In the Kitchens of the Rich, Things Are Not as They Seem
美国富裕家庭的豪华厨房什么样？

The kitchens of the wealthy in the United States today are capable of providing a humbling experience to the uninitiated. Attempts to procure ice cubes can transform the most dignified guest into a hapless burglar rummaging through drawers for loose gems.

如今在美国富人的厨房里，不懂行的人可能会体验到丢脸的感觉。寻找冰块的行为能把最尊贵的客人变成一个像在翻箱倒柜、寻找散落宝石的倒霉小偷。

“I don’t think I’ve had a client that’s wanted to reveal their fridge for a very long time,” said Martyn Lawrence Bullard, an English interior designer whose namesake firm in Los Angeles has evanesced major household appliances for the likes of Cher, Tommy Hilfiger and Kylie Jenner. “In the last five years, everything we’ve done has had a hidden fridge.”

“我想我应该很久没有遇到过想把冰箱露在外面的客户了，”英国室内设计师马丁·劳伦斯·布拉德说，他在洛杉矶的同名公司已经让大型家电从雪儿、汤米·希尔费格和凯莉·詹纳等名流的家中消失。“过去五年，我们所做的每一次设计都包括隐藏冰箱。”
 

你能在图中找出冰箱吗？

Many things that are immediately identifiable as things in the majority of American kitchens — appliances recognizable from their size, shape and the general appearance they have had since roughly the 1940s — are, in the homes of the wealthy, increasingly being transmogrified into cabinets.

在富人家里，许多在普通美国家庭的厨房中能立刻辨认出来的东西——从大小、形状和大约上世纪40年代起就没变过的外观能认出的电器，正越来越多地被改造进柜体之中。

“Panel-ready” refrigerators, the facades of which are designed to accommodate (typically via systems of brackets and screws) custom pieces of wood indistinguishable from a kitchen’s built-in cabinetry, have become standard. Thus, it is not only possible, but usual, to look at a newly built luxury kitchen and be unable to immediately ascertain whether it contains an icebox.

面板就绪内置式冰箱已经成为标配，其外观设计成可以容纳（通常依靠支架和螺钉系统）与内嵌橱柜搭配一体的定制木板。因此，看到新装修的豪华厨房无法立即确定里面是否有冰箱，这不仅是可能的，而且往往是常有的情况。

“Everyone” is covering their stainless steel with panels, said Shannon Wollack, the founder of Studio Life/Style, an interior design firm in West Hollywood, California. “Everyone,” she repeated. Among the clients whose kitchens Wollack has transformed into sleek cabinet emporia: actress Hilary Duff, whose blue-paneled kitchen does, despite appearances, include a refrigerator.

加州西好莱坞室内设计公司Studio Life/Style的创始人香农·沃拉克表示，“每个人”都在用板子盖住不锈钢。“每个人，”她重复道。经沃拉克之手把厨房改造成时髦的橱柜中心的客户里，就包括女演员希拉里·达芙的蓝色镶板厨房里面藏了一台冰箱。

Au courant refrigerators resemble the imaginary dragons of childhood fantasy in that they are both invisible and enormous. “You’d be shocked how much space” luxury kitchens devote to hidden refrigeration, Wollack said. “A lot of people,” she said, elect to incorporate two refrigerators, side by side.

现在的冰箱就像小时候做梦幻想出来的龙，无形且巨大。沃拉克说，在豪华厨房隐藏冰箱“所占用的空间会让你大吃一惊”。她表示，“很多人”会选择把两台冰箱并排放在一起。

Can I Get You a Drink?

你要来点喝的吗？

What are the wealthy manipulating to levels of coldness and freshness — far beyond nature’s intrinsic capacity — in quantities requiring such vast storage?

富人们到底有多少（远超出实际生理需求的）东西需要在这么大的储存空间里进行冷藏和保鲜？

Drinks, mostly.

