Television cooking shows and celebrity chefs have helped turn cooking into a cool and sexy pastime – and speciality kitchenware stores are experiencing the benefits.

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ooking and entertaining at home has become very trendy, and people don’t see it as a chore, says Julie Feaver, co-owner

of Dunedin’s Total Food Equipment.

“People adore the cooking shows, and this inspires them to try cooking a particular meal, ” Feaver says. “They often come into the store and want to buy something they’ve seen on TV.”

Cooking is now a ‘cool’ pastime and being a chef is ‘sexy’, she says. Cooking’s status as a fashionable pastime was cemented when Sky Television introduced a dedicated food channel, devoted entirely to food and cooking.

Feaver says another big contributor to the growing popularity of cooking has been the number of men who’ve become interested in it.

“Cooking is no longer seen as an effeminate pastime, it’s cool and macho. Men now feel quite comfortable about coming into a store like this.”

Men also tend to be quite ‘serious’ shoppers, she says, coming into the store to buy something rather than just browse. “Interestingly, the first thing they gravitate to when they enter is the knife stand. Then, once they’ve stayed there for a while and feel comfortable, they move on around the store.”

Total Food Equipment, which has a sister store in Napier, also runs a commercial sales and distribution business, and this gives the store added credibility with retail customers, Feaver says. “We’re perceived as having knowledge across the board.” The stylish Napier store was a winner at the Global Innovator Awards held in Chicago in 2005 in conjunction with the International Homesware Show.

dEsignFeaver says kitchenware retailers have also been helped by the prominence kitchens are now given in home design. The kitchen is no longer hidden away but is at the heart of the house, and is very often part of the main entertaining area, she says. As a result, people want any kitchenware or accessories that will be seen by guests to look good and fit into the interior design.

Vikki Brannagan, chief executive of speciality kitchen and dining chain Stevens, says another, longer-term, trend affecting kitchenware retailers has been the move to source product from Asia – rather than Europe – which has brought more affordable prices. Twenty years ago, many young couples setting up house couldn’t have afforded a matching dinner set, Brannagan says. “Now you can buy nice things at afford-able prices and it’s quite mainstream for young people to have nice things in their kitchens.”

Affordable prices have also made it easier to introduce more of a fashion element, particularly in kitchen accessories and dining ware where seasonal and fashionable colours have been added to the traditional whites and classics, she says. Kitchen products are also increasingly being designed to look good, as well as perform well and be ergonomic.

Stevens, a privately owned family business, has 23 stores around the country, and another two outlet stores. Set up 80 years ago, it traditionally focused on fine items for the home and collectibles/giftware before introducing an extensive kitchenware range 15 years ago. Brannagan, who took over as chief executive two years ago, says the popularity of TV cooking shows and celebrity chefs has had an influence on Stevens.

“They’ve [the TV shows] created more awareness about cooking styles and they make cooking techniques easier to understand so people feel more confident about trying to make the dish themselves. We often see an immediate impact on demand for a product that has been used in some of these shows.”

Left Stevens newest store in Albany on the North Shore.

Right Stevens stocks several own-branded kitchenware items such as this pizza cooking plate and cutter set.

Opposite Tea towels at Milly’s Kitchen in Ponsonby, Auckland

Brannagan puts Stevens’ success as an independent chain up against larger competitors like Briscoes, down to “being very clear about what we do.”

“We have the largest network of speciality kitchen and dining stores in New Zealand and our key difference is the high service standards we offer. People come in and find knowledge-able, friendly staff serving them, as opposed to having to just go to the shelves and find it yourself. ”The stores are also highly accessible by being mostly located in malls, and the company will soon launch an on-line shopping service, she says.

Stevens already runs an on-line gift registry. Having the registry on-line is

Kitchen products are also increasingly being designed to look good, as well as perform well and be ergonomic.

Click Clack, one of the country’s few kitchenware

exporters, manufactures food storage wear for celebrity US

home organiser Martha Stewart.

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Along with TV, new technology and changing lifestyles are also influencing the product offering, she says. “Silicon has become very popular because of its heat resistance, and is now used in all sorts of products from bakeware to spatulas, to oven gloves and even egg rings. It’s a natural product, and that’s important because people have become much more conscious of the safety of the kitchen products they use.

Cast iron – and other materials compatible with the new induction cook tops – is also becoming more popular, she says.

While other retailers note a move away from non-stick pans, largely due to health concerns over the non-stick coating, Muir says non-stick still has its place in the market. “Unfortunately there’s been a lot of misinformation about non-stick pans. They are meant to be only used over low to medium heats, but people don’t read the

an important advantage, Brannagan says, because it means that wedding guests located outside New Zealand can still easily use the register, which is automatically kept up to date. “That means two people can look at the same gift but there will not be any double ups (because the on-line register will immediately show when the gift has been purchased by someone else).”

inFluEncEWendy Muir, co-owner of specialist cookware retailer Milly’s Kitchen, says of all the celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver would have had the greatest influence – partly because he has turned many younger people on to cooking. “He shows them that it’s actually possible to cook something without having to spend a lot of time and money, and often using a single piece of cookware.”

Milly’s Kitchen, which has had a flag-ship shop in Ponsonby for 25 years and recently opened a warehouse store in Parnell, is known in Auckland as the place to go for expert information on cookware, recipes, and cooking ingredients, Muir says.

