Have you had anyone determine if the two posts need to be there?

Well, what’s the new kitchen layout? And layout of the whole floor?

If the posts are not needed to support the beam I would remove them and reduce the soffit on the kitchen side as much as you can and leave it the way it is on the livingroom side. You have a difference in celiings to deal with between the kitchen and livingroom and it can look like an intentional break in between them.

The other more expensive option would be to hire an engineer to see if the large wood beam could be replaced with a steel one that would not need to be as thick.

If you want to reduce the depth of the beam you could look into having it replaced with a steel beam and then boxing that in with or Sheetrock. A steel beam would be smaller, and have the potential of eliminating some of the posts. (The longer the span without posts, the taller the beam.)

What is your new kitchen layout?