Attempts have been made globally to understand the influence of culinary culture of societies on the spatial layout of the kitchen designs. India, a developing country, perhaps would need a different approach at the kitchen design, be it the spatial organisation or ergonomic evaluation. In the modern context, the widely known kitchen triangle, keeps the storage, cooking and sink into one triangle, is well efficient even till date. But the native Indian cuisine would only demand the cook to move multiple times between the ‘preparation counter’, ‘cooking’ and ‘sink’ and not the storage. With an intention to investigate the mutual impact of culinary culture of a household and its kitchen design, this paper revisits kitchens from a lens of traditional culinary practices and discusses a deeper reflection for kitchen designs in contemporary context. Limiting itself to the independent residences, this paper documents, analyses, and compares the spatial design and the cooking route adopted by the users in five rural kitchens from the village ‘Paata Mupparru’, and five urban kitchens from the town ‘Eluru’ of Andhra Pradesh, India. Taking user movements and aspirations into account, need for a better design of the counter—sink—stove route, shelving and flexible spaces to better help with the cooking needs have been identified in addition to the better lighting and ventilation. The research is participatory and reflective in its methodology and therefore provides valuable insights from a commonly ignored user, i.e. the women in Andhra Pradesh’s social context.