Range pastry chef Michelle Polzine's retro home kitchen is a feast for the senses. Read about her kitchen below and browse hundreds Bay Area kitchens for inspiration for your next rennovation project on our sister site, chdresource.com.
1. On one fateful bicycle ride to Ocean Beach, Range pastry chef Michelle Polzine and her husband Franz Kunst amassed an irresistible collection of vintage pink and green melmac dishes from a yard sale. “They were bulky, but I just had to have them,” says Polzine. “We lugged them on our bikes in a paper bag that kept ripping. But they’re worth it.”
Similar dishes available at The Other Shop, 327 Divisadero St., 415-621-5424.
2. Polzine resents the requisite chocolate dessert on summertime menus. “You should be eating fruit!” proclaims the locavore. Her rustic Blenheim apricot tart was a favorite at Range this season, as was a peach-leaf panna cotta topped with preserved sour cherries.
Range, 842 Valencia St., 415-282-8283, rangesf.com
3. After a visit to Range, renowned pastry chef Flo Braker expressed her adoration for Polzine’s hot date turnovers with coffee-toffee sauce by signing a copy of her book, Baking for All Occasions, with a treasured inscription: “To Michelle, a fabulous pastry chef who is on top of her game. Love and admiration, Flo.”
Book available at Omnivore Books.
4. Polzine’s home kitchen in the Mission was previously “Home Depot modern” before she and her husband transformed it into a retro vision. The fragile handmade green-gray “revival” tiles aren’t recommended for kitchens, but the rockabilly rebels installed them anyway.
Tiles available at Galleria Tile, 299A Kansas St., 415-431-5283.
5. Polzine’s mother-in-law, a seasoned home cook, gifted Polzine with a red Vulcania clay pot for Christmas last year. “It claims to be a traditional Italian cooking vessel,” says Polzine, scanning its credentials. “I hope I don’t get in trouble for not having used it yet.”
Vulcania pots available at Cookin’, 339 Divisadero St., 415-861-1854.
6. The vintage 1951 Kelvinator refrigerator was purchased from a Craigslist seller in San Anselmo. The original sales draft indicates that it was first sold by the now-extinct Mission District furniture store, Cristofani & Muzio Home. “I guess it just loves the neighborhood,” Polzine says.
