How history changed kitchen design in the American South

[@aragusea]

Q: Is “African-American domestic worker” just a euphemism for “slave”? A: As we said in the video, domestic servitude of this era was functionally an extension of slavery in many ways, but this house was built 50 years after the American Civil War, emancipation, and the end of de jure slavery. I think it would have been inappropriate for me to refer to the woman or women who worked here as enslaved people. Q: Is this evolution particular to houses in former slave states? A: Not entirely. Cooking used to be much dirtier work generally, and it used to be much more of a fire hazard, so it’s not uncommon to see the kitchen set apart from the living space in old homes all over the world. There’s lots of interesting comments about that below. Keep them coming! Q: Can I have a beautiful kitchen like this designed and built for me, too? A: The brilliant Brant Freeman is open for business: www.freeman-cabinets.com/ Q: Is your kitchen on the second floor? A: Not really, my house is on a slope. That which is the first floor at the front is the second floor at the back. Q: Did you just dox yourself by showing your street? A: You could google my address right now, if you wanted. When you own your home, your address is a matter of public record. There are a million websites that scrape and aggregate all the public tax records containing that information. I don't go out of my way to put my exact coordinates in videos, but at the same time, I'm not going to go out of my way to hide them, because they are readily available on the internet, and there's (almost) nothing I can do about that.

[@brettblair7655]

Thank you for your videos and thank you for this comment addressing the subject of domestic servant spaces not being exclusive to the south. I have ties to both the north and south, as well as to the west, and have observed the common recognition of the past in the south by residents of the south along with the too often in my opinion of other areas of the country commonly overlooking similar conditions historically. Much has been learned, much has been forgotten, much needs be relearned (to paraphrase Emerson if I’m not mistaken).

[@brettblair7655]

Oh and congratulations on the new kitchen.

[@thomasrogers7205]

As a native Georgian myself, it's really interesting to see how architecture relates to history. I grew up in my great grandmother's old house, and it always seemed odd to me that the house opened into the dining room, and the kitchen was sequestered off to the side.

[@sethaaron95]

I noticed the IU magnets, I graduated from IUB, did you attend too?!

[@jhettema715]

In comparable late 19th century upper middle class houses in my area (NW-Europe) kitchens were also out of sight, and preferably placed in the basement with a cool stable temperature. They were operated by domestic servants which had nothing to do with slavery. These servants were plain white people. For what it’s worth, I guess the general attitude of the house owners towards their servants was probably comparable: “they live only to make our lives more comfortable” was the motto here.

[@nicolle2126]

This history of how kitchens were in america resonates so much with kitchen culture here in the philippines funnily enough. In homes owned by the well off it's pretty common to have TWO kitchens: one kitchen that is front and center for entertaining guests, showing off, storing snacks and easy to prepare food, being seemingly picture perfect (basically being used for everything BUT cooking), and the back kitchen, literally named the "dirty kitchen", where all the actual cooking is being done, usually by servants. Having two kitchens and hiding the labor is almost a status symbol here.

[@werderdley245]

Ah that's why

[@chevronlily]

That's so interesting, I dated a Filipino guy for a short while whose family were well off in the Philippines and had a maid. He didn't even know how to cook his favourite food, I had to teach him how to cut a tomato.

[@solarise2107]

Wow in Indonesia having two kitchens is also a thing too! It always strikes me as a little odd when I see those kitchens in my friend's house since at home, my mom keeps our kitchen spotless anyway so I see no point of having a 'dirty' kitchen. Interesting to know that other countries share a similar concept.

[@jondow7401]

In Malaysia, having two kitchens means you're a weirdo BN shill

[@RickyRegal.]

Yeah my Grandmas house is somewhat similar, they also have rooms for maids that are hidden.

[@Lionimia]

Us: is this a cooking channel, a gardening channel, a science channel, or a history channel? Adam: Yes.

[@hjelpmegpaaisen7815]

69th like

[@JasperRLZ]

Pretty much the whole point Adam is making is that these topics aren't different. Recipes, houses, even appliances don't exist in a vacuum, they all weave together to reflect society as it goes through time. Any subject, no matter how seemingly dull, has strong ties to history and can be explored in this lens, and compartmentalizing knowledge removes that context. Adam's just one of the few people on KZbin showcasing this.

[@Lionimia]

@@JasperRLZ That's what makes this channel so bad ass. Cooking really is an artistic conglomeration of all the above, and more.

[@ollpu]

Or... The History channel? No? ok

[@frankturner4421]

Bruh

[@brownzors101]

Maybe it's just me, and I get that Professor David Davis is a friend, but I still think it's incredibly impressive that you can just have him come over and give us a history lesson. I love that your channel has evolved from simple recipes to hyper-focused lessons on all things related to food. You are easily my favorite KZbin channel at the moment and I am thrilled that you're still uploading in these times. Wishing nothing but the best to you and your family, Adam!

[@kevinboyle3104]

Yeah he work(s/ed?) at Mercer University

[@cuanchulainn]

It's really great that he involves mostly the local community in his videos. It's clear that he has a lot of pride on his small town and is doing all that he can to promote and give exposure to his peers. It's an amazing phenomenon that I don't see much elsewhere in the KZbin community; it's something that creators like him, and even us, can learn from. :)

[@linkinlinkinlinkin654]

If you really go back and check all of his videos, he never started as a cooking channel, so this doesn't surprise me. Adam just seems to be a guy who has penchant for understanding, and then applying. This channel has cooking, history, music-making, gardening and other miscellaneous videos. The cooking ones are what took him off

[@sumojack99]

Kevin Boyle yeah, he used to teach journalism at Mercer, but quit late last year to do youtube fulltime

[@elaineparker855]

And Professor Davis was so good on camera too! Great content!

[@hopecotney510]

I’m so happy you donated the cabinets instead of tearing them apart for dramatic effect the way they do on tv, that always rubbed me the wrong way.

[@drasco61084]

Yeah old cabinetry is still perfectly useable even if it's not pretty somebody could even use it in a workshop or something..

[@samsontheladle]

I totally understand your dislike of the waste on those shows. However, if it makes you feel better, remember that not all secondhand materials are always helpful. Sometimes they really aren't in the best condition, and other times the amount of energy and time needed to salvage them and use them elsewhere just doesn't outweigh the wasted material. Also, even putting in new, well-made cabinets into a space can be tricky. No two spaces are alike, and often walls aren't square and floors aren't level. Secondhand materials only tend to exacerbate this, as the years of settling into a prior space can warp the wood. That's not to say we should just ignore all the waste on those shows-- it often pains me to see a house that's perfectly fine (and maybe even recently refurbished, but just not to the new owners' style) get destroyed. Often I feel like that person could take a house in much worse condition and do far more good to it, with a similar final product. But just know that you don't always have to feel sad about the things that look like waste-- building materials can be pretty hard to reuse.

[@drasco61084]

@@samsontheladle that's true. But I mean at least put it out on the curb and post it on Craigslist rather than sending it directly to the landfill. *Somebody* will have a use for it even if a rich person doesn't have any imagination for used things. It's actually my first option rather than dumping stuff on charities and making them do all the work of getting rid of unwanted things, and they're often too polite to say "no this is crap I'm not taking it". But I'm sure Adam has some sense and took a look at the stuff before deciding to call for it to be picked up and wouldn't be donating crap.

[@Patrick94GSR]

lately on the This Old House projects, they've been doing "deconstruction" instead of just demolition, so that as many items as possible can be removed and saved from the house, to be reused by someone else. TOH is probably the best home improvement show there is, probably why they've been on the air for over 40 years now.

[@gwendlevs.everything9178]

Sometimes it’s not possible to dismantle rather than demolish. If the cabinetry was improperly installed or shoddily constructed it can be impossible to remove it intact

[@realkingofantarctica]

Adam is probably one of the best history teachers I’ve ever had.

[@watercressfabrique3333]

Hail, the King ans sovereign Monarch of Antarctica.

[@dankmemes7729]

Probably the best lol

[@Sune]

aren't you the guy who makes those amazing comments of culture on DeadlyViper's posts? that pf pic, hmm...

[@realkingofantarctica]

Sune I see you’re a man of culture

[@Sune]

@@realkingofantarctica l i k e w i s e

[@calebhammond1357]

Your friend is so into it, I love it.

[@aragusea]

People wonder how I’m able to get experts to talk about this stuff. Fact is, these are brilliant people who sit around all day learning things that they’re dying to tell people, so when you give them a chance, it’s like blowing the dam on a river.

[@calebhammond1357]

@@aragusea Haha, makes sense.

[@JasperRLZ]

I think a huge amount of props goes to you, Adam, for managing to connect the threads and give them a space to really shine. Not many people would think to turn a kitchen remodel on a cooking channel into a history lesson about society, and even fewer would be able to coordinate and conduct an interview and produce a segment like that. Your journalism background and love for it really shines through, and I don't think you realize how rare this is on KZbin.

[@thewindgamer2607]

Adam Ragusea so cool

[@indianasquatchunters]

Adam Ragusea As a graduating university student I can tell you this is absolutely correct. It took me a few years to figure it out. Don’t be afraid of your professors they’re just dying to educate people. They likely can’t discuss much with their peers because they’re all educated on the topic.

[@wadooshful]

Anyone else would have just shown off their kitchen, Adam is out here giving us a powerful history lesson

[@octavianadrian7557]

Thays why we all love him!

[@evenberg9764]

It is lowkey a racist home.

[@poeticsilence047]

Not even just that he has a modest kitchen remodel. Other people be like yeah I got this giant kitchen and expensive appliances but I don't even cook.

[@wadooshful]

@@poeticsilence047 this is so real. moving into mansions and offering up a house tour like we aren't all sweating over the fact that the place costs over 1 mil. The world is crazy and Adam is showcasing buff biceps and a humble attitude.

[@poeticsilence047]

@@wadooshful exactly that's why I appreciate Adams outlook on things. He works and lives just like we do, so for some people it's easy to relate. I lose and lost some respect for some KZbinrs because they ask for sponsorship to get any upgrades in their house. I'm thinking hey you make a decent living pay for your upgrades you are already getting paid by me watching your video PLUS the sponsorship videos they throw in.

[@SuperCookieGaming_]

this explains a lot about my friends home. even though i live outside philly my friends house is old. being 3 stories high with an attic while other houses are only 2 stories high. their kitchen was at back of the house had doors cutting off the kitchen and separating the dinning room. the kitchen was right next to the basement, had access to a back yard and small prep area, and a “secret” stairway to the second floor. the main stairway was grand being wider than the stairways in my middle school while the “secret” stairway was narrow and was basically between two walls and it was dark. it was most likely used for the servants of the house to get upstairs without guest seeing them.

[@lwilton]

There used to be an English phrase: "the back stairs". This was because in the 1800s and earlier well-to-do English houses had two sets of stairs: the main or front stairs that the "lords of the house" (the owners) used, and the back stairs that the servants used. The back stairs were usually narrow and awkward and crammed in to spaces, but they were also large enough that you could manage to carry bulky things up and down them without dropping them. Food and laundry never went up the main stairs. The main stairs usually opened pretty much directly onto the main front door, and the back stairs would open, through a kitchen and/or pantry, on a back 'tradesman's door'.

[@SuperCookieGaming_]

l wilton that nails its description. the front of the house has large porch that goes around to the sides. and in the front door there is a study a living room the dining room and the main stairs.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Seems like these houses were pretty much laid out the same all over the place from the era... interesting.

[@DTrooper458]

A normal person: "I renovated my kitchen." Adam Ragusea: "I emancipated my kitchen." Jokes aside, loved the perspective you brought on this subject. What gave you the idea? How did you even think of getting dr. Davis into this study?

