Your first kitchen - Three essential items.

I would echo good knives always, a good chopping board and good saucepans - probably a nice casserole that you can cook something that will last a couple of days.

A good knife, decent sized bowl and decent saucepan with lid. Oh, and a long-handled wooden spoon to protect the good saucepan.

Good knives, a stick blender and an efficient grater that can deal with lemon zest

Nigella - however did you manage without saucepans?

Good knives, saucepans and a kettle.
(and a wooden spoon)
(and a mixing bowl)
(and a casserole dish)

sorry, getting carried away now!

I would be hard pressed to narrow it down to three. Certainly a set of good S/S saucepans, a large sauté pan with a lid that can go from the hob to the oven, and my hand mixer (can’t get on with a stick blender), without which I would sink without trace!

Oh! And a pair of good heat resistant oven gloves. I’ve had a pair for some years and they are great. My son liked them so much I bought him some.

A pressure cooker.
Knives.
At the time, the best bet for kitchen gadgets was Moulinex. Most of them so simple but effective with no more than an 'on' and an 'off' switch..

A good basic cookery book such as Good Housekeeping.

Nigella didn't recommend any books because they were all clutching a copy of her latest.

She did suggest visiting car boot sales in the hopes of picking up some Le Creuset. Nobody mentioned that if you can't afford the real thing there are some perfectly affordable imitations in just about every supermarket.

Knife, saucepan ,large mixing bowl

Definitely a good knife, a saucepan and a toaster!

Don't know where this book signing was, but in London these days they are building new flats that don't have a cooker or hob, only a combi microwave! so I reckon Nigella's list would be good in those circumstances though you'd still need something to cook in, maybe she was thinking only of utensils, not pots and pans?

Kettle, fridge,cups !!

She was talking about utensils, humpty.

She's a big fan of the hachoir/mezzaluna as well because she reckons you're unlikely to cut yourself while chopping herbs.

I read somewhere that Kirstie Alsopp reckons you can't have too many pan drawers in a kitchen. Nigella hates them and reckons you're better of having things hanging so you can bash your head on them just grab them.

As the comedian Harry Hill would say, 'There's only one way to find out..........FIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!'

It was in Ely cathedral btw.

Ah merlotgran - lovely nostalgic reminder of Harry Hill

Le Creuset are all well and good for young men just starting to equip their kitchens.

However, for their elderly grandmothers they are wrist-wrecking.

ps Greyduster DD just bought an extended set of saucepans with steamer, saute pan etc. So that could count as one!

Kettle
Tea bag container
Fridge (for milk for tea.)

( I am assuming there will be an old mug or receptacle somewhere in order to make and drink the tea.)

Are we to assume that there is a fridge/freezer, an oven and a hob plus a sink already installed in this kitchen?

At least two good chopping boards (not ceramic, that would blunt the knives).

Tea? there'll be no time for tea in this kitchen

Although a wine glass could come in handy

knives ,a blender,I'm still using a moulinex that was a wedding present 42 years ago and a slow cooker so you can have food ready fro when you get home from work

A corkscrew then, jalima!

I think lack of a corkscrew can lead to serious psychological problems

Thank goodness for screw topped bottles of wine now, but not so many years ago, knowing I had a weekend on my own I decided I'd treat myself to a nice bottle wine to have on Saturday night. It had a cork stopper.

I hunted high and low for the corkscrew but couldn't find it. I turned out ever kitchen drawer. I was exasperated and so cross.

All hot and bothered, I jumped in the car and by now it was about 9pm, nipped to the nearest Tesco, straight to the utensils section and purchased their cheapest value corkscrew with a sigh of relief. This was in the days before self-checkout as well.

The place was almost empty except for this middle aged lady at the till buying a cheap corkscrew.

Tarnished reputation. I could feel eyes on me at that moment. It took some of the joy out of drinking the wine as well.

Sorry for derail of thread.

We have been known to fashion an instrument of torture looking corkscrew out of a wire coat hanger whilst on holiday.

Needs must.

DH managed to hack one out once with a screwdriver, bits went down into the wine, but it was fine once we found a sieve!

A lancashire potato peeler