My mother, sister, and I got together yesterday to play with a favorite toy that we grew up with, the Dream Kitchen. My mother and her sisters got the set sometime in the 1960s and after years of gentle use it was also enjoyed by their children, including my sister and I. The Dream Kitchen lived at my grandparent’s house and after many years of sitting in their basement, we decided to take it out for a few photos and to enjoy the same things that we loved about it when we were younger, especially the battery powered rotisserie chicken.

The Dream Kitchen is made of of four main modular plastic units: a dish washer, refrigerator, oven, and sink, plus a table and chairs. The sink and dishwasher have water reservoirs that allow them to really work (with some minor leaks); the oven unit has a range that lights up and a rotisserie chicken turns in the oven; and the refrigerator, well, it just looks cool. In addition to the main pieces, the Dream Kitchen also comes with a host of accessories including plates, silverware, boxes of food, and other fake edibles. In total the set was said to come with 176 pieces; I did an inventory of what we had left after all these years and I counted 150 pieces and can’t imagine what we are missing (maybe a plastic steak or two).