[@chelybeann]

“Emancipated my kitchen” Lmfaoooo 🤣😂🤣😂

[@VardhanShrivastava]

dead 🤣

[@DatBoi-mo9vc]

"Why i emancipated my kitchen and not my slaves"

[@Leviblack12]

Laugh of the day. Thank you!

[@crazyjkass]

He probably noticed that his kitchen was weirdly tiny and cramped and set off to the side even though it's an old rich people house. Modern rich people houses have lovely kitchens.

[@methagen]

What a video. Adam outdid himself, which is a high standard to beat

[@apotato6278]

A similar thing can be seen in some Swedish houses. Old estates have segregated kitchens and most of them have extra buildings to house workers. The workers in question were commonly the impoverished relatives of the estate owner who would employ them to do demanding physical labor, cleaning and cooking as well as care for the animals of the estate's farm. Contrary to much of Europe Sweden never really developed a noble class. There were noble families for sure but wealthy farmers could easily rival them in terms of sheer power and prestige so the main building of many farm estates essentially became wooden palaces. During the 20th century Socialism came into vogue and old concepts like nobility and an agricultural elite became frowned upon. Sweden modernized, Social Democracy reigned supreme and the farm workers found better paying jobs away from the rapidly shrinking agricultural sector. Architecture reflects this as the smaller middle class houses are centered around the kitchen. Instead of elegant dining halls the 1920s-1940s allocated this role to the humble kitchen table. Social interaction moved into the kitchen as chatting over a cup of coffee became the new norm and the trendy all-in-one kitchens ironically spread to the people they were once intended to spite. During the 50s-70s even the rich would begin to base their homes around the kitchen. Nowadays kitchens have opened up to an even greater extent as the living rooms have gained greater importance so it isn't unusual for Swedish houses to seamlessly combine the two. If i were to make a prediction i believe Swedish kitchens will stay roughly the way they are now but open up more to the outside. Taller windows provide not only better lighting but also a fantastic view as you sit down to eat and a way to let the world know how great your kitchen is. This effect can already be seen in Swedish "Stugkultur" (Summer cottage culture) as windows take up more and more of the exterior. If you've read this far i hope you learned something new and i'd be glad to know how kitchens have evolved in your country. Your English doesn't have to be perfect (as mine clearly isn't) and the length of the comment doesn't matter since I have way too much time on my hands due to the quarantine.

[@eesynopsis7393]

fascinating comment...

[@LunaVioletta7]

Omg, thank you for your comment! I learned SO much from it. I've had family friends in Sweden my whole life, and had the pleasure of spending a Christmas with them a few years ago, in a beautiful farmhouse in Vaxjo (one that's been in their family for generations - they built it themselves with their bare hands!!). I fell in love with the culture, and I imagine that fika culture has heavily influenced how the kitchen table has become the hub of social activity in the home. Your explanation of the agricultural elite > Social Democracy > Stugkultur was so fascinating, and now I can't wait to go back to Vaxjo and ask my family friends about their family's rich history. Also, your English was absolutely wonderful. I was an English Literature major, so believe me when I say I barely spotted any mistakes. You, like many Europeans I've met, have a stronger grasp on the English language than many Americans lol

[@apotato6278]

@@LunaVioletta7 Växjö is absolutely beautiful! The region Växjö is located in is called Småland (lit. "The little lands") as it was once a psuedo-confederation of cities with considerable autonomy within the Swedish state (until they rebelled against the king in the 16th century... which ended with their leader's head on a pike, the region being looted and a complete integration into the state). Småland is a perfect place to observe the shift first hand since it's possibly the most productive agricultural region in Scandinavia. The farmers in the region have always been relatively wealthy ensuring an ample supply of old, luxurious farmhouses. Since it was the southern border against Denmark there is also a considerable amount of old castles and fortresses that were once meant to defend the region. I believe the Fika-culture was a side effect of Swedish neutrality and a series of education reforms. Swedish cooking and baking is very rigid. You don't use "a pinch of salt" or "a bit of oil", you use your måttsats ("measuring set") where there are individual scoops for strictly defined measurements. There's a Kryddmått (spice scoop) equating to 1ml (millilitre or 1/1000 litres), the Tesked (tea spoon) which is 5ml, a Matsked (tablespoon) at 15ml, a half-decilitre scoop at 50ml and a full-decilitre scoop at 100ml. Swedish education has, since 1842, ensured that every child in the nation is given a free 6 (later changed to 8) year long basic education. Children were taught, among other subjects, math, science and cooking/baking. When the entire population is well versed in the metric system, has a rudimentary understanding of baking and access to such a rigid system recipes spread like the plague. Fika was originally reserved for high society. By the end of the 1800s a proper lady was meant to serve her guests 7 types of small cookies along with tea. If she baked fewer than 7 she was seen as cheap, if she baked more than 7 she was seen as haughty (I say "she" but it was more often the staff that baked). When the working class burst unto the scene and practically took control of the country in the 1920s they didn't really care about old customs like that... but the cookies were damn good so they stuck around. Another stepping stone to fika was that the working class wasn't really accustomed to things like cookies and fluffy cakes so when upstart bakers and hobbyists started experimenting with cheap sugar after the 1st world war they resorted to what they grew up with: Bread. Spiced bread has long been a favorite in Sweden, usually reserved for holidays due to the price but when ingredients are cheap it's suddenly an economically viable option to experiment. A buttery dough spiced with cardamom, cinnamon and sugar resulted in the cinnamon bun, a Swedish favorite. Served with coffee, the drink of choice for the workers, it became the face of Fika. Since dining halls went out of fashion in the age of Social Democracy Fika was served in the kitchen, this made the kitchen an even more important place in the house as it was suddenly not only associated with the family and their meals but also relaxation, social interaction, visits and pastries. Fika ultimately "piggy-backed" on the importance of the kitchen in the minds of the working class to cement itself as a Swedish tradition. Where an American company would have a lunch room a Swedish company will have a fika room, where an American couple would "go grab something to eat" a Swedish couple will "go grab some Fika" (a superior choice to dinner since it's a date with plausible deniability, if it all goes wrong you can just brush it off as a regular fika with a friend). When this pandemic is finally over you should try inviting some friends over for fika. Bake some cinnamon buns, maybe some cookies, sit down in your living room and watch something good on tv/netflix together. It's a surefire way to make even the darkest winter day enjoyable.

