The genuine essentials
- One good chef's knife
- Around 20cm. The single most-used object in a kitchen and the one worth buying well.
- A large chopping board
- Bigger than you think. Wood or thick plastic, and it must not slide.
- A heavy frying pan
- Cast iron or heavy stainless steel. Thin pans have hot spots and cannot brown properly.
- A large heavy-based pot
- For stock, stews, pasta and soup. A cast-iron casserole does this and roasts as well.
- A baking tray or two
- Heavy, flat, and large enough not to crowd food.
- A saucepan
- Medium, with a lid.
- Scales, a sieve, a wooden spoon, tongs, a peeler, a whisk
- Individually trivial, collectively used every day.
- A small sharp paring knife and a bread knife
- The other two knives worth owning.
What earns its place next
In roughly the order most cooks come to want them.
- A digital thermometer, which removes guesswork from meat, bread, custard and frying.
- A pestle and mortar for pastes and spices.
- A food processor or a stick blender, depending on whether you make soup or pastry more often.
- A cast-iron griddle for charring and searing indoors.
- A fine sieve or chinois, once sauces start mattering.
- A roasting tin with a rack.
- More storage containers than you think, which is what makes leftovers work.
- A second board, kept for raw meat and fish.
What mostly sits in drawers
- Single-purpose gadgets — avocado slicers, garlic peelers, egg separators, strawberry hullers. A knife does all of these.
- Knife blocks of eight knives. Three get used.
- Non-stick pans for high-heat cooking. They cannot get hot enough to brown properly and they wear out.
- Very large stand mixers, unless you bake regularly. They are excellent for those who do and enormous for those who do not.
- Novelty bakeware. One or two tins, used often, beats a cupboard of shapes.
- Garlic presses, which crush rather than cut and are hard to clean. A knife and salt is better.
- Anything that only works with one brand of consumable.
Setting it up so it works
- Put the things you use daily within reach of where you stand and everything else out of the way.
- Keep the board area clear. Most kitchen frustration is having nowhere to put things down.
- Store knives on a rack or in a block rather than loose in a drawer, where they blunt and cut you.
- Keep salt, pepper and oil beside the hob where you can reach them mid-cook.
- Have a bowl for scraps on the counter while you cook. It halves the mess.
- Buy the knife and the heavy pan properly and everything else cheaply. Nothing else rewards the money as clearly.
- Add equipment when you have wanted it three times, not before.
Common questions
What is the one thing worth spending on?
A good chef's knife, and then a heavy pan. Nothing else rewards the money as clearly.
Do I need non-stick?
One small non-stick pan for eggs is useful. Not for browning, where it cannot get hot enough.
Cast iron or stainless steel?
Cast iron holds heat better and is heavier. Stainless steel is more responsive and easier to live with. Either works.
How many knives do I need?
Three — a chef's knife, a paring knife and a bread knife.
What do people buy and never use?
Single-purpose gadgets, large knife sets, novelty bakeware, and garlic presses.
Try this next
- Browse equipment what each thing does
- Chef's knife the one to buy well
- Cast iron skillet the workhorse
- How to look after a knife keeping it working