Acrylic Lacquers would certainly provide a tough, hardwearing finish on the doors; it might even be practical to use an aerosol lacquer which will give a great finish very quickly. (Whilst it might seem that this could be an expensive way of doing the job when you consider the cost of the lacquer used against the cost of the timber and machinery and time etc it should only be a very small portion of the overall cost but can add so much!).
I wouldn't exclude a Finishing Oil immediately though, a couple of coats will give a good finish with relatively low maintenance. The main disadvantage here is that oils tend to have an amber colour, which can vary depending on the brand. Perhaps a further experiment with a tung-based oil (umm... such as ours) might be worth trying.
As has been mentioned already, maintenance of a finish is an important consideration when making a choice; sometimes it is not an issue (ie decorative items) but in a kitchen it is important. Whilst not disagreeing with what has been said I'd like to offer some alternative thinking on this...
Of course, the doors here will be vertical (unless it's a really radical new design!) so damage should be limited to splashes, spills and knocks. Whilst the lacquers will withstand the splashes and spills and should be tough enough to resist most knocks, it is still possible to chip it if someone tries hard enough, the repair of which will mean that the door will probably have to be stripped and completely refinished which can be quite time consuming.
An oil finish should withstand almost everything you can throw at it but after time and much wiping down/cleaning it might benefit from another coat of oil which can be easily applied on top of the existing coats without the need to strip it off.
Sometimes a Sanding Sealer and Wax is used; this probably won't stand up to repeated spills and splashes but knocks shouldn't have too much effect as the wax will be flexible enough to move with the wood. Maintenance would be very easy though, just applying more wax over the top of existing coats using Steel Wool or NyWeb.
