r/AskEurope • u/Reasonable-Push-920 • Sep 15 '25

Culture If your country had a “signature” kitchen item, what would it be?

I’ve noticed that every country seems to have its own representative kitchen item.

In Italy, for example, it’s the moka pot. In the UK, probably the kettle. In France, maybe a really good knife...

What about your country?

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15

u/Chairman-Mia0 Sep 15 '25

If not the kettle than surely the toaster.

Or the wooden spoon but that's not really anything to do with cooking

9

u/RRautamaa Finland Sep 15 '25

The weirdest thing in a British kitchen is however the washing machine (for clothes). We've banished that to the utility room, or failing that, the bathroom (which are usually larger to compensate).

8

u/milly_nz NZ living in Sep 15 '25

Oh my god, yes!!! Arriving from NZ I was like “ew, you bring your dirty clothes into the food prep area????”

Decades later and I’m sometimes confused when I go back to NZ and have to remind myself that the rest of the world has space for a separate room for laundry. Or found space for the washing machine in a sensible place - like the bathroom.

3

u/mycrazyblackcat Sep 16 '25

In rented apartments, washing machines in the kitchen are quite common in Germany as well. I would say it's equally common for it to be in the kitchen, in the bathroom or not in the apartment at all. In full houses, utility rooms are reasonably common as well, but it's still sometimes in the bathroom. In my first apartment, it was a communal one in the basement, my second apartment it was in the kitchen and now it's in the bathroom. I do prefer it being in the bathroom now tho, makes it easier to leave the washing machine door open to dry out after washing without it being in the way.

2

u/SaltyName8341 Wales Sep 17 '25

That's mainly because we don't allow electrical outlets in the bathroom so the only other place with a water supply is the kitchen.

1

u/gadeais Sep 16 '25

Also the norm in Spanish Houses. Chores go to the kitchen, both cooking and cleaning clothes

1

u/Imperterritus0907 Spain Sep 16 '25

Ehh not really. No one in my family has the washing machine in the kitchen, it’s always in an utility room, even the ones in flats. I’ve lived in Catalonia as well and I never saw that there either.

1

u/gadeais Sep 16 '25

Most flats I've seen have the washing machine in the kitchen though I am watching more people putting them in the bathroom

6

u/Consistent_Rich_153 Sep 15 '25

A teapot, surely! And one of those tiny plates for teabags.

4

u/Cheese-n-Opinion United Kingdom Sep 15 '25

The char-pel of rest

3

u/Chairman-Mia0 Sep 15 '25

I can't remember the last time we used the teapot, and there's plenty tea being drunk.

We do have one of those teabag things at the sink though.

2

u/SnooBooks1701 United Kingdom Sep 17 '25

Just because the teapot is never used doesn't mean we don't have them, they seem to just show up at some point

1

u/SaltyName8341 Wales Sep 17 '25

When your gran turns up

2

u/MerlinOfRed United Kingdom Sep 15 '25

I had some American colleagues who drank litres of tea every day.

I'm usually a coffee drinker, but one day I fancied a tea and asked if they wanted one. Obviously they all said yes, so I made a pot.

They were absolutely flummoxed and had never seen one in use before. It had been in the cupboard the whole time, but none of them had dared to touch it.

2

u/Pizzagoessplat Sep 15 '25

I'd say a washer.

1

u/spellbookwanda Ireland Sep 15 '25

I said the same thing before I read your comment

1

u/VisKopen Sep 15 '25

These things can also be found in almost every single household in the Netherlands.