A Good Sharp Knife
You don't need a full set of expensive knives to slice food properly. Even professional chefs tend to find one knife they like and use it for everything from carving meat to julienning vegetables (Assuming you've given it a good wash first). Experiment with different knives, find a size and shape that suits you. Some cooks like heavy solid knives. Some prefer thin light flexible knives.
What's important is to find something you find comfortable, and is easy to sharpen. The best knife I have ever used is the Kitchen Devil French Cook's Knife. It's wide and flat, the blade is very stiff, and it sits nicely in the palm of your hand. Best of all it only cost me ten pounds. I use this knife for EVERYTHING, and I've re edged it a little so it's razor sharp. Even my head chef likes to use this thing (Over his £50 knife set).
A Steel and Stone
Also, invest in a good steel and stone. Stones are just that; wide, flat coarse stones usually mounted on a handle. Very coarse stones are used to shift a lot of metal and re edge your knife, less rough ones are used to "fine tune" your edge to a razor finish. Steels are long rods of steel with rough groves. You see chefs on TV using them, moving their knives back and forth over them making that swishing sounds. You can use them to maintain the edge, but every so often they'll need a stone to re shape the edge. Most professional chefs find that they need to stone their knives every month or so. Personally, I always prefer to use a medium coarse stone over a steel. A steel can set you back about £5, and a stone can be as cheap as a few pennies if you know where to look. Try car boot sales and hardware shops. Don't bother buying one of the sharpeners that sharpen a set angle, you may well find that you don't like the sharpness they create.
Look online for advice on how to sharpen your knife. The only problem is that everyone thinks a different way is best! I find that a 40 degree angle on both sides works well, but you will need to practise to find your comfort zone.
A Gas Cooker
Gas cookers provide constant, instant heat making cooking much easier. If you've used an electric hob before, then gas does take some getting used to. You can't set it to a specific number, but you'll quickly get used to that. Once you've fried a few things, you'll instantly realise that you can control the rate at which the food cooks much more easily as the amount of heat generated by the hob is constant. I've heard very good things about ceramic and induction cookers, but for most cooks, gas cookers remain the king.
When selecting a cooker, make sure that you think carefully about what you're going to be paying for. If you fry or grill a lot of your food, then you don't need to fork out for a large oven. Likewise, if you cook English style Sunday roasts; you're going to need a large oven. As a rule of thumb, if you're looking to buy a new cooker, you don't need to shell out more than £400 for a brand new one. Obviously, spending this kind of money warrants a lot of time and thought. Magazines like
Which? can help you out, and talk to other people about their experiences with different cookers. If you're moving home and enjoy cooking, this will be one of the things you want to consider.
Space, Storage, and Surface
There's not much you can do about this unless you're moving house, but it is possible to maximize space by rearranging existing items and throwing out things you don't use. For example, if you have an oversized cooker and a large fridge, getting rid of these for smaller models will yield more space.
Space is important as you need to be able to move around your kitchen as you cook. There are few things more annoying than a small kitchen where you need to contort yourself into the most bizarre shapes to get a baking tray into your oven! If preparing a long or complicated meal, having to do this over and over again will eventually just irritate you to no end. If you are elderly, then this moves from irritation to an actual problem. So consider space when looking at a kitchen!
Storage is important as it helps you organise your kitchen. Ideally you want a cupboard for every kind of item. Basically, one for pots and pans, one for cutlery and knives, one for food and so on. There are other things you can do as well which will maximise your storage space and efficiency. For example, if you use a lot of spices, consider buying a spice rack and mounting it on the wall over your preparation area. A magnetic knife rack mounted on the wall can be used to keep your knife, gas lighter, steel and other metallic utensils at arms reach, and also help to prevent accidents- I'm sure we've all cut ourselves or come close at some point when fishing around in a draw for a knife. Install some shelves to save yourself bending down to open cupboards all the time. These little things will join together to make cooking far easier and more enjoyable.