Above Milly’s Kitchen in Parnell has great space for demos and cookery classes. Middle The award winning Dish covers are designed to evoke a sense of the current season and be ‘good enough to eat.’ Right Catherine Bell works across the industry with both a cookware and accessories importing company and web store alongside her role as editorial director on Dish magazine. Photo by Becky Nunes.

there is not enough demand in New Zealand to warrant a distributor stocking the item. “It also gives us a point of difference and a price advantage,” Muir says.

cross ovErFor many years Catherine Bell – cook and editorial director of Dish magazine – owned the Epicurean Workshop and Cooking School. She has since closed the Epicurean to focus on Dish, her importing company Epicure Trading and her web store www.epicurean.co.nz – which sells quality cookware and accessories – including many of the products Catherine imports.

She says it’s great to see TV shows generating more interest in cooking and encouraging people to buy the tools they see being used. But a perception that the public is unwilling to pay for quality often leads to importers bringing in cheaper product prone to rusting or breaking, she says. “And when there is so much cheaper product already on the market it can be hard to find an importer who will bring in the more quality product.”

manufacturer’s instructions and use them on higher heats, and that’s when the problems start.”

The increased popularity of casual dining and apartment living has also had an effect. These trends have prompted interest in cookware that can go straight from the stovetop to the table, and in pots with two smaller handles – rather than one long handle – that fit more neatly into smaller kitchen cupboards.

Muir says the move to manufacture more goods in Asia, rather than in Europe, has helped to bring prices down over the long term but a spike in metal prices – particularly copper and stain-less steel in the last two years – has pushed up the price of some cookware.

For Milly’s Kitchen another strong trend has been the rise of on-line transactions which now account for about 27 per cent of sales. “We built our website six years ago and we now have a dedicated person looking after on-line sales.

Like other retailers, Milly’s Kitchen imports some product itself, partly because some items are so specialised

Silicon has become very popular because of it’s heat resistance.

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Above Stack ‘em high and watch them fly – Stevens in St Lucia mall, Auckland. Right Colour co-ordinated crockery in St Lucia’s Stevens store. Below left A tables stacked high with brightly coloured kitchen utensils in Milly’s Kitchen in Parnell. Customers attending the demos and cooking classes can purchase everything they handle. Below right Brightly coloured wares from floor to ceiling create an Aladdin’s Cave atmosphere in Milly’s Kitchen in Ponsonby, Auckland.

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food storage ware for TV celebrity, US home organiser Martha Stewart. The company also produces speciality ranges in partnership with top US designers like Michael Graves & Associates and Williams-Sonoma.

Click Clack chief executive John Heng says current kitchen design trends, particularly stainless-steel finishes, are reflected in these US designer ranges – which include metallic lids on clear storage containers. In New Zealand, Click Clack already offers a range of containers with metallic lids.

Heng says the trend towards more outdoor living is also driving demand for the company’s ranges of unbreak-able beverage and serve wares.

FashionAlthough classic kitchenware icons, like Le Creuset and Scanpans, tended not to be too influenced by fashion, the influence of fashion is becoming more prominent in less expensive items like kitchenware accessories, says Christchurch retailer Elizabeth Fry who owns The Cook Shop.

Bell says her customers tend to be looking for quality goods that they can’t get at general homeware stores. “The people who buy from me want to purchase one pan that will last a life-time, rather than 10 cheap pans that might each last six months.”

While a high proportion of the product she retails still comes from Europe, the US is now also producing good kitchen-ware. And, increasingly, China is able to produce high quality product, she says. Some European and US producers have managed to move manufacturing to China and other Asian countries to reduce costs but have maintained quality standards.

EXportClick Clack, one of the country’s few kitchenware exporters, manufactures

Above The exterior of Milly’s Kitchen in Ponsonby; an icon in the suburb. Right The newest Stevens store is bright and airy and features the slogan ‘the heart of your home’.

Fry has also experienced the renewed popularity in home baking, which has driven demand for things like cup-cake and friand tins.

“Crème Brûlée for pudding has also become huge and we are selling a lot of ramekins and brûlée torches.”

Not surprisingly, her customers tend to be people aged 30-plus who have the income to afford quality. And, like other kitchenware retailers, she has seen an increasing number of men coming through the door.

Even ‘southern men’, it seems, have been persuaded by the likes of Jamie Oliver, Anthony Bourdain, and Gordon Ramsey that cooking is cool and being a chef is sexy.

By Frances Martin, a freelance writer based in Paremata and a regular contributor to NZRetail.

“The fashion at the moment is colour – vibrant colour is everywhere, from utensils to bowls, and serving ware, ”Fry says. This season’s colours are green and orange, though reds and blacks and blues are still very popular, as are pale pinks and pale blues, she says.

The Cook Shop has operated for more than 30 years and Fry has owned the store for the last 10 of them. Like other speciality retailers, she’s carved a place in the market by servicing customers who want quality products and know-ledgeable service, either in-store or through her on-line shop.

“People know this is the place to come to buy things like preserving pans or top quality silicon bakeware, or wood fibre chopping boards that won’t wreck your knives.”

Even ‘southern men’, it seems, have been persuaded by the likes of Jamie Oliver, Anthony Bourdain, and Gordon Ramsey that cooking is cool and being a chef is sexy.

... a perception that the public is unwilling to pay for quality often leads to importers bringing in cheaper product prone to rusting or breaking.

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