— Gonzague Leruth

So I will say this, that you don't need to go out and buy a whole series of pots and pans that could cost you anywhere between 200 and $900. So you first wanna take an inventory of your own pot and pan collection, and then with that, you wanna keep an accurate list of what you have. I wanna show you, this is a farberware sauce pan Look, it even has a little dinghy thing to, um, hang the pot up. These are 45 years old. They were a wedding present from my parents. I still have the whole set. I love them, but guess what, I am always intrigued by new pots and pans. And last year for Christmas, someone gave me a caraway pan, which is, uh, it has three layers of a ceramic and they cook beautifully. If you are not sure of what you want, um, I suggest starting small. And essentially you would need to have, uh, a stock pot so that you can boil water for making pasta and making soup. I would suggest a few sauce pans because they come with lids and you can steam vegetables and, um, reheat things, whatever. And lastly, a really good skillet that might have a nine inch base, so that if you're making something like a risotto, it has a full base and it will cook evenly, and you'll be able to break down the starches in that rice and make the most beautiful risotto. So take an inventory, see what you need. You don't have to go out and spend a zillion dollars. And lastly, and I'm sure that all of you hear me say that, go to a thrift store. There are some magnificent brands of pots at local thrift shops, including things like Crue, uh, Kelon and other pastum pans. So start small build. And in terms of having a small kitchen, and I have a small kitchen. I live in a 100-year-old house whose kitchen is small. And so what you need to have is a good knife, a good cutting board, um, and I would say either a high speed blender or a good food processor so that that can help you create sauces and other things like that. And I have, um, a wooden cutting board that is just for vegetables. And uh, I have another wooden cutting board that has the word onions written on it in Sharpie so that my strawberries don't taste like onions. So good luck with that. Let us know how your kitchen develops and, uh, we can't wait to hear what you'll be cooking.