For Daniel Leung, it's gas (or the lack thereof).

For Frank Gonzales, it's counter space (ditto).

For Gloria Chee, it's hard-to-reach cupboards.

The subject: What bugs home cooks about kitchen design.

For me, it's just about everything — so much so that I spent part of the New Year's holiday writing a foaming-at-the-mouth rant about why home kitchen design hasn't changed substantially in my more than 50 years of standing at the stove, counter and sink (unless, of course, you can afford to have your kitchen custom-designed — and even then, it's often more show than go).

It begins, "My kitchen is my office. I only wish it was organized as efficiently as my other office."

I'll spare you the rest.

"The use of the kitchen has evolved, socially and cultural speaking," said Leung, an educational specialist in Kapi'olani Community College's culinary program.

Rather than being a set-apart workspace where Mom or a hired cook prepared food, it's become the social center of the household — the place where most families eat daily meals, where friends gravitate, where cell phones are charged, laptop computers perch on counters and a growing number of countertop appliances from microwaves to stand mixers, Cuisinarts to panini grills crowd the space.

"I don't think the people who design kitchens for the average home or condo really give much thought to the practical use of the room," said Gonzales.

The bachelor condo owner is a passionate home cook and culinary school graduate who runs the non-credit class program for Kapi'olani Community College's culinary school.

He tells of attempting a multicourse dinner and having to cache prepped food, finished food, serving pieces and ingredients throughout his Kapahulu condo — in the sink, on the pull-out cutting board, in and on the stove, in the living room, one on top of the other. The cupboards in his kitchen hang out so far over the counter that he can't get over the workspace or he'll bang his head on the cupboard doors. He's trained to do mis en place (the pre-cutting, measuring and so on of ingredients) and to arrange everything close to the cooking or assembly area to save steps, but his single 16-by-16-inch countertop frustrates him.

Gonzales' office-mate Leung, who grew up in a restaurant family in Hong Kong and loves to prepare meals for family and friends, recently completed remodeling his kitchen. Tops on the list was to install a gas-powered wok well for the high temperatures and instant heat control required for proper stir-frying. But the gas line stopped three houses from his home and would cost $6,000 to extend. Leung bought a propane tank instead and installed a "serious" hood and ventilation system.

"Kitchen designers are not necessarily cooks. If they liked to cook, they would think of the ergonomics, the space, the safety issues, the way the kitchen is really used. They don't ask anything about how you cook, what you cook," said Leung.

His designer wanted to provide only a narrow space next to his cooktop and to plant a large island in the middle of the room.

"But my wife and I like to cook together, and whenever we have people over, the kitchen becomes the entertainment center. People like to hang around and talk while we're cooking," Leung said.

If the space around the island is too narrow, there's danger from hot pots and extra steps for the cook — and all those people socializing get in the way. And space next to the cooking area is vital.

Chee, a Mililani mom who works part time and cooks from scratch for her family most nights, doesn't like it that she has to bend double or haul out a step-stool to reach the back of her cupboards.

"Why aren't they like drawers, that pull out?" she asks, plaintively. "And they assume everyone is the same height, but if you're short, like me, or if you're very tall, like my 6-foot-2 husband, the counter height isn't comfortable."

THE MAGIC TRIANGLE

One pair of home cooks who do understand the kitchen are Erik Taylor and Raymond Clayton, partners in life and in Kapa'a-based design firm Clayton-Taylor & Co. Taylor is a serious baker and Clayton loves to cook. He says the problem with Island kitchens isn't strictly one of space.

"Kitchens are usually too small but you can make a small kitchen work if it's laid out right," said Taylor in a phone interview. "You have to remember the triangle — a straight line from the refrigerator to the sink to the stove. If you don't have a good triangle, you're going to spend more time walking around the kitchen than you need to."

Like Leung, he's not a fan of kitchen islands. Or, if you need the workspace, he said, "there are some beautiful rolling butcher-block islands available that can be pulled into place when you need them and pushed out of the way when you don't."

I ran down my rant list with Taylor: