Kitchen

2005

organized by El Niño with WhiteHeat, k8, Owen, Dafna
Puddle discussion: Kitchen

GOALS

"Of all the things that people have in common, what unites them most is the need to eat and drink" (Friedeman Derschmidt, permanentbreakfast.org)

Behind this seemingly obvious fact lies a whole philosphy of well-being, which we feel essential to the proper enjoyment of such an intense experience as Burning Man. The Kitchen should be a space where it is easy to prepare food, share, chat and relax. We intend it as the center of our camp life, and as the starting point for Playa explorations. If live is easy and sweet at home, playa adventures can be more deep and enjoyable.
The Kitchen is intended for every Di5orienter to use at their own ease. However, because the winds of the playa make us drift in very random directions, and that we need to keep this somewhat orderly so that it does not entirely break down, we felt the need to distinguish 3 levels of involvement  :

1. Kitchener : shortly after your arrival, you have checked with El Niño on what goes where, contributed something to the Kitchen (anything : help, ustensils, food, ice, love) and you are thus a full member of the coop. This implies more rights but also more responsibilities, which you are happy to take for your well-being and that of your fellow Kitcheners. You are here for the Kitchen and the Kitchen is here for you.
   

1. Passer-by Di5orienter : you happen to pass by the Kitchen because it's a hot day outside, that the shade is very enticing, plus there is a massage table right there and Ted is playing a cool song on the guitar. You sit down and relax. For the first time of the week, you feel fed-up with your 5 powerbars a day and you suddenly feel like cooking something up. Luckily there are a few ustensils available for public use. Sure, the last passer-by left them a little filthy, but the worse you have to do is to clean up that pot before starting the cooking. The Kitchen is here for you.
   

1. Disoriented Di5orienter  : it is 56 in the morning and your 2 hour run to escape the silver dragon has led you to this weird spot of your camp that looks somewhat like a Kitchen, only it's all wiggly and blinking. The dinosaur-like purple tail that you have been carrying all along feels heavy, and you just want to rest there a bit. Sit down, play with the blender. Oh, look at this, a swimming pool with a distorted meshgrid above it ! You haven't taken a bath in yuck since you left Proxima Centauri this morning... etc, etc. etc. The Kitchen is here for you, but you are elsewhere. You might want to stay away from the stove.
   

ELEMENTS

• Kitchen shaded area (with Steve-O)
  
• Dining aread (large plywood table + 20 plastic chairs)
  
• Recycling station,
  
• Sink, counter, evap pool
  
• Cupboards, table, bulletin board.
  

Proposal :
EVERYTHING IN IT’S RIGHT PLACE

THE KITCHEN

By WhiteHeat

I see an area, not unlike this Now for some details:
These are ideas to make the kitchen interesting, creative and useful. In no certain order.

LIGHTING

Could be as simple as Christmas lights around all three sides of the kitchen area. At every upright connecting the sides of the shade structure, I suggest a lantern of some sort. This is for lighting the kitchen at helps create an inviting ambiance too. Seeing what you’re doing in the kitchen at night will help cleaning up what you’re doing in the kitchen at night.

TRASH

Here’s where the theme really comes in surprise.... Three large trash cans. One for recycling, of course. One for burnables and one labeled for trash that needs to be carried out of BRC. Trash cans should have lids that are bungy corded down. An enormous supply of trash bags should be stored here too.

ORGANIZATION

I say make it very basic and easy to keep things organized and tidy. I suggest having sets of plastic drawers that people can keep cooking gear in. Maybe 2 sets of three drawers, like the Container Store sets. That way some utensils can stay in the kitchen and be available for the whole camp and in these drawers, be kept moderately clean and out of the dust.
I also highly suggest having rolls of tape and sharpies hanging nearby these drawers for people to label their stuff. If it’s labeled it will be returned. If it’s not, it will be trashed or lost. I also suggest keeping things we want to stay in the kitchen and in their perfectly allotted place, on strings. Like a bottle opener on a string tied near coolers, so it’s always there. The sharpies and tape tied to the shade structure, hanging low so it’s super easy to label your stuff and you know where to get the materials to do so. Locking things down sounds a little hard core, but I really think this is a good way to always know where things are and to keep things put away so there is working space available. Where’s the Blender? Right over there, between the knife block and the bread box.
I think one drawer should be for cleaning products: Soap, towels, scrub pads, cleansers. All right there so cleaning can be immediate. One drawer for pots and pans. One for utensils. One for matches, zip ties, sharpies, tacks, note paper.

COOLING

I think the wall that doesn’t have a stove or a sink should be a place to store coolers. Again, have tape and sharpies to label whose is whose. Don’t want people in your cooler but want it in the kitchen? Zip ties for locking and a blade hanging nearby for cutting open. Have a community cooler here for ice. We need options for dry ice. A mini fridge would be ideal. I think we should have a good supply of Ziploc bags around. Nothing like having watered down fromage just because the wrapper got loose.

