Claire Smith is the first to admit she never walks past a food shop without going in.
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Just recently she was in Western Australia's Margaret River for a wedding and found a range of condiments she loved; another time she was browsing at Hobart's Salamanca Markets and found a delicious brand of salted caramel popcorn.
Now both of them are on the shelves in the food store she wandered into about 15 years ago and one that's just been given a whole rebrand.
The Essential Ingredient has been a Kingston destination since 2003, and now it's been rebranded as Cook & Co., no longer a franchise of the national brand. (Although it's still selling TEI products.)
Smith, Kate Wellington and a silent partner have owned the business since 2012 but always dreamt of going out on their own.
"We'd been thinking for several years that it would work really well for us to be an independent store, and that worked in with what The Essential Ingredient were thinking too," Smith says.
"We've done a big rearrangement of the store at the same time and people are coming in and saying, 'Ohh, things look different' and we're not quite sure whether they mean the displays or the new name above the door but it all works well together."
Smith says the secret of the 20-year business lies in the quality of the products they sell, whether you're after a $3 gadget or an investment piece such as a KitchenAid mixer or a Le Creuset casserole dish, or even a tin of sardines.
"And we try to keep on top of what people are cooking, different cuisines and techniques, and look for products that you might not be able to find in the supermarket."
The essential ingredients can still be found, from capers and cornichons, to cans of goose fat, sachets of squid ink, even dried chanterelle mushrooms.
"Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese ingredients are really popular at the moment, alongside French and Italian which never go out of style," says Smith.
"And tinned fish is really having a moment, we love the range from Little Tin Co, which comes out of Port Lincoln."
Smith reckons it's a 50/50 split between food products and utensils. There's nothing better than finding something for that kitchen drawer that you didn't know you needed.
Her favourite gadet of the moment is a citrus juicer from Dreamfarm - a company founded by Alex Gransbury who went to school in Canberra - called the Fluicer, which made it to the Time magazine Best Inventions of 2023 list.
"It folds flat and squeezes the fruit from all angles," says Smith. "It's one of those things you use and say, 'How did I ever live without that?'."
And for those of us who can't live without cheese, you'll be pleased to know the cheese room is still there, and as full as ever.
"It's such an integral part of the store, we'd never get rid of it," Smith says.
In other developments, the Cook & Co online store will soon open for business, stock stills arrives weekly, and new things are coming in all the time.
"We want everyone to know that while we might have had a rebrand, everything else is the same."
- Cook & Co, 25 Jardine St, Kingston. Open Tuesday to Friday, 10am-5pm, Saturday 10am-4pm, Sunday 11am-3pm. Closed Mondays.
- cookco.au