The story behind Season

Boxes

I grew up with my mother and brother on the 14th floor of a high-rise in Cricklewood. We didn't have much, so empty boxes became boats and race cars. This one was a spaceship. (The handsome guy on the left is me.)

What I took from those years: you don't need much to be happy. So the few things you have had better be good. That idea runs through everything Season sells.

Sauce from a jar

The design instinct came early. The cooking came later. When I moved into my first flat at 18, I proudly served my first homemade dish: penne with tomato sauce, straight from a jar.

It felt like progress. It wasn't cooking. Then I picked up a book on Italian food and everything changed. Cooking stopped being a task and became the thing I did to learn, to experiment, and to feed people. It still is.

"They're not in season"

A friend once told me that if I ever found myself in Rome, I had to try the deep-fried artichokes. So when I did, I asked for them at a restaurant - and was turned away with four words: "They're not in season."

I was disappointed for about a minute. Then it landed. Food belongs to a time of year. Cook with that rather than against it and the flavours are better, the cooking is more interesting, and the whole thing means more. I went home and started again, this time paying attention. Hence the name.

Why Season exists

Fifteen years ago we opened the first shop. There are now four across London - Crouch End, Islington, Balham and West Hampstead - and this website, which brings the same shop to the rest of the country.

The job hasn't changed: honest tools, honestly chosen. We test what we sell, we tell you what something is genuinely good at, and we won't sell you a cheap thing that fails you twice - once when it breaks, and every day before that. Increasingly we design our own: knives, end grain chopping boards, tri-ply stainless steel and cast iron - made to the standard the famous names charge too much for.

If you want to go further, our Cook School runs hands-on classes at Crouch End and Islington, taught by tutors who cook for a living. And every week we send subscribers what's good right now - recipes, techniques, and a straight answer on what's worth buying.

What we believe

Good food is one of the things that makes life a joy. Making it should be too.

We're here for the people who'd rather make the effort. Who'd rather buy once than twice. Who care about what they eat, and the people they're feeding.

That's why we don't do fake claims or fad products.

Just tools that earn their place, ideas worth your time, and people who know what they're talking about.