[@emmamemma4162]

@@apotato6278 That's a well written text if I ever saw one! I would like to play devil's advocate and provide a different narrative, if I may. When you go into larger apartments in buildings from the 1950's or earlier you might stumble upon the remains of upper class culture in that some apartments have a separate entry (sometimes from a different staircase, the servants' staircase), a small room for a servant to sleep in, and/or find that the kitchen is situated in a sealed off location by the servants' quarters. Sometimes you can even find special passageways for servants inside the apartment itself, though I have never seen that in a 1950's apartment, it's probably more of a turn of of the century thing. I find it fascinating how the lay-out of apartments can tell us a lot about the history of different neighborhoods. I suspect these kinds of apartments were not commonly built in Sweden in the 1950's, but here in the old eastern half of what used to be the Swedish Empire we did not experience a large wave of industrialization and urbanization until the 1960's. So in Finnish cities it was still possible to find maids from the countryside working for rich families in posh, newly built apartments in the 1950's. Some families still had maids in the 60's and 70's, but I think it mostly died out after that. I would be very curious to know when the last apartments that were meant to house a servant were built over in Sweden, not to mention other countries.

[@thehungrypam]

Àb,,AA¢]>

[@Sai-rp2xt]

"The past is not even past" I'm glad you put that in.

[@indianasquatchunters]

Sai Pie sadly it’s that way in majority of american towns and cities. Tons of data and maps have been made to show the divide between urban areas in terms of socio-economic and demographic features. A major city near me was able to ask people their zipcode and from that they could guess with very high confidence demographics and socio-economic features about you.

[@Jacob-yg7lz]

@@indianasquatchunters Yeah, you can look at redlining maps of Baltimore from the Jim Crow era and compare it to modern demographics, and they're surprisingly the same.

[@gui18bif]

@@indianasquatchunters thats life!

[@TomorrowWeLive]

@@indianasquatchunters where in the world do you think this isn't the case, exactly?

[@davebaker3346]

"The past is never dead. It's not even past." - Faulkner

[@BDoggy45]

"I'm doing the cooking. That's why the oven moved from backstage to center stage" love that quote

[@MMCLLC7]

"A poor man's pasta become posh" that line is so powerful. Like to sum up the entire evolution of the domestic space into a sentence like that is so crazy to me. Because it's SO TRUE

[@DevitoAllPro]

They didn’t have the strength for dividers in between doors? WEAK

[@rockshot100]

WEAK

[@burgerpatty]

WEAK

[@overheaven8684]

WEAK

[@MT.SYNTHAL]

WEEK

[@derek596]

WEAK

[@Str8UpEnt]

I was so nervous watching this. I’m glad I watched to the end. I have sooooo much respect for the way this telling of history was carried out. I always loved the content but now I'm a supporter!

[@brandonhoward3805]

I've been so accustomed to Adam's Pseudo-Southern accent that when everyone else started speaking in true Georgian drawl I felt like I got kicked in the teeth.

[@aetu35]

same

[@wirelessgrapes2242]

I'm always amazed at how much things interact with each other. The fact that you can tie something like labor opportunities to the biggest, world changing things, like the Civil Rights Movement, and to the smallest of things, such as the invention of the washing machine, or the design of a room in a house, is fascinating.

[@chris57035]

I love history lessons on real-life subjects like this, it helps me to put the world into perspective. I'm glad you haven't given up on being an educator at heart, keep doing what you're doing. And thank YOU, Adam. You're one of the few youtubers I have notifications for; your videos are always a high point of my Mondays and Thursdays.

[@locustsun]

This is amazing to me. I have never put thought into the history of buildings outside of the business sphere. We had a home that we lived in as our first home, and I always thought it interesting that we had two front doors that faced the street. The purpose of one door (that led into a bedroom) was to filter guests into the home for a death in the family as a de facto viewing room for the dead. It's amazing how utilitarian and spartan our homes are now compared to the nuance of homes in past eras.

[@TheDumbGorilla]

Your kitchen is on the second floor?! Now that's something strange.

[@aragusea]

The house is on a slope.

[@thecatonacouch9371]

Adam Ragusea oh lol

[@SNitro]

See that makes a little more sense...

[@Z50nemesis]

@@SNitro i don't get it

[@mckennaConfig]

@@Z50nemesis The kitchen is on the first floor. It's just that the hill slopes downward from the front of the house making a walk-in basement and balcony for the kitchen.

[@declanwilcox9445]

Wow, I have always loved the recipes but this has to be one of the most engaging, professional, and informative historical videos on youtube. Keep it up!

[@soniashapiro4827]

I have been missing Anthony Bourdain even more since this pandemic started. I'd so much like to hear what he would have had to say about it all, not just about food but about how we are treating each other.

[@keremkelleboz6959]

Adam:*renovates kitchen* Guy from the Uni: You just made history!!!

[@TheWallki]

Your new kitchen is beautiful, looks really spacious and bright, I really love this type of videos you make where you go above and beyond to tell a particular story around food, its not just recipes which if it where, it'd still be fine, I mean I love your carefree just do it aproach to cooking, but this is something else, the journalist in you really shines

[@crazwizardlizard]

i have to say, the way that you include so much information on your channel about history and culture to really give context to food and the social dynamics that have surrounded it forever is really really commendable. a lot of people would think it is unnecessary to address how racism and historical oppression affects cuisine, but i think its really important to include critical context like this. thank you for being such a responsible content creator! and its interesting, too!

[@Winckypoo]

How did i go from watching you make a dank pizza to getting a southern architecture history lesson and commentary on the philosophy of cooking? I'm not sure but I fuckin love it.

