yes, yes and thrice yes”.