主要是饮料。

“They like to have lots of beverages,” said Wollack, whose clients include many individuals in the entertainment industry. “A lot of it is beverages.” A popular drawer setup, she said, incorporates three small refrigerated partitions: one for wine, one for drinks other than wine and one for fresh produce. Bullard has known clients to use them for storing face creams and beauty products. “A bunch of people put them in their bathrooms now,” he said.

“他们喜欢在家里放很多饮料，”沃拉克说，她的客户包括许多娱乐圈人士。“很多都是饮料。”她说，一个很受欢迎的抽屉设计包括三个小的冷藏分区：一个放葡萄酒，一个放非酒水的饮料，还有一个放生鲜。布拉德知道有客户还会用冰箱来储存面霜和美容产品。“现在很多人把它们放在浴室里了，”他说。

Second fridges are not new to American homes. A 2015 survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration indicated that 30% of the country — around 35 million households in 2015 — could claim at least two refrigerators “plugged in and turned on” in their residence at all times.

拥有两台冰箱对美国家庭来说并不新鲜。美国能源信息署在2015年的一项调查显示，美国30%的家庭（2015年约3500万户）声称家中至少有两台“通着电并一直开机”的冰箱。

What distinguishes high-end supplemental refrigerators is the prominence of their (concealed) placement: According to the survey, the majority of the nation’s additional refrigerators are banished to basements or garages.

高端备用冰箱的不同之处在于其（隐蔽）放置地点的重要性：据调查，大部分备用冰箱都放在地下室或车库。

Cabinet camouflage is likewise not a modern innovation: For a short time in the 1950s, General Electric advertising copy boasted of a horizontal refrigeration system built to hang “on the wall like a picture,” available in colors such as “petal pink” and “turquoise green.”

伪装成橱柜的样子也并不是现代才有的创新：在上世纪50年代，通用电气的广告文案曾吹嘘其横向制冷系统，“就像画一样”可以挂在墙上，有“花瓣粉”和“绿松石”等颜色可供选择。

It is expensive to hide top-of-the-line refrigerative technology within one’s kitchen. Many of Wollack’s clients opt for fridges from Sub-Zero, which are equipped with a magnetic gasket around the edge of the inner door that creates a vacuum seal to lock out warm air.

把最先进的冷藏技术隐匿于家中厨房的成本非常高。沃拉克的许多客户都选择Sub-Zero品牌的冰箱，这种冰箱在内门边缘安装了磁性垫圈，形成真空密封，避免热气进入。

These appliances — which, she said, “can be easily up to $15,000” — are so committed to their task of cooling, they may at times seem to be working in opposition to their owners: Troubleshooting guidance for customers on the Sub-Zero website explains to customers that, although the company’s refrigerators and freezers are not designed to be impenetrable to humans, “depending on the strength of the vacuum, it may seem as if the door is locked.”

这些电器（她说“随便就能卖到1.5万美元”）把太多重心放在制冷能力上，以至于有时候可能会给主人带来不便：Sub-Zero品牌网站上为客户提供的故障处理指南中介绍说，虽然该公司冰箱和冰柜的设计并非为了人类打不开，但“根据真空的强度不同，可能会出现门被锁住的情况”。

But while the wealthy are anxious to chill an ever-increasing volume of perishable items, one thing they are increasingly less inclined to do, per Bullard, is freeze them. “Freezing food is becoming less and less fashionable,” he said. “People want to eat more organically.”

尽管富人们急于冷藏的易腐坏物品越来越多，但布拉德表示，他们越来越不愿意做的一件事就是冷冻。“冷冻食品越来越过时了，”他说。“人们喜欢吃得更有机一些。”

“Most of our clients these days tend to just end up using their freezers for ice and ice cream,” he said.

“如今我们大多数客户往往只用冷冻室来制冰和储存冰淇淋，”他说。

Likewise out of favor are refrigerators with built-in automatic water and ice dispensers that enable weary fridge owners to procure a drink without stopping to open the unit.

