My Kitchen—The Pots and Pans

For most of my life my kitchen has been a community or restaurant kitchen, but in the past few years a personal kitchen has begun to take shape. It has moved from one tiny apartment to another and finally a house. Although my present kitchen is at last spacious, with room for a work table in the middle, a wicker rocker in the corner for a visiting friend, and a sunny room for eating off to the side, it holds relatively little cooking equipment. My preference is to have fewer things and to use them over and over, rather than to have a large number of pots and pans. (The one exception is a stack of stainless-steel mixing bowls.) You don’t really need a lot of equipment unless you’re cooking a variety of specialized dishes that require particular types of pots and pans or you like having them just because they’re beautiful or inspiring.