[@fowmart]

i lived in a 100-year-old house here in the south for a few years. i'm happy people still live in and take care of our region's historic houses, but it is very difficult to go about as normal while you replace a kitchen and redo much of the house! that said, this video brought back nice memories of that house, some good times happened there :)

[@mattiman1703]

This is actually an amazing video. From your own research to your former colleagues knowledge and just the entire history of the house. You really outdid yourself Adam 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[@Joyblossom2010]

My house is around the same age in Macon and our kitchens looked very similar. We just spent a year remodeling it ourselves. I’m so happy to finally be done.

[@CynUnion-ji9uj]

The Habitat for Humanity ReStore is also a good place to get niche items at a good price. Last June my dad spent like 75 dollars for this big drill press(an item we didn't need but had niche uses for, I use it for Prop and Costuming for fun and to assist my friend who is a Cosplayer). Comparable presses are like hundreds of dollars. In general Habitat for Humanity is very good and we should all endeavor to support them.

[@harmonicaveronica]

This reminds me of the very first apartment I lived in. It was a large old house that had been split up, and ours had the original kitchen - the back door and the stairs to the basement were right off our kitchen. Our pantry was a walled-off servant's staircase. I think our living room was an old parlor or something, and the bedroom the former dining room, or maybe vice versa

[@c.m.7489]

i like how you always go the extra mile with every video, telling us about the history of certain thing and consulting experts to back up your claims every time.

[@mockturtlesuppe]

Caillous Mutter You can tell he is a former journalism instructor.

[@atman1473]

I love how you interweave your journalism background into such interesting topics. Telling stories and giving real value.

[@Tamales1612]

What an incredible video Adam, really awesome. Gonna miss the fog on the lens though...

[@grubmane2030]

Dog, you've honestly become my favorite youtube chef in the past month. I love how you incorporate education with your cooking videos.

[@TheOathkeeper36]

Your proficiency as a speaker really shows in these types of videos. One thing I've always admired about the best professors is that they have a way to teach that is neither complicated nor (more importantly) alienating in nature. This is the same skill I see often practiced in your videos with the way you always choose to address different points of view without actively antagonizing (most of) them. It's a little detail that most people miss in their speech which leads to many miscommunications/confrontations, and I'm happy to see it done well.

[@candidmoe8741]

That was TED quality material: "The Kitchen Social History". You can expand it to include other countries ...

[@WanJae42]

There are certainly homes like this in the north, in particular Michigan. My friend's house has the bell switch under the dining room table, the butler's pantry, the isolated kitchen, and what used to be a complete set of servant's quarters in the basement with their own bathroom (now storage).

[@bisk8nes]

I am usually a lurker on KZbin but this kind of content I feel obligated to comment. I am Brazilian and I found this so interesting that I want to share with all my friends. Keep the good content! So good to see such a great journalistic video

[@tuboo_9158]

Came for the kitchen reveal, stayed for the history lesson

[@marshallsuber3346]

I grew up in Charleston SC. Our home was built in cica 1840 ish. The kitchen was in a separate building and connected by a covered "breezeway". It was converted into a cellar for home canning and potato storage (it is also haunted 😬😬). Great video. Blessings from New Orleans.

[@migvelv]

5:51 “How many houses these days have a door separating the kitchen from the house”? ***Laughs in European***

[@-suiluj-]

My man!

[@MrGiovanniOSFP]

χχαχαχαχαχαχαχαχα

[@fundelgurgel3913]

I would really hate if my living room would always smell like the food I cooked a few days ago.

[@dannycarrington1601]

My 70 year old house has one which is used every day, great if you get up early and don't want to disturb others.

[@Patrick94GSR]

Nearly every sitcom TV show set up through the mid 90's haha, they ALWAYS had a double-swing door! Home Improvement is one of the few exceptions I can think of.

[@JohnCran]

How architecture reflects a time in history is true the world over. In 2005 we had some major renovations done to our house and the main focus was the remaking of the kitchen. It moved from a room off the side of the communal room to a room that flows to the deck making the old communal room redundant. Unfortunately I didn't get everything I wanted (damm missus) but I do have a large airy and light filled work space that I find a joy to cook in.

[@PlusOneWater]

This video is exceptional even among some of your best. It is pulling from so many areas and packaged beautifully. Well done man.

[@laypyu]

This channel is becoming the worthy gold standard of entertainment, with a few lessons with it. I, once upon a time, used to consider documentaries by History & National Geographic channels, and the like, to be the level of documentaries. This here has just reset the benchmark to a much higher level. Best part, each and everyone of us can connect in one way or another to what is at topic. That’s mighty impressive. Can’t recommend you enough, Mr. Ragusea.

[@Jasonwolf1495]

There's another interesting bit of history that I probably wouldn't have noticed before. The hearth, was more centralized the more north you went and more decentralized the closer to the equator. You'd much more commonly see public cooking areas around the equator, and have central to the home fires (including cooking fires) in northern areas. Why? Because fire is warm! If you're already in 90+ degree heat you don't want to be stuck inside with a hot oven, but if it's gonna be frozen outside half the year you want to be as close to that action as possible. Now once you get closer to the modern era or the upper classes you see that division come up again as you can have separate fires for staying warm and for cooking, but I think that's just another neat thing. The idea that having two heat sources would be a luxury.

