KITCHEN FAVOURITES
Most of us have been spending a lot of time at home in the last few months, and have been cooking many of our own meals, whether we like it or not. Spending time in the kitchen can be a passion, simply a way to feed oneself or even, especially these days, a way to have anything to do at all. Regardless of which one it is, we all rely on certain tools and objects in the kitchen — our species has come a long way since open fires and stone carved knives. Much like with pens or lighters, we all seem to have our favourite wooden spoon, plate or frying pan. These favourite objects often tell a story: about our lifestyle, culture, a past vacation, our sense of beauty or our family history. We have been asking around for your kitchen favourites, the ones you wouldn’t want to live without. This is what you told us:
There are few things Ischa, 8 ¾, likes more than helping out in the kitchen. This is his very own knife, that he uses to cut, slice and cube everything. It has a particularly good grip. He also enjoys baking and making up his own recipes.
These are two of four basic tools used to make roti, the belan (rolling pin) and the chakla (stone). Divya’s memories of these tools go way back to early childhood, when she watched her mother using them. Learning how to use them herself was a long process. As she got older, she got involved in more and more steps of roti-making. When she once mindlessly put the tools in the sink with the other dirty dishes, her mother taught her the sacred role roti and the tools to make it have — she hasn’t made the same mistake again.
Merve is a biochemist currently doing her PhD in Madrid. After a long day at the lab, working with some of the most advanced machinery known to humankind, she likes coming home to another kind of precision equipment: her red Magimix 4200 XL.
Jip, 21, shares the kitchen with his four housemates. This set of glasses with a matching ashtray is the one thing he refuses to share: his only ‘grown-up’ set of tableware is one of the few things he has from his mother, who passed away in 2013. Apart from the obvious emotional connection, they are also just very pretty.
Sascha put some serious design effort into his workstation, and it’s paid off in big and small ways for years. It consists of three wooden cutting boards for the perfect height, an aluminium drawer for biodegradable waste, and two adjustable led lamps for perfect light no matter the time of day. All of his famous hot sauce experiments are done right here.
Chris, who makes and publishes the beautiful FatBoyZine, ‘a greedy attempt to document a small part of Asian food and culture’, uses this unbranded knife for everything. He saw his mother using it throughout his childhood, while he helped out using a smaller knife. When his mother wanted to throw it out, he instead got it and has been using it ever since.
Creative director Mo strongly believes that salt makes everything better, so nothing he cooks he cooks without it. When his wife Tine, also featured in this series, made him this ceramic salt jar, it was bound to become his favourite and most-used object in the kitchen. It makes every dish and every day that much better.
Katharina is very fond of her two two-faced cups from Ukraine, that were made in the sixties or seventies, when the country was still part of the former USSR. Both have one side with a relatively neutral expression, while the other side is much moodier. Something about them feels a little wrong, which is what makes them so right.
When artist Tine hosts, she hosts well. Because there is nothing more frightening than the prospect of running out of alcohol, she likes to keep a stash of cold cold Winterling Blanc de Blanc in sight — and what a sight for sore eyes this large copper Champagne cooler is.
For architect Marisa her favourite thing in the kitchen is space to process ingredients — and to make a mess in. Her countertop allows for all that and more. She is most famous for her Venezuelan arepas, which she learned to cook herself after moving away from her home country.
June “Juniejunski”, 15, has long been a loyal member of the Grilled Cheese Society. When asked about her favourite object in the kitchen, she of course chose the only tool that can make breakfast, lunch and dinner in under five minutes.
Last November, photographer and co-founder of the creative platform Heart Work Joanna took a trip to Rwanda with her mom, where she was born and hadn’t been since 2013. When she found this set of salad servers she just had to have them. They are made of wood from the olive tree, which isn’t native to Rwanda, but was first brought there by missionaries many years ago.
Leo loves his Dutchie, a heavy iron pot that is irreplaceable in Jamaican cuisine. In fact, many consider it to be one of the secrets behind authentic Jamaican food. It works particularly well on open fire, but Leo admittedly mainly uses it on the stove — for jerk chicken, Jamaican dumplings, rice & peas…
Angelika has made a big name for herself as a costume designer, but she is almost as well-known for her homemade bread. This rubber spatula is a good help in making sure every bit of dough leaves the bowl on the way to the oven.
Photos:
Leo Cross, Tine Furler, Angelika Götz, Divya Iyer, Merve Keser, Katharina Koppenwallner, Joanna Legid, June Mayer, Sascha Mayer, Jip Moeken, Christopher O’leary, Ischa Tichler, Marisa Toldo, Mo Whiteman
