Funny thing is that it's generational. I always wanted a big country kitchen, and my mother laughed and said that was what her aunts had wanted. She and all the women of her generation wanted a little scullery for washing-up and chopping and cooking, and a generous breakfast-room and/or dining room.

Which is what I now have - though I mostly chop in the breakfast-room and then carry through bowls of chopped meat and vegetables to the scullery to cook there. Or cúlchistín, as it is in Irish.