Getting started

If you're starting out cooking a bit more, my view on essential kitchen equipment is:
*  a sharp knife and a decent chopping board (plastic or wood). Don't worry about buying a new one, you can sharpen an old one - all it takes is a bit of practice and effort, and you can sharpen it with plain old sandpaper (check our youtube videos on sharpening). Once sharp, be careful : it's easier to keep it sharp - don't use it for stirring, opening tins, cutting frozen stuff - JUST cutting meat and veg and fruit.

* heavy pans. In scientific tests, the thickness of the bottom of the pan affected things far more than whether it was aluminium, copper, iron or cast iron. As a quick rule of thumb, the heavier, the better - the thicker the base, the better heat gets transferred (i.e. no hot and burnt spots). Thin (and expensive) copper pans performed worse than cheap and cheerful (but thicker) stainless steel pans. More important for frying pans than saucepans.

All the posh stuff can wait until later.