PROFESSOR HU CHI KU CHI ON THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM "KITCHEN BRIDGE" Many of us have associated the term with people who play bridge at a very basic and inferior level. But this misconception needs to be corrected here and now. I have spent years researching into its true origin. Now with complete authority, I can tell you that the term "Kitchen Bridge" derives from the early 1930's, when in Stourbridge the membership of a newly formed bridge club consisted only of cooks and culinary experts. Not only did they prefer to play in the kitchen, where food and beverages were closer to hand, they also found it necessary carve up opponents and butcher a few of their contracts. However, it was the colourful language used, drawn from the ingedients and food items used in popular recipes of that era, that really brought the term into vogue. Kitchen bridge was therefore all about the practice of hurling kitchen-baste insults at partners who failed to bring home the bacon. Players often had to endure the classic jibe of having cooked their own goose. Many were labelled as muffins, fruitcakes, prunes, dumplings, lemons and puddings. They were often accused of bidding on tripe, being completely nuts....or just simply crackers. One famous line was " to get out of that pickle you had to preserve an entry in dummy". And if there is a moral to all this......well, never partner an intolerant, verbally aggressive chef, because if you do you'll get egg on you face. There can be no point in volunteering to be roasted alive, especially if you've been told about this wise old Stourbridge idiom: " if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen ".