This is another area where spending money is justified. The best pans combine different metals like aluminum or copper on the outside and stainless steel on the inside. Aluminum and copper are valued for their ability to spread heat evenly over the entire pan, and stainless steel is valued for its non-reactive qualities. Buy pans which are heavy and thick with solid handles that are well fastened to the pot. As with knives, buy the highest quality cooking pans you can afford one at a time, starting with a saute pan and a 3 qt. sauce pan. They will last forever. At some point, a stock pot (which will be especially pricey) should be considered for serious cooking.

Keen cooks may want to take advantage of multi-function ovens - usually aimed at the top end of the market. As well as traditional cooking, fan or fan-assisted cooking and grilling, these ovens offer up to nine further functions. These include: Top element only (browning), bottom element (final cooking of pastry dishes or pizzas), fan and bottom element (delicate cooking), fan only (thawing).

By custom, the sink is placed beneath a window, both to provide daylight for chores done there and to give one a view outdoors. I suppose the custom derives from the days before dishwashers, when the task of washing up was a tedious affair done by hand. Yet working at a sink with a window is still much more pleasant than working at a sink without one. Designers often place the sink first and lay out the rest of the work triangle from there