同样不再受欢迎的还有外置自动取水制冰器的冰箱，这一功能可以让疲惫的冰箱主人不用打开冰箱就有冷饮喝。

Ice comes now from one of several varieties of squat stand-alone machines dedicated solely to creating ice of a particular shape, texture and clarity. The highest-end panel-ready models of these can cost a few thousand dollars. For those with merely several hundred dollars to spend creating ice, a small unit from GE presents its cache of frozen water as an empyreal glowing mosaic.

如今的冰都来自单独占放在地上的几类机器，它们专门用于制造形状、纹理和透明度各异的冰。这些机器最高端的面板就绪型号可能价值数千美元。如果只有几百美元的预算，通用电气的一款小型制冰机可以将存放的冰块呈现出发光马赛克般的高雅造型。

An Inside Look

内有洞天

Reality television has served as a venue for average Americans’ exposure to high-end refrigeration since the early 2000s. In MTV’s “Cribs,” a popular documentary-style series in which entertainers — actors, musicians, athletes, the occasional magician — purported to give viewers tours of their private homes, peeks inside refrigerators were a signature element of the show. (Many were stocked primarily with drinks, including, memorably, a supermarket display quantity of Vitaminwater neatly arranged in the refrigerator of 50 Cent.)

21世纪初以来，普通美国人一直透过真人秀节目接触高端冰箱。MTV热播的《名人豪宅秀》(Cribs)是一部纪录片风格的节目，其中的艺人（包括演员、音乐人、运动员，偶尔还有魔术师）号称要带观众参观他们的私人住宅，该节目的一个标志性环节就是窥探冰箱里有什么。（许多冰箱放的主要是饮料，比如“50分”[50 Cent]家的冰箱里像超市一样整齐摆放着大量维他命水，令人印象深刻。）

“The Real Housewives” franchise has provided another window through which viewers can scrutinize the design choices of America’s elite. Because of the program’s emphasis on lavish domesticity, cast members are frequently filmed in their spotless, sprawling kitchens.

《娇妻》(The Real Housewives)系列则是另一个窥见美国精英阶层家装设计的窗口。因为该节目强调奢华的家庭生活，演员们总在一尘不染的巨大厨房里进行拍摄。

Nene Leakes, of the show’s Atlanta branch, delivered one of the series’ most famous monologues in 2013, on the subject of a refrigerator. In a talking head interview, she appeared distraught as she described the appearance of a hotel in which one of her co-stars was temporarily residing: “It has a white refrigerator!” Leakes wailed, her face a kaleidoscope of pain, horror and disbelief. “I was like ‘Oh hoo! Ooh, not a white refrigerator. Girl, please put your shoes on. Let’s go find you a home, honey!’ ”

2013年，妮妮·利克斯在《亚特兰大娇妻》中谈到冰箱，并发表了该剧最著名的独白之一。在一场近距离采访中，她在描述自己与一位合作演员暂住的酒店时，做出了一副心烦意乱样子：“那里有一台白色冰箱！”利克斯大吐苦水，脸上满是难受、恐惧和不敢相信的表情。“我当时就觉得，‘天呐！哦，这白色冰箱可不行啊。姐妹，请穿好你的鞋子。我们找个能住的地方吧，亲爱的！’”

The enormous glass closet stocked with baskets of Technicolor-vibrant produce installed in the home of another “Real Housewife,” Yolanda Hadid, also drew attention on the show’s Beverly Hills franchise. While Hadid left the show in 2016, a Twitter account with the handle @YolandasFridge created during her tenure occasionally still tweets in character as her transparent appliance to an audience of more than 14,000 followers.

另一位“娇妻”尤兰达·哈迪德的家中则摆有一个巨型玻璃柜，里面全是一篮篮五颜六色的农产品，成了《比弗利娇妻》系列中的吸睛之笔。虽然哈迪德在2016年退出了该节目，但在她出演期间创建的Twitter账号“@YolandasFridge”仍时不时以她家玻璃冰箱的身份向超过1.4万粉丝发布推文。

Despite the visual appeal of Hadid’s lushly stocked fridge, most clients “don’t go with the glass front — as much as they would like to,” Wollack said.