POWER

We need to be close or have access to a generator for lights, blenders, refrigerators.

MESSAGE BOARD

Above the coolers, we should have a big dry erase message board and a cork board for messages. Want to know who’s spinning tonight? Check out the message board. Want to meet up with someone at Center Camp? Leave it on the message board. I want to have a Polaroid camera hanging around too, and then decorate the kitchen with Polaroids of Disorienters progressing in states of Euporia throughout the week, along with little fortune cookie type sayings, coaxing people to work less, play more.
Have you seen this person? Go find them
Why aren’t you on the playa?
Go find art
Dance dance dance
This is also a place for people to bring photos from past years to hang around too. There should be note paper and thumb tacks nearby.
STOVE : Jason and Lacey’s will be loaded on the container. Propane has to be logged from Reno or Gerlach by someone.

SINK/EVAP POOL

The Sink will be lent by Jason and Lacey and embedded in an M1. The evap pool will be concealed behind one of the Kitchen walls to keep revolting images of Amaraschino cherries out of the Kitcheners’ sight. Idea for evap pool : vertical bands of cotton increase the evaporation power via capillarity.

EVAP PRE-PLAYA by K8 - I will bring all the supplies for this. Consider it my gift. Somebody better freakin’ cook for me. I’ll pre-drill everything so that its super-easy to put together and will prestring the capillarity (didn’t know what that was called before) strips and will bring some replacement ones.

FIRE EXTINGUISHER

Fire extinguisher.

KARMA POLICE

I think Kitcheners should volunteer in groups of say 5 people a day to “Karma Police” the kitchen. It’s just one day, split among friends to make sure there’s not food lying around, overflowing trash cans, and that there is ice in the camp cooler. Coming back to camp? Grab a bag of ice ! If people are signed up to clean, at least someone will be watching it. We don’t want our kitchenette to be a victim of the not-mine-didn’t-see-it syndrome

RECYCLING AND TRASH REMOVAL

Bags will be piled up behind the Kitchen in a very orderly manner. People will be good and they will minimize moop, separate well and actually behave like it’s a LEAVE NO TRACE events, unless they want to incur the wrath of the “Moop nazi”. A few time during the week, the Moop Nazi will assign car and RV owners to take up a bag or two and store it away so that the center of the camp doesn’t look like a giant dumpster.
People leaving the playa will take as much trash as they can so that the last few good souls who left to clean up the mess behind don’t have to live in a dumpster for one more day…

FOOD REMOVAL

I suggest we look into what camps stay at BRC the longest and ask early in the week if we can make contributions to their camp with any leftovers we have. Otherwise, every car that leaves brings a trash bag and a food bag. Starting with the cars that leave first!

SUPPLIES

Buying a box of Ziplocs for yourself? Great, get another to donate to the camp! Thanks!

LIST

sawhorses, plywood, 2x4's for the Tables
M1's for the counter
as many chairs as possible (storage)
Shade Structure
Christmas lights
Candles or batteries for Lanterns
3 Lanterns
2 Blenders (k8 will bring one & Aarona will bring one)
Generator
Power cords
Power strips
Knife Block
propane
Pots, pans
Kitchen Utensils, wooden spoons, etc.
2 sets of plastic drawers, three drawers per set (k8 will bring one & ____ will bring one)
Hole punch for tying cups to bodies, less cups wasted if you have one on you! (k8)
Purel, hand sanitizer
Trash Bags
Recycling Trash Bags
Mesh bags for wet garbage
Ziplocs
Sharpies
White Gaffer’s tape
Fire Extinguisher.
Cutting Board
Bungee cords
3 large trash cans
string
zip ties
box cutter
dry erase board
tack board (k8)
Sink
Evap area
Mop/broom for evap area
Plastic gloves
Scrub sponges, cleaning supplies
Mini Refrigerator
Dry Ice
Bottle opener
Can opener
Lighter
Polaroid film
Polaroid Camera
large cotton rug to keep mud & dust down

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

- Pre-playa :
To shop for supplies
To lend or donate items
To load supplies on container
To get propane in Reno

- during SETUP :
To unload supplies from container (NB: most of the Kitchen stuff should go on the DeX)
To build shade structure (3 people, 3 hours)
To build the Table and Counter (2 people, 2 hours)
To help build the evap pool (k8 + 1 person, 3 hours ?)

- during the week
To watch over kitchen
To clean and maintain the evap pool (Owen)
To handle trash thoughout the week (El Niño)

- Di5engage (Sunday/Monday)
to handle trash on last day
to handle leftovers on last day
to handle cleaning
to handle break down

Add to the list, remove things if you see fit. Some of the things on this list may seem like the responsibility of individuals. But I think that they are necessary to have the kitchen run itself and that is a request and requirement for the whole camp, thus a camp expense to keep it going.

Once we come to an agreement and ideas are shared, I will work on a budget. Suggestions welcome. I will continue to look into other ways make the kitchen run itself too.
This is going to be magical...