Cupboard love

Experts and enthusiasts reveal their must-have gadgets and culinary kit to Ellie Robins and Caroline Stacey

Dinny Hall

"I've got loads of favourite utensils," says the jewellery designer, whose second shop has just opened in Islington in north London. "One of my favourites is probably a garlic crusher from Jerry's Home Store." Until it shrank from several shops to a smaller mail-order selection, Jerry's sold some of her favourite kitchen utensils. "I also loved their cheese grater. There's something great about the handles of their gadgets: they're made from very solid black rubber."

Jerry's sold the American brand Good Grips which is now more widely available elsewhere. Dinny, who usually works with silver, gold and precious stones, extols the virtues of very different materials in the kitchen: "I don't like garlic crushers with metal handles because you have to squeeze quite hard and they hurt your hands. Mine is practically indestructible, which is very useful if you use a lot of garlic, as I tend to".

Good Grips garlic press, £9.99, from John Lewis stores (0845 6049049)and Divertimenti (020-7935 0689)

Sir Roy Strong

"I've chosen the Aga. I wasn't brought up in the country and we never had an Aga but when we bought this house 30 years ago there was one already here, and it still is," says the author of Feast: A History of Grand Eating (Jonathan Cape, £20) from his home in Herefordshire.

Having had to adapt the way he cooked to suit the mighty, British-built oven, he now considers it "heaven's invention", and not just for cooking. "I wouldn't be without it for comfort," he says, comparing it to a purring cat. Turning it off in summer "was as though the cat had got off your lap". "It's enormously comforting," he adds, "a mound of warmth and happiness."

Sir Roy's version is black, and oil-fired. "I don't think they've improved upon it since," he says. As "everyone does everything themselves these days", when he has people for dinner, he uses the bottom oven "to warm gently without spoiling" and to keep plates hot and ready for serving. Pears hard from the orchard are steeped in red wine and left in the oven overnight, to emerge in the morning a mahogany colour all the way through. It's good for baking huge timbales, and lasagne, vegetables roasted with garlic cloves and rosemary needles, and things with layers of aubergine, gorgonzola, spinach and pine nuts, which, as vegetarians, he and his wife often eat.

Aga two-door ovens, from £5,175, showrooms and information (0845 7125207/ www.aga-rayburn.co.uk)

Emma Bridgewater

"Without hesitation, the best thing in my kitchen is my pestle and mortar," says the ceramics designer and founder of Bridgewater Pottery. "I've got the most fantastic, very large, very ancient pestle and mortar. It's on a lovely stand by the kitchen table." The pestle and mortar was given to Emma's mother by an old boyfriend. John Julian Design now makes similar ones from granite, marble and porcelain.

"We have the odd juicer or ice-cream maker but they tend to end up gathering dust and we're very keen on low-tech things at home," Emma says. Living in Norfolk, "very remote from anywhere, in a tiny village, down our own little track", it's just as well. During a recent four-day power cut, they ground coffee with the pestle and mortar. "It also makes wonderful pesto," she says. "It gets used for everything really, almost like a Magimix. I've managed to replace the pestle with the huge porcelain ones from Divertimenti a couple of times, because it gets a lot of use in general grinding and washing up, and the ceramic eventually comes away from the wooden handle. That was nervous-breakdown territory the first time it happened."

John Julian Design pestle and mortars, from £45, for 15cm porcelain mortar (stockists 020-7249 6969/ www.johnjuliandesign.com); porcelain pestle, around £20, to order from Divertimenti (020-7935 0689)

Nigella Lawson

Having brought out a collection of kitchenware, Nigella Lawson was bound to recommend some of her own. "I couldn't live without a whisk," she says, and hers is more comfortable in the hand than any she's ever found. She describes her range as "an odd mixture of things I felt I wanted and didn't exist, like cake tins with the measurements stamped on them", and a bread bin with a lid that doubles as a board. Others are determined by aesthetics. "I've been chromed and stainless-steeled out of existence," she says. Hence hers come in pretty, domestic and soothing colours. These include mixing bowls which "I love the shape of, they're vaguely ovoid and cosy to cradle." Of all the designs she'd choose the china measuring cups with a matt finish. It's the colour, aqua, which, she says, "infuses me with a good mood. They're so beautiful even if you don't use them."