沃拉克说，尽管哈迪德的冰箱很吸睛，但大多数客户“还是不会选择玻璃面板——哪怕他们很想这么做”。

All-glass fridges require a level of maintenance generally incompatible with human life. “You have to be organized and keep your fridge very, very tidy,” Bullard said. “Otherwise it doesn’t look good at all. And they’re very expensive. They’re 15,000, 20,000 dollars.”

全玻璃冰箱的保养维护通常堪称反人类。“你必须特别会整理，并且要保持冰箱的极度整洁，”布拉德说。“否则冰箱就一点也不好看了。而且这样的冰箱很昂贵，价值在1.5到2万美元之间。”

Hidden in Plain Sight

藏于众目睽睽之下

Wollack and Bullard both said that the fervor for concealing appliances resulted from kitchens increasingly being used as rooms for casual congregation, rather than as areas dedicated exclusively to the preparation of food.

沃拉克和布拉德都表示，人们对隐藏电器的热衷源于厨房越来越多地被用作休闲聚会场所，而不是仅仅用来准备食物的区域。

“Kitchens used to be concealed,” Wollack said. “It had a door. That was where you had all your appliances. It was like the work space. And now, kitchens are more of a lifestyle. You want to make it pretty and seamless.”

“过去厨房是隐蔽的，”沃拉克说。“它有一个门。你的所有电器都在那里。那就像个工作场所一样。而现在，厨房更像是一种生活方式。你想让它漂亮得天衣无缝。”

These spaces are being furnished “as living rooms,” Bullard said. “We add art. You add expensive lighting. The island becomes sort of the modern-day dining table.” (The real dining table remains confined to a separate, less-used room.)

厨房的空间是“按照客厅的样子”布置的，布拉德说。“我们添加了艺术品。增加了昂贵的照明。料理台变成了现代餐桌。”（真正的餐桌仍被局限于一个独立的、甚少使用的屋子里。）

A spokesperson for Sub-Zero confirmed that panel-ready models of the company’s refrigerators are “especially popular in major metropolitan areas.” Bullard said the fastest way for kitchen trends to spread is through images on social media. In the past few years, he said, Instagram has inspired a blitz of green-colored kitchens.

Sub-Zero的一位发言人证实，该公司的面板就绪冰箱“在大都市地区尤其受欢迎”。布拉德说，厨房时尚传播最快的方式就是社交媒体上的照片。他说在过去几年，Instagram激发了绿色厨房的热潮。

But some luxury kitchen amenities remain out of reach for even the wealthiest shoppers — amenities including the very fridges they hope to hide.

但有些豪华厨房设施即便是最富裕的顾客也买不到——就包括他们最想藏起来的冰箱。

“At the moment, God knows, you can’t find a fridge anywhere,” Bullard said. “They’re almost as hard to find as a car.” Pandemic-driven disruptions in the global supply chain have made even modest chest freezers scarcely obtainable since last spring. “Things are months and months delayed at the moment,” he said. “And money doesn’t do it these days. You can’t pay more to get it faster because the product’s just not available.”

“眼下，天知道为什么，你到哪儿都买不到冰箱，”布拉德说。“它们几乎和汽车一样难买了。”自去年春天以来，疫情导致全球供应链中断，即便是普通的冰柜也很难买到。“目前货物都延期了好几个月，”他说，“现在有钱也买不到了。你花更多钱也没法让货快点到，因为就是没有货。”

Bullard was recently tasked with hunting down a catering fridge for a client’s chef. “We could not find it anywhere,” he said. Eventually, he located a pre-owned model. The final price for the used refrigerator: $18,000.

布拉德近来的工作就是为一位客户的厨师购置一台餐饮冰箱。“我们到哪里都找不到货，”他说。最终，他找到了一台二手的款式。而这台旧冰箱的最终价格：1.8万美元。

“You do,” he said, “what you must.”

“该买的你就必须买，”他说。