Let me know if you can relate: Your Pinterest feed is filled with beautiful pictures of organized pantries and kitchens, and it feels a little… also perfect. I’m not the only one who sometimes looks at her social feeds and wonders if others aren’t cooking in the kitchen. It’s true: After a productive meal prep session and spending a few days whipping up the simplest of lunches, sometimes I feel like my kitchen has “passed” it.
After doing some research, testing, and understanding the layout and organization of kitchen cabinets and drawers, I realized that what was stressing me out was simply poor planning and a lack of systems to make my space function optimally.
When it comes to the kitchen, everyone’s space is different. We all treat food differently, so of course, your kitchen setup needs to work for you! Luckily, for some insider tips we can all benefit from, we tapped Ellen Bennet, founder of Hedley & Bennet and host of Kitchen Glow Up, to give us some tips on how to most effectively and intentionally treat our kitchens Insider design.
Alan Bennett
Ellen Bennett is the founder and chief brand officer of Hedley & Bennett, a pioneering kitchen essentials company. Ellen is a multi-talented person who balances her roles as a business owner, chef, television personality, home decorator, wife and mother of two.
Storage is a key element of the kitchen. What’s your approach?
Once my kitchen is set up to function optimally, I can start thinking about how to make it look better. In a professional kitchen, these areas include preparation, cooking, serving, storage, and cleaning. I also like to keep this setup in my kitchen at home. My prep station is always ready on my counter and houses my giant cutting board and my Hedley & Bennett knife set.
Functionality is my number one priority in my kitchen.
For my storage area, everything needs to be easy to find and label-readable so that it’s easily accessible when I’m cooking. I love having two sinks, especially an extra large one that can accommodate all sizes of dishes. You may have specific preferences that tune your station differently. These areas and stations can be easily customized and prioritized while still maintaining the structure of the kitchen.
What ingredients do you always have on hand?
I always have a protein in my refrigerator: ground beef, ground turkey, or bone-in chicken. Eggs and canned tuna are other proteins I always like to have on hand. My Zojirushi also has rice in it, so there’s always fresh rice. Avocados are always ready and there’s some lettuce or leafy greens and pickles in the fridge.
With these ingredients, I can throw together a bowl of rice and customize it based on what else I have on hand. I also always keep cooked beans in the refrigerator. I like to eat a variety of vegetables that are easy to steam and cook. For fresh veggies, I have Persian cucumbers that I can easily add to a bowl or eat on the go. I also have onions, shallots, and some kind of citrus that add flavor to the dishes I prepare. Other staples include olive oil, Fly by Jing’s chilli puff pastry and premium cream. In between all of this, I can easily make all kinds of stuff.
What are your go-to storage tips?
I have a clear basket in the lower right corner of my refrigerator specifically for storing vegetables. I took all the products out of the packaging and placed them on a cloth. This helps avoid moisture and prolongs its lifespan. Clear containers are a must to help me see what’s in the refrigerator.
If you can see it, you’ll eat it.
What are your must-have seasonings?
Sichuan peppercorns, Maldon salt and kosher salt are a must. Diaspora has high quality, ethically sourced spices. I recommend purchasing whole spice seeds whenever possible. By the time you get the powders, they may be quite old, which makes them lack flavor. If you have whole seeds, you can crush, grind, or roast them, which makes them even tastier. Botanica has a spice called “Magic Spice” which is great to have on hand. Garlic powder, sumac and za’atar are also great.
What’s your best pantry organization tip?
Stick with one type of container! Don’t put everything in the original container you purchased it in. This is both beautiful and difficult to lose. If you haven’t used it in the past six months to a year, throw it away. I tend to land with a bunch of random stuff, so just try to be honest with yourself about the spices you’re going to use and throw out the rest.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t have all the spices you need for every random recipe you’ll use.
I would also use the same label for all spices. The more variation you add, the harder it becomes to observe. It’s important to label them. You can also buy a small piece of museum putty to hold them in place so they don’t move when the drawer is open.
What do you think are kitchen essentials?
I consider the following to be non-negotiables in my kitchen:
- Fish shovel/fish shovel
- brush
- clamp
- Larger than a regular spoon, can be used for tasting, serving and plating
- Microplane/Zester
- A set of knives – chef’s knife, utility knife, and bread (make sure they’re sharp!)
- A good cutting board and a nice stack of kitchen towels. (Place these towels under the cutting board to hold it in place.)
What professional kitchen gadgets do you think are worth the splurge?
Generally speaking, I don’t like disposable tools. A good tool should have multiple uses. For example, I could use a peeler instead of a garlic press. There may be some very special occasion items, like if you’re baking a pie and you need cherry pits, but I generally like to keep these items for multiple uses.
What have you learned from helping others renovate and reorganize their kitchens?
The power of a dedicated pantry is real because you can see all the food you have instead of not knowing what’s in every cupboard. It is important to remove expired food from the kitchen. People don’t realize how much expired food there is in their lives until they thoroughly inspect and remove all of it.
Kitchens are like magnets that attract random items you don’t need in that space. Give everything a parking spot and it will help you start moving things out of the kitchen that don’t belong and move those items to parking spots elsewhere in the home. This will ultimately give you more space in your kitchen and will impact your daily cooking life and beyond.
