Story: At home with Dana Roski

Everyone! My husband and I love to cook and even our three-year-old son Eden loves nothing more. We highly value seasonal regional food and choose organic where possible. But my husband and I definitely differ in the way we cook: His cooking is rather hearty, he swears by teppanyaki and likes to go wild with elaborate, French-inspired dishes.
I try to cook very colourfully and healthily, preferably in my new steam oven, which I loved from the start! Thanks to the oven with FullSteam®, I now cook even healthier and can gently steam vegetables, couscous and many other favourite dishes – it’s great fun: Eden is always amazed when I open the oven to take the vegetables out and there's a big cloud of steam (laughs). It’s very important to me that my son eats a nutritious and varied diet and learns what good things vegetables can do to his body. Whether at kindergarten, in the office or when designing jewellery, we all need a lot of energy and power for our everyday lives.

I have cooked all my life in small separate spaces, so it was immediately clear to me that the kitchen in the house had to be part of the living room, both visually and spatially. For this reason, we deliberately did without classic kitchen furniture such as wall cupboards above the kitchen unit; instead we focussed on the decoration and the mix of materials. In this way, we have created a flowing transition between the living room and the kitchen - both have an extremely atmospheric effect.

It definitely wasn't a classic kitchen planning and it shows (laughs)! A classic kitchen planned in a kitchen studio wouldn't really have suited me somehow. I wanted to put all my creativity into this project and design an innovative, individual space. I wanted my kitchen to break up the typical look, which is exactly what gives the room its character now. First of all, I completely changed the layout of the room on the ground floor. Water connections were re-routed and the entire technical infrastructure in the house was turned upside down. I wanted the visual axis from the kitchen to the living room and vice versa to appear calm, which is why the larger household appliances such as the oven and refrigerator are only visible in the kitchen itself, while the hob with integrated extractor fan blends seamlessly into the marble kitchen island. This way I can watch Eden play in the living room while cooking, I love that!

The mix of different materials such as stainless steel, wood and marble is the main focus in my kitchen and the central style element. This works particularly well, not least because the oven, fridge and hob have such a design character that they can work perfectly in the surroundings. My highlight and the reason why I chose NEFF was the new Graphite Grey line. So my tip is definitely to think through the cooking stations practically, but also aesthetically: what colours and materials can I use with the help of the household appliances? For example, with the oven in dark grey and brushed stainless steel pilasters, I was able to reflect the mix of materials in the kitchen.
This way, the high-end technology, which I really appreciate when cooking but don't necessarily need for the look, blends in perfectly with the kitchen environment. I also recommend deliberately placing decorative kitchen utensils such as golden cutlery, cooking spoons or cutting boards where they are used. On the one hand, this is totally intuitive and on the other hand, it brings a natural mix of styles. Just be brave!

Just like in my studio when I create new collections, I want everything to be neat and tidy around me in the kitchen. When it comes to design itself, I like to be creative and break with the norm, but my physical environment must always be structured and designed in a way that I find aesthetically pleasing. This gives me an inner peace that I need both when I'm cooking and when I'm working.

Definitely cooking! The passion I have for cooking hasn't transferred to baking yet - maybe that will change now that I have an oven that helps so much with automatic programmes. Little by little, I try my hand at simple baking recipes, but I admit that I'm more of a free spirit in the kitchen, cooking according to whim rather than exact quantities. My son Eden is the baker in the Roski home, so for his sake there are often trays of lemon cake, that's always a safe bet.

We try to get together as a family in the evening and review the day over a delicious dinner. In summer, we prefer to do this in our garden. We love being in nature and have picnics in the flower meadow in front of the house during the day.

What's Dana's signature dish?
As a native Swabian, there's only one answer to this question: the classic ‘Hefezopf’ (yeast plait) is my go-to breakfast, coffee snack and one of my son's favourite dishes. I reduce the sugar in the dough, which I personally prefer, but there's usually added fruit sugar in the shape of jam on top, haha.