Volga Linen bib apron
A tip from Cook fave Jeremy Lee, these are aprons to make you stand up straight and cook like a legend. Available in many hues, though the Chinese yellow is where it’s at for us. volgalinen.co.uk, £49
EXP Multi Tone mug
The priciest items on our list are actual artworks. Peter Shire has been making these playful, sculptural ceramics since the 1970s, but they are absolutely having a moment right now. momosanshop.com, £62
Cuisinart Mini Prep Pro food processor
Not a day goes by without Cook needing to use one of these. And its diminutive size means having it out won’t clutter up your counter. cuisinart.co.uk, £40
Brass scissors by Hay
Solid and pleasingly simple, these are as easy on the fingers as they are on the eyes. hauslondon.com, £9
Crane cookware
As sturdy as Le Creuset – and burnproof, to boot. A minimalist cook’s dream. cranecookware.com; frying pan £85, casserole £135
Muji stainless steel sieve and bowl
The sieve doubles up as a colander and fits its bowl snugly; you can use a couple at a time without handle clash. Stashed away, they take up no more space than a stack of bowls. muji.eu; sieve £12.95, bowl £6.95
Kana Basic White bowls
Comfortingly rustic to the touch and visually subtle – vessels to make your food shine bright. kanalondon.com, £16-£40
Land of Fish and Rice, Fuchsia Dunlop
Another tome to travel with; Dunlop’s prose is as masterful as her Chinese: unbeatably authentic. Bloomsbury, £26
The A-Z of Eating, Felicity Cloake
An adventurous cooking primer from the person who’s perfected the recipe for just about everything. Fig Tree, £25
Fresh India, Meera Sodha
Sodha’s second book confirmed what we sensed from the first: her’s is the tastiest, liveliest, spice-infused fare this side of the Sabamarti river. Extra points for the vegetarian focus. Fig Tree, £20
Weck jars
Exactly what any budding preserver needs: glass lids so nothing rusts, wide mouths for easy filling, and shapes for all purposes. twentytwentyone.com, £4.50-£6
Paul Hollywood stainless steel dough cutter
Perfect for cutting dough, yes, but also for measuring slices, scraping surfaces, gathering choppings … its uses are legion, and its price is just right. johnlewis.com, £6.99
Shino Takeda spoons
Each little work of art is a tiny stub of a spoon (and a surprisingly useful thing). We don’t just want one. We want them all, in a row. momosanshop.com, £14-£24
The Nordic Cook Book, Magnus Nilsson
Not so much a cookbook as an encyclopedia of tastes from a part of the world you instantly – from page one – want to travel the length and breadth of. Phaidon, £29.95
Food for All Seasons, Oliver Rowe
A beautifully illustrated personal memoir of a year of eating good platefuls. To shelve alongside Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries. Faber & Faber, £20
East London Food, Rosie Birkett
A snapshot of an exhilaratingly alive part of London’s food scene. Nuno Mendes lovingly wrote the intro. We delightedly put it on our shelf. Hoxton Mini Press, £28
Everything I Want to Eat, Jessica Koslow
Recipes from Sqirl, the LA hotspot that everyone seems to want to go to – don’t miss the ricotta toast and the sorrel pesto rice bowl. Abrams, £21.99
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