[@deezynar]

I draw house plans for a living, and do a lot of additions. I see a variety of plans, and actual houses built over a hundred years ago. It's common for older homes to have started with the kitchen being walled in. And many had a butler's pantry, like Adam's house. Everything Adam and the professor said is true, except for one thing, domestic servants were quite common in every state. You can look at house plans in books, and magazines, from the 1920's and earlier, and see that the walled off kitchen layout is standard. The kitchen would have a screened porch on a back corner, and have it's own entry to the side yard by the driveway. The servant used the porch to perform many tasks in, and was typically expected to enter the house through that side entrance. Servants, and delivery men were not allowed to come in the main entrance. It was also common to have a teeny tiny powder room reserved for the servant(s) who were only dayworkers. That kept them from tying up the bathrooms used by the home's residents. But mostly, it resolves any unease felt by a homeowner who was prejudiced based on race, or class. Sitting on a toilet that a mere servant had used would be unacceptable to many people in those days. And more than a few today. For those houses that were designed to accommodate live-in staff, modest homes would have a tiny bedroom for a cook/housekeeper located at the back by the kitchen. It was usually adjacent to the kitchen porch. In larger houses, owned by more affluent people, a section of the house was set aside for servants, like you see on British TV shows. Sometimes they'd be in the basement, sometimes in the attic, and just as often, in their own small wing. The servant's floor, or wing, would have a full bath reserved just for the staff, and sometimes a sitting room was reserved for them. The exception is that live-in chauffeurs, and gardeners, would often have rooms and a bath in the garage. The garage was not attached to the main house, and was located in the back yard. Domestics may have been predominately Black in the South, but in other parts of the country, they were Irish, Norwegian, Italian, Portuguese, Mexican, Chinese, or any ancestry you can think of. The rising cost of labor, opportunities for better jobs, and labor saving devices, eventually killed off the profession of domestic workers. The exception being those who are employed by the very rich. And even they try to pay as little as possible, often hiring foreigners who are here without legal papers. My purpose for writing was to point out that, as bad as the South may have been with it's treatment of Blacks, domestic servants of all backgrounds, were common across the country, and even around the world.

[@ldlukefire]

This was a really cool video! I'm actually Dr. Davis' student and son, and seeing y'all's positive comments on his feature in this video was really cool!

[@aydendavis189]

Shut up nerd

[@sweetkittykat2000]

"Buildings that have been added onto often lack design logic" As someone who lives in a house that is 150 years old that has had multiple additions added on over the years, no truer words have ever been spoken. One such example in my own home is a door at the back of a closet that leads straight into a 15 foot drop down to my basement...

[@chelybeann]

That is spooky!

[@MK-dr7dx]

Do you know what the reason is for that? Assuming there's a reason at all and it wasn't just awkward renovation weirdness.

[@sweetkittykat2000]

@@MK-dr7dx Well, the stair case of my house has been moved multiple times over the years, and this door leads to the space under my stair case. I can only assume that before the stairs was put in, the door might have actually led somewhere.

[@Truck-kun_01]

Came here from the rage of vegetables soup video now im watching something real educational I'd never thought be in a cooking channel.I love this channel

[@Maplenr]

It's bonkers to me that a large portion of the country still refuses to acknowledge the lasting impact of all these racist practices going on for centuries. Even down to the damn kitchen, it still haunts this country. Appreciate the history lesson, greatly. On the request side of things, would love to see your take on various rubs and spice mixtures for something like oven broiled ribs. I think it would make for great food-adjacent content as well, exploring the history of the rubs and spices.

[@emmamemma4162]

Well, this is a common lay out in old houses all over the world, I think it speaks of class disparities and the use of servants more than actual slavery. Though you are of course right in connecting the existence of a large serving class in the southern US with slavery.

[@BucketCapacity]

This is the best renovation video I've ever seen and one of your best videos ever.

[@mockturtlesuppe]

Adam does “This Old House.”

[@lordkazzakgeneral]

I subscribed to a cooking channel and yet this is my favourite video you have done. EVER. Because of your approach to showing how and why to cook things in certain ways, you had me start actually cooking meals in a way which I would enjoy. And still you managed to outdo yourself by making an (arguably) unrelated video. Bravo! Also, congratulations on your new kitchen! I'm really hoping mine would turn out at least half as good looking as yours!

[@TheLaughingPanda]

For an example of the fact that having servants in upper class houses was still a thing outside the South too in the early 20th century, I was at a Christmas party with some of my mother's friends at an older house in Queens, NY, and there was even a smaller servant's staircase heading up from the kitchen to the second floor, meeting up with the main, wider, guest-facing staircase about halfway up. I definitely noticed how while the living and dining rooms were connected with wide, open entryways, the door to the kitchen was small and inconspicuous, separating the servants' space from the family and guest-facing space.

[@evan69420]

Did I need to know this? Not at all. Am I happy I did learn it? Yes. Yes I am.

[@devi8te]

This video was so interesting! I just bought my dream house, a 1912 Craftsman (also in the South) and I've been really interested in the home's history and little remnants of the past I've found around the home, and it's greater implications. Really top notch content

[@vexis58]

I too live in a nearly 100-year-old bungalow, but on the other side of the country in California. My kitchen comes equipped with a tiny shelved closet with air vents on the shaded side of the house, meant to be used as a pantry that would stay colder than the rest of the house even in the summer months, called a California Cooler. Your video has clued me in to the purpose of the weird nook in my daughter's bedroom (which itself used to be part of the living room before a wall was put up to partition off a small bedroom) since this nook too is slanted towards the outer wall enough that toys are always rolling that way. Maybe it was once an outside patio as well. We just finished a bathroom renovation that rearranged everything as well, because the previous layout of the bathroom made 1920s assumptions that are no longer true. They didn't have a shower back then, for one, so it was perfectly fine to have a wood-framed window above the bath tub ;_; One of the owners back in the 1980s or so decided to renovate to add a shower without changing anything else. Every renovation is like an archaeological dig, trying to figure out what all the previous owners did to the place over the last 90-some years.

[@corkomaster4837]

How can you not love this guy?

[@Lukegord]

I live in brasil, my grand father’s house have these kind of thing, the buzzer unde the table, the separations on public and service areas. And there is something else interest, this integrated design, where the kitchen is open to the dining room, is called “American Kitchen” here in brasil!

[@cfredrics]

I have seen similar setups (cordoned off kitchen, staging area between kitchen and dining room, centralized dining room, buzzer under the table, etc) in some very fancy prewar apartments in New York City!

[@J.K.Moerkved]

If anyone is interested in learning more, try watching the movie “The Help”. Great movie about the south in the 60’s.

