Ten Things You Should Have In Your Kitchen...

1. Bay Leaves
La foglia d’alloro is a core Mediterranean ingredient found in every good Italian kitchen. In Roman ancient times it was also known to be used for crowning victors, such as Julius Caesar, and honouring scholars and poets with a wreath. Romans believed the leaves protected them against thunder and the plague. Later Italians believed the bay leaves brought good luck and warded off evil.
The essential bay leaf is used in cooking for its distinctive flavour and fragrance. This culinary herb is often used to flavour soups, ragouts, braises, and even paté.
You will find the bay leaf tree growing in many Italian homes. The leaves are handled with care and frequently used in Nonna’s sugo, which permeates all your senses. The best tip from Nonna’s cooking is to not use fresh leaves, as they are very mild and do not develop their full flavour until several weeks after picking and drying — but don’t wait until they’re too old!

2. Boning Knife: ‘My Boner — every good Italian boy likes his boner!’
The best knife in any kitchen!
The boning knife is a versatile instrument in the kitchen. It simply doesn’t just get used for separating meat from the bone in small cuts; it’s big enough to clean an entire carcass and small enough to peel a potato.

3. The Micro plane Grater
What a high quality handy piece of equipment.  As I work i can grate nutmeg into a casserole, or lemon into a crab stuffing.  A quick and easy way to add flavour.

4. Our Preserves
Items sotto olio (preserved in oil), sotto aceto (vinegar), and sotto liquore (alcohol) are always well represented in the Italian larder.
Preserves are beautiful creations. Being able to enjoy out-of-season fruit and vegetables makes the effort of bottling them worthwhile.
As time goes by, all preserves take on a new element and flavour; they seem to become a new product and begin a new life.

5.  ‘Rodi’ — Chris Rodriguez
Rodi and I have worked side by side with one another for 20 years. He has become an important element of my life. We have created and achieved many things together. Not only that, when you work that closely with someone, you tend to become interdependent.

6. Onions & Garlic
The oil, flame, the onion, and garlic — these are the fundamentals of my cucina, and they are also a link to the past. You can trace this combination back for thousands of years to the ancient Roman days. It’s the basis of Italian cooking — the soffritto. This is the beginning of the cooking, the beginning of the kitchen, and the beginning of the philosophy of the kitchen.

7. Bonnet
The kitchen — the cooking room, my office — needs a powerful stove.
With the assistance of architect, Peter Madison, the 2005 kitchen renovation at Grossi Florentino upstairs now boasts a solid, powerful, burgundy-enamelled, custom-made Bonnet stove. The set-up is fantastic. It gives me loads of room to have my pots simmering and my roasts in the oven, and I can still be sautéing at the same time!
It is a beautiful piece of art; we love it and respect it. It’s our Ferrari!

8. ‘Il Mio Caffé’
There is nothing like a good coffee!
The seduction and power of my Lavazza coffee — well, a few coffees a day actually — gives me a zing and keeps me recharged all day.

9. Cookbooks
The cookbooks are a true reflection of what Grossi represents. They portray the love of what we do and how we do it.
They are a road map to the insights of la cucina Italiana; you can start and travel the journey in any direction you like.

10. Duck Press — Anitra al torchio
You can’t really do this at home. The canard à la rouennaise, or duck in blood sauce, is an antique, spectacular, barbaric, and sophisticated recipe you need to see at least once in your life.