But one piece of kit Nigella has yet to improve on is her mezzaluna. If only it were safe to slip into her handbag along with her whisk. "It's what I miss most if I'm at f someone else's house." Chocolate, herbs, dried fruit, apples, nuts "and any small batch of chopping that normally you'd put in a processor" all come under the arced blade that's like a "cross between a boomerang and a knife but easier and safer".

Nigella Lawson's Living Kitchen Collection; measuring cups, £30, from Lakeland Limited (015394 88100/ www.lakelandlimited.com) and other stockists (0870 0110800)

Loyd Grossman

"The George Foreman grill is absolutely wonderful. They're so good. I got one in the States this summer." Since then Loyd's bought another to use in London. He might have been expected to be concentrating on cooking Indian meals, given that Indian has joined his range of Italian sauces, but for fastish food at home he's as likely to grill, and it's as good as it gets with George.

"I think it's much better than those cast-iron grill pans. They create so much mess and smoke. The George Foreman grill heats up quickly, and you can grill on both sides simultaneously in a tick. It does everything it purports to do very well." In winter as well as summer, "I like grilled food, and if you don't have a barbecue, it's unfussy, idiot-proof, and easy to maintain. You can't say more than that. I've got a smaller one in the States. They come in a family of sizes. And it's not just for meat; it's also very nice for things like salmon teriyaki."

Loyd's loyalty to his George Foreman grill is relatively recent: "My previous favourite bit of kit was a Gaggia ice-cream maker."

The George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine, around £39.99, stockists (0845 6589700)

Sophie Grigson

"I'd say my favourite utensil would be my Microplane grater," says the cookery writer. "They're hand-held graters with a lovely design, and are fantastically sharp. They're a relatively recent discovery, but are available in most kitchenware shops now." Sophie admits she has a collection of them, as there's a zester, spice grater, and fine and coarse graters in the range. "They're great for cheese – I always use mine for the Parmesan on my pasta – and also for spices, especially nutmeg. I use it for grating apples and zesting lemons, too." Sophie maintains that she is "not a gadgetty gadget person; I tend to prefer practical things in the kitchen rather than fiddly machines."

The only other item of equipment that comes close to her heart is her oven. Hers is an Alpha, similar to the Aga, but allowing more freedom to alter temperature. "I've always had either an Aga, a Rayburn, or an Alpha. I wouldn't be without a range cooker; they're so comforting."

Microplane graters, around £18.50, Lakeland Limited (015394 88100/ www.lakelandlimited.com) and other stockists (01603 488019)

Arabella Weir

"I don't know about gadgets," says author and comedienne Weir, "but I know what my favourite utensil is. There's only one thing in my kitchen that I can't live without, and that's my Bialetti espresso pot. I use it to make a single espresso; that's the only coffee I have, once a day, every day. I've got a little pink one; in fact, I've got a load of them, but the pink's my favourite."

That's not Arabella's last word on kitchen kit. "I've changed my mind, I was thinking about it and I can't believe I've chosen my stupid bloody espresso pot which of course you can't do a bloody thing with other than make coffee. Totally useless. My favourite thing is actually my new wok. I can't remember the make, but it's a rather posh non-stick one, and it's very good because I'm trying to eat more healthily at the moment."

But then again ... "Other than that it'd be my microwave, because I've got children. Of course, choosing a microwave makes me sound like a really expert cook, doesn't it? Mine was very cheap and I got it when I had my first child, and I'd say it's my favourite thing because you can stick everything in it that's six days old and nobody'll have a clue."

Bialetti stove-top espresso pot from £28 (01359 233210/emporiumUK.com)

Tanya Sarne

"As far as I'm concerned, cooking is all in the preparation," says the creative and managing director of Ghost womenswear, and enthusiastic cook. "I like inventing salads: with green beans, coriander, fennel, kholrabi, artichokes. You can make a salad with anything, not just a bit of lettuce and tomatoes, but it's a lot of work making a good one." Essential for the preparation is "an old-fashioned garlic crusher, and a salad spinner, because there's nothing worse than wet lettuce". Tanya thinks she may be unusual in her choice, as "the English tend not to wash their food", she's noticed. A good set of knives, and a knife sharpener are other essentials, which, as Tanya has a house in London and another in Ramsgate, she keeps in both her homes.

Zylis salad spinner, £23, from Divertimenti (020-7935 0689/www.divertimenti.co.uk)