[@rebekahrhodes9512]

The movie is actually heavily fictionalized, I enjoyed watching it, but I learned it was written by a white woman who made it all up, it wasn't based on her life during the time, or the lives of any African American women either. Not much research was done, it was basically just what one person thought it was like.

[@drasco61084]

@@rebekahrhodes9512 Yeah I learned the same when I watched Kim's video. Anyone unfamiliar look up For Harriet on here her videos are great, the one about The Help is a good place to start since lots of people know the movie.

[@rebekahrhodes9512]

@@drasco61084 I love For Harriet great channel

[@ninjaslash52_98]

I used to design my kitchens in my floor plans like how the kitchen you had was laid out, my old house was also designed that way. Then I decided to design the kitchens like the kitchen I had in my new house, then I moved in with a family friend and took some designs from there, finally picked all my favorite things for a kitchen showed my floor plan to my professor and said she’d love to have the same kitchen and I would too since I love cooking. kitchens have changed a LOT love the video.

[@hognigk96]

As a history major and part-time kitchen cabinet designer: This was the perfect video for me 👌

[@cinemaocd1752]

It is so cool that you were able to find out so much about the previous owners of your home. Our house isn't as old, but when we moved in and started stripping and got past the bad 70s/80s remodel, we found remnants of the original linoleum flooring, which was art deco and amazing and you could never find such a thing now. Our kitchen remodel did the same thing as yours, it made the kitchen the center of the social space in our house. But dozens of house parties where everyone ended up standing in the kitchen, don't lie. People gravitate there now, it's just the way it is. We don't have parlours or show spaces in our home in the same way now. The fancy new kitchen is the bit you want to show your guests.

[@Cindolintoe]

Proof that Adam's method of teaching cooking works for teaching just about anything. Fantastic video.

[@moshadj]

The ReStore is fantastic! I used to volunteer there in San Jose when I was in high school!

[@jamesanthony5874]

Talking about the dining room being the literal center of the house had me reevaluating my parents house (built in Central Arizona during the 80's... or possibly late 70's). The house has 3 points of ingress, the back patio (leads directly to the living room), the front door (leads to an entryway off of the kitchen), and the garage (leads to an entryway off the /other side/ of the kitchen). It's not quite as centered as in your house, but any guests entering and heading to the family room have to pass through the kitchen to get there. Many guests never get any further than that. I used to think that was sort of an accident of placement, but now I'm feeling more certain it isn't.

[@jamesanthony5874]

I'm pretty sure the guy who built the place is still around. I'll have to ask him the next time I see him.

[@josephguasco1170]

I now see how Adam tries to emulate Alton Brown in all of his videos.

[@sontieu]

Really informative and thoughtful content and delivery style. No fuss, noise, "whats up guys/youtube" opener. Attention to meaningful details and next to zero filler. Liked and Subscribed!

[@porcusestporcus]

My friend put into this video after I just recently moved into Vineville. Very interesting history lesson, I've had a lot of fun learning the history of Macon since moving here and your video was an excellent lesson.

[@IgnisW]

How is grow doing? I can't imagine they're having a good time of it with the stay at home orders and all.

[@elliez.3561]

I'm from the North (NJ, to be exact), and our house, built in the 20s, has a swinging door separating the kitchen from the dining room, and an empty doorframe between the living room when you first walk in and the kitchen.

[@vincentlittrell7743]

Anybody else talking about there kitchen. Adam “ Turn to chapter 12 in your history textbooks kids

[@drasco61084]

We barely got these types of lessons in grade school. They don't help us connect the dots to the present day because the American mythology wants us to think that all this stuff happened way in the past and *now everything is alright*. Which it's not.

[@magicwindow666]

These non-recipe videos are great. I think this type of unique informational content really sets your channel apart from the rest of "cooking KZbin". Thank you for doing what you do, Adam!

[@TheGamerASD]

*[Insert overused white wine joke]*

[@steveb9974]

I started watching Adam because of YTs algorithm. I kept watching for his wit and recipes. While I don’t always agree with his conclusions regarding non-cooking topics, I appreciate his point of view. In this case, we were in lockstep.

[@burplex8500]

For a guy who seasons his cutting board, I thought he was going to install the backsplash first and THEN install the cabinets.

[@herrerasauro7429]

This video is amazing! As a Brazilian who study labour law and labour history in my country, which has somewhat similar structures about domestic labour and architecture I'm deeply happy about this video, specially because as a communicator you're far abler to get the points around than my peers. Also I love your style in general and love your cooking instructions, I love your philosophy and you're the one which inspired me to actually try growing tomatoes on an apartment. Thanks

[@efestar]

me: lets see his new kitchen adam: talking about racism

[@rockshot100]

Exactly, New kitchen? Well, most important thing is Black Women's Studies "expert". WHY???? I guess get a valuable degree in this subject and it will benefit the world! BTW, little know fact, the "butler pantry", is a polite way of saying the black whoooopin room, since they burned the food so often.

[@lilettex0421]

Well he wasn’t really talking about racism

[@celandineroots]

Ligaya Gapud i mean he did talk about racism though

[@drasco61084]

@@lilettex0421 it's literally about this country's racist history. Black and brown women were primarily the domestic servants of affluent white folks, although yes there were some poor white women that filled those roles. Race + class power dynamics.

[@Jacob-yg7lz]

@@rockshot100 Go back to reddit nerd

[@GeneralFFA]

Adam Ragusea is by far the best food channel. Never pretentious content, straight to point while also providing interesting educational facts without being boring. I love you Adam and congrats on the new gorgeous kitchen!

[@sangyoonsim]

This new renovated kitchen doesn't have a style of separating kitchen from dining roon anymore, but it's fine because it gives you larger space. Long live the empire.

[@PerpetualSmile]

The video was really interesting, especially the end when you showed your sink. We use those same milk bottles, same cups with straw holes in the top, same plates, and my son LOVES those dyno chicken nuggets you pulled out of your freezer. Bizarrely similar to our home.

