KITCHENS, RESTAURANT. With the debut of executive chef Gray Kunz's $1 million kitchen at the restaurant Lespinasse in New York City's St. Regis Hotel in 1994, the restaurant kitchen became a showplace and status marker for American chefs. Cast-iron ranges from France, cool-to-the-touch induction stoves from Japan, fast-churning ice-cream machines from Italy have become de rigueur for any cook worth his fleur de sel. But despite the push for state-of-the-art technology in kitchen design, the organization of the staff and the layout of the workspace have not changed much since Georges-Auguste Escoffier's day.

Kitchen Organization

In addition to codifying and modernizing the culinary repertoire, Escoffier is credited with streamlining the organization of the kitchen. "I myself have often been forced to make profound changes in my restaurant service...