PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK LOADER
There are many cooks—from novices to professionals—who have a fondness for kitchen wares that serve one purpose. As someone who cooks in a small kitchen, I disdain such singularly useful items intensely. Double-boiler inserts, garlic presses, and electric cheese graters fill the drawers of designer kitchens that are the size of my entire house but are banished from my small but productive workspace. Rather than search for some silly piece of equipment lost in the depths of a drawer or cabinet, I would rather mince garlic with a good-quality carbon-steel knife, place a pan or a tempered glass bowl over a pan filled with boiling water when making hollandaise, and grate Parmesan with a microplane that sits in my utensil holder when it is not being used to zest lemons, make chocolate shavings, or grate nutmeg.
