Hayden Quinn COOK · TV PRESENTER · FOOD ADVENTURER

Kitchen Essentials

If my kitchen gear disappeared overnight and I had to start again fresh, this is the list I would work off. Perfect if you are moving out of home, renovating your kitchen or just looking to refresh your kitchen tools, this simple list ticks all the boxes.

Please note: none of these brands or online stores are partners of mine. These are just things I use at home and feel provide the best quality at the best price. This is in no way a paid endorsement of these products.

Hayden's hands holding a stainless steel frying pan of bubbling orange caramel over a wooden board of sliced oranges

Knives

For a home cook, I think you only need three knives in the kitchen, plus a sharpener for day to day touch ups (you should always get your good quality knives sharpened professionally, I use KnifeTech). These knives below are not cheap, but they will last and they offer better value than buying a 10-knife set for $799 or something crazy!

Pots & pans

Hayden smiling as he stirs a black wok with a wooden spatula, a stainless bowl and stone mortar beside him

The options really are endless here, and the discussion is pretty hot around the different materials in which you can get your pots and pans these days: cast iron, wrought iron, stainless, non-stick, enamel, ceramic, hybrid, this list just goes on. I have the whole suite of these styles at home and in Studio Maybe, they all have a purpose and all are used for different reasons, but in my home I have a simple few, mainly: cast iron, wrought iron and stainless. Below are some suggestions for you, and at the end of the day it is up to you to do your research on the material you want to use, the budget you have and of course your style of cooking.

Pots

Pans

  • Small (20cm) (for your morning eggs)
  • Large (28cm) (one for frying, sautéing etc.)
  • Cast Iron Skillet (one for cooking steak)
  • Wok

Bowls & containers

Now, my preference for both of these is glass (in saying that, I do like a stainless bowl as well) but I feel the glass is great and you can’t go past the classic Pyrex brand. Ikea makes some ok glass containers for leftovers and the like, but they seem to chip really easily, Seed & Sprout also make a lot of good products along this line and the quality is better. A lot of the time you can buy these in sets.

Bowls

Containers

  • Glass - get a few sizes, they last longer than the plastic ones.

Oven

Accessories

Tongs lifting golden fried chicken out of a black frying pan

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