Issue 118Wednesday, 2 September 2026Reading time 6 min
The most expensive thing in your kitchen is the drawer you never open
On buying fewer, better tools — and why the second-best knife is usually the one worth owning.
There is a drawer in almost every kitchen I have cooked in that contains a garlic press, an avocado slicer, a strawberry huller and a thing whose purpose nobody can name. None of them were expensive. Together they cost more than the pan you actually use.
I have been keeping a list for two years of every tool I reached for, and the shape of it is duller than I expected. Six things account for almost everything. The rest is theatre.
What the list actually says
- A 20cm chef's knife, used almost every day
- One heavy pan, used more than the other four combined
- A wooden spoon that predates the marriage
- Tongs, which turn out to replace about nine other things
The expensive mistake is not the knife you overpaid for. It is the eleven cheap objects you bought so that you would not have to learn to use the knife.
None of this is an argument for spending more. It is an argument for spending once, on the thing you will touch daily, and then being quite boring about it for a decade.
Cooking, buying less, and the occasional argument about kettles. No sponsorships, no affiliate links, and I will never sell your address.