Cooking

So several people have now asked me about this very topic, and being a classic internet shut-in failure, I have decided to pontificate until people get bored, wander over to Andrew Wheeler's excellent food blog: http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/ and ask these questions to someone who actually knows what they're talking about.

But, until then, you get me. The question has been 'what do I have to have in my kitchen?'. I admit, I remain amazed at the stories some people have of their kitchens, the food of the childhoods, and the grotesque mockery of cooking that they've been exposed to. I have been cooking pretty much my whole life, and I grew up with a mother who was a decent cook but a fantastic baker, a father who was very much the gourmet, and a stepmother who was on the eternal quest for the new and different. As a result, I grew up 'kitchen literate', as I like to call it.

But, with friends trying to branch out or telling me they'll be responsible for feeding themselves every day for the first time, I've tried to boil down what I think a kitchen must have to the most basic essentials. Maybe it'll help, maybe I'll just come off as ridiculously smug and utterly nonsensical for someone who has only experienced the food industry from the receiving end to talk about it, or maybe the internet itself will drag me up into Foodfail, a brand new crisis of the week for the online world. That's right, only vegetarians know how to cook vegetables properly or something!

( The equipment )

( The Staples )

( The Literature )