Kitchen Essential
As home kitchens – and what we prepare in them – have become more sophisticated, it’s only logical that the tools we so long took for granted in those kitchens do the same. Enter Kitchen Provisions, the Coal Drop Yards store that has quickly become a go-to for professional chefs and keen home cooks.
As the name suggests, Kitchen Provisions sells a full and excellent range of all things kitchen-related, both in-store and online – and does it with all the insider expertise you’ve come to expect from Coal Drops Yard’s collection of specialty independent retailers.
The brand is the brainchild of Tom Saunders (a former chef), Helen Symonds (curator of the full Kitchen Provisions collection) and Jake Nibbs (whose background is in woodwork and design). Their passionate and highly-committed approach means they source and discover the store’s offering from many of the world’s finest makers first-hand.
‘We try to avoid gadgets or anything faddy,’ says Symonds of the logic of this. ‘Basically, if you haven’t got a good knife, it really isn’t worth thinking about mandolins, graters and the rest. We suggest you should focus on putting your budget into one decent all-around chef’s knife.’
Which is not to say that there isn’t plenty for kitchen geeks to discover (wasabi grater or suribachi for grinding sesame seeds, anyone?), just that the focus is on quality and functionality first and foremost.