Introducing the Garage Kitchens of Melbourne’s North

Mrs. Grace Salera has always loved her kitchen garage, from the time she was just a little girl growing up with Calabrian parents in the north of Melbourne. Now she’s introducing the trend of having an entire kitchen set up in a garage to the rest of Melbourne too.

While Salera’s pristine white kitchen remains clean most of the time, it’s the garage kitchen that feeds seven grandchildren and a family of four. According to Mrs. Salera, the family uses the second kitchen all the time, as it’s just so convenient cooking with big pots. Although it’s still important to clean up after yourself in a garage kitchen, you’re less worried about people having fun with their cooking.

The Saleras transformed their carport into a garage eight years ago, building a wall so that they could separate their planned cooking space from their parking. The kitchen was then renovated and the old one was moved into the garage.

An Amazing Space for Kitchen

To make the experience even more amazing, there’s a chicken coop and fruit and vegetable garden on the property that’s managed by husband Mick, meaning that the distance from farm to plate is absolutely tiny. Already, many garage kitchens across Melbourne’s northern region are being established by people who want to keep the house clean, while still going wild with their cooking.

Ms. Helen Sartinas documented the new garage kitchen phenomenon in Melbourne in her new book. Sartinas grew up with a garage kitchen celebrated by her Greek family in Coburg. She was intrigued by the concept so she started exploring other garage kitchens in the surrounding area. Traditionally, many migrants in the 1950s that were raised on farms transformed garages into ambitious spaces for the kitchen. Ms. Sartinas even traveled as far as Italy to see if garage kitchens were unique to the Melbourne migrant experience for instance.

In Italy, she found families were more likely to source products from local experts than they were to cook for themselves at home. Experts in the real estate industry aren’t sure whether garage kitchens are actually adding value to a property, but that’s not necessarily the point of the extra kitchen space. It provides a cozy and welcoming space that the whole family love, and it gives today’s children a chance to get involved with the cooking without making too much of a mess.