[@eelvis1674]

Great video, very interesting. My house has a similar feel, but it is a 100 year old or so house in the suburbs of south London. The kitchen is tucked away at the back and is very small, when I was a kid we even had a door on the kitchen! That has since been removed but unfortunately we have been unable to combine the kitchen with the dining room which proceeds it as the wall is load baring, making it a tricky and expensive business.

[@krantipally208]

As a lover of history, I thought this video was endlessly fascinating. Thank you to you and Dr. David Davis!

[@vitalepitts]

I don't miss Georgia very often but your videos sure make me nostalgic

[@user-ei7ed6zy9k]

Despite every land on earth had slavery at one point in time, it seems like the U.S. is the only country that actually makes the effort to remember it

[@zachdavenport8509]

It had a much more lasting social impact here due to the abrupt and violent way in which it was brought to an end. The effects of it are still present. If we fail to remember how we got where we are, we won't be able to understand where we are.

[@absolutelynot7236]

Indeed. Brazil, for example, doesn't take nearly the same pains; nor do middle eastern nations.

[@PeterTMT]

The whole point of the video was that slavery didn't suddenly stop. The Federal Government outlawed slavery, but people (both North and South) continued to preserve slavery whether it was mass incarceration starting immediately after the Civil War, chain gangs (still used today), Sharecropping ( landowners dictated what you'd be paid for your crops, far less than market value, leaving people in perpetual debt), Jim Crow/Segregation, Lynching, Red Lining... the legacy of slavery is still very real and impacts the daily lives of people.

[@cliftontaylor7570]

10:25

[@labibahbalogun]

maybe because slavery is the foundation of this country

[@jimbernard3289]

And boom, just like that... Another hyper informative video. Your videos never feel like a waste of time, i'm always learning something. Cheers from Canada.

[@euphenasiusamdignemon5375]

I like how when you touch upon the political you subtly tell us where your opinion lies but you don't shove it down our throat and politely skirt by it. Effectively you present information and allow people to draw their own conclusions. Thank you.

[@o0Avalon0o]

My friends house & my old house in NY both had sequestered kitchens with a tiny bathroom & bedroom. I always thought they were terrible designs because of the size & lack of insulation. If you didn't use it daily during winter, the pipes could freeze. It's upsetting to think none of us understood why they were designed like this but I'm glad I could learn this from Adam.

[@ytreece]

The new kitchen is nice! Your triangle of fridge, sink and stove is way better too. I just started watching you and I really enjoy your videos. I gave up cable so I’m watching a lot more streaming content. Really nice job on the history. I grew up in TN and the history is...interesting to say the least. Congrats on the upgrade! I moved to WY from STL and my kitchen upgrade in the new (to me) house is SUBSTANTIAL. Feels good :)

[@grungelyzard8789]

Are you still alive? I heard tornado's ripped through the south, including Georgia.

[@alexkirkpatrick6786]

Grunge Lyzard yeah that was a about a month ago, Adam seems to be fine, but in Tennessee where I live we got hit hard. Georgia did too but I don’t think it went through the Atlanta-Macon area.

[@grungelyzard8789]

@@alexkirkpatrick6786 Glad your okay. Thanks 4 response.

[@aragusea]

One tree down at the end of the street. We live.

[@AdrianMartinez-ek4kl]

@@aragusea Thank goodness you're fine.

[@ForeverBeAThinker]

@@alexkirkpatrick6786 a deadly storm went from Texas all the way through the Carolinas in the past 48 hours

[@FunkyHonkyCDXX]

This might be the best video you've ever released. Great work.

[@klaasdeceuster6269]

Your transitions to adds are brilliant.

[@haydensoloway3779]

Idk why but Adams vibe seems weird lately. Like he’s not as happy and shit or somthing, seems a lot more serious and straight face every video maybe I’m just trippin

[@saninorochimaru2]

the subject matter of the video has to do with racial dynamics and how it has played a part in the architecture of his house lmao. wouldn't expect a very happy video about that topic

[@rknisple]

Eye rollllllll

[@toughbutsweet1]

The kitchen looks amazing. I want one too. My house is 96 and has the remnants of a door and solid wall dividing the kitchen from the dining room. The dining room, like yours, is the center of the house and all other rooms/hallway connect to it. The hallway also had a door dividing the bedrooms from the dining room.

[@lefty7811]

Interesting how they’re saying “african american” instead of ‘black’ but are okay using “white” instead of “european american”

[@kimfleury]

I'm referred to as Caucasian by African-Americans in my neighborhood and coworkers, for whatever that's worth. I've had to learn the gamut of identity labels because I was born when it was polite to say "Negro" pronounced like /knee grow/, instead of the proper Spanish way, /neigh grrrow/ ( that's a rolled /r/ 😀). It was also polite to say "colored," referring only to black people, but that didn't make sense to me as a child because we're all colored, we're just different colors 😄. Just before I became a teenager, the younger generation rejected the terms "Negro" and colored, and insisted on being called black, or Black. Then 10 years later we had to say "African-American." Now it seems to be back to "Black," but only capitalized, while "white" is lowercase. That's even an official publishing policy at many Woke publications. Sadly, I don't think the people who rabble for label changes realize that it's a Marxist-Communist tactic borrowed from Fascists (or maybe they were both doing it in Weimar, Germany as they vied for totalitarian control of that country). It's a method of destabilizing society by assigning the progressives elite status, and the ordinary people who lead simple lives are relegated to the Enemy class, because they don't know the right Code. The people who buy into it might have good intentions, or they might be weak-minded enough to be talked into anything, or they might be sly clever foxes with bad intent. Either way, it's good that you pointed this out.

[@AliM-ve9jd]

Watched almost all your videos, this is one of the best yet. Incorporating important history that's relevant to your region and is around you everyday into a video explaining how and why you're making your own changes to suit you for the future. A great concept, executed really well. I'm looking forward to more of videos of these style as well as your standard food ones. Great work!