There was a time when, in many homes, you cooked your food in the kitchen then took your prepared meal through to the dining room to eat. All rather formal.

Then something happened, maybe it had something to do with the popularity of cooking programmes and a growing interest in kitchen design, but the divide between kitchen and dining room was, literally, knocked down.

To create a bigger kitchen and installing such things as an island or breakfast bar, meant either knocking two rooms into one. Then came the fashion for bringing the garden into the house, and, as most kitchens are at the back of a house, rear walls were knocked out and patio or bifold doors installed.

In creating this bigger space, you now had a room where you could cook and eat food while enjoying the view of your garden. The transformation of the kitchen into the heart of the home was complete.

Technology played a part, too, both good and bad. On the downside, with more powerful smartphones and tablets and with just about every member of the family possessing a handheld device, it’s easy for everyone just to disappear into their own digital silo and not interact with other family members. Yet the kitchen is one area where we are seeing a greater application of ‘the internet of everything’, allowing you to boil kettles and switch on ovens by voice control or via a smartphone app.

The latest voice-activated technology such as Siri and Alexa allows the home cook, up to their elbows in flour, to change the music, control the lighting or ask for a YouTube video of the dish you are making to be played on your TV screen. Televisions, once bulky items which took up a great deal of living room space, are now light and thin and can be hung on a wall.

Kitchen storage has become a lot smarter with corner carousels and pull-out racks coming as standard with the majority of new kitchens. It is now commonplace for your six-ring hob to be on the opposite side of the kitchen to where the integrated oven, grill and microwave.

But strip away the tech and the gadgets, as helpful as the may be, and what you are left with is a communal space in which all the family can interact, from preparing the food to sitting down around the dining table and enjoying your family meal. It’s this which makes the kitchen the heart of a home.

There are many benefits to a family gathering around to eat their meals together around the kitchen table other than conviviality. Research has shown that sharing a family meal has many positives ranging to better physical health to mental health.

Children who sit at the kitchen table to eat with their parents eat healthier and are more likely to eat more fruit and veg and are less likely to be overweight. Dining in a loving environment reduces the incidents of eating disorders among adolescents.

The Mental Health Foundation outlines the benefits of family meals: “Sharing mealtimes is good for your mental health.

“Whether it be through sharing experiences with family and friends, winding down with company, bonding with family members or just having someone to talk to, mealtimes provide a great opportunity for us to set aside a specific time of the day or week to give us time to socialise, relax and improve our mental health.”

And today’s kitchen space, which can be part garden, part dining room as well as a whole lot of kitchen, is the perfect family space to allow you to be a family. With so many benefits associated with spending time in the kitchen, then investing in the best kitchen you can afford is probably money well spent.

It's estimated that a new kitchen will improve the value of your property by around six per cent.

According to the National Association for Estate Agents  (NAEA), if your budget can only stretch to renovating one room, that room should be the kitchen. It makes sense to look after the heart of the home.