Great British Baking Show Cooking Spoons

Whether they're stirring reductions or mixing dry ingredients, you can see the bakers on The Great British Baking show using the KitchenCraft Oval Handled Professional Stainless Steel Cooking Spoon (Amazon Link - UK).

This spoon's distinguishing quality is its rather subtle oval handle. The handle on this spoon, and some of the other utensils, gives the baker's counter a rather classy look in my opinion. The handles also have very minimal non-slip grommets near the top and bottom which is nice to remove some clanking and sliding on the counter top. The entire body of the spoon is stainless steel, which is always nice and maintains its aesthetic for a long time.

The spoon is from the KitchenCraft Professional Stainless Steel Cooking line. KitchenCraft claims that this spoon is sturdy enough for stirring an serving. However, the bakers frequently put it through the ringer, using it for mixing rather thick mixtures, and lifting large quantities of both dough and meringues. Basically, it's a work-horse and seems to survive just fine.

KitchenCraft - yet again! KitchenCraft is a British brand from roughly 1850. I hope I'm going this strong at 170 years old! The brand has been passed around and renamed quite a few times, but seems to try to remain true to its heritage of quality, durable, long lasting goods.

To that end the KitchenCraft Professional Series seems to be made to high standards. Everything in the line is stainless steel, which means its down for a quick clean up in the dishwasher - nice for the home cooks without professional dishwashers in the back of your tents. Additionally the utensils in this line come with a 25 year guarantee. Coming from a 170 year old company, it feels like they'll be around to make good on any faulty products.

The only downside I've noticed regarding the KitchenCraft Professional Stainless Steel line is its long term availability. It seems like the parent company, LifeTime Brands Europe, is favoring its new MasterClass line of utensils over the KitchenCraft professional series. Thus while MasterClass utensils are popping up everywhere at a higher price point, the KitchenCraft utensils, sadly, seem to be disappearing.

Which, in my opinion, is unfortunate as the professional stainless steel series looks way nicer than the clunky-plastic-laden MasterClass lineup. And don't just take my word for it, look on their works and despair at the MasterClass Soft Grip Stainless Steel Cooking Spoon. Sure - there is a place and a time for a completely nylon cooking spoon (MasterClass Nylon Spoon - Amazon Link - UK)- namely non-stick pans, but this ghastly hybrid is all sorts of 'no' in my opinion.

And a last thought here. If The Great British Baking show ends up with new spoons in season 14 - I'm really curious to see if they end up with the MasterClass spoons.

As with everything KitchenCraft, if you live in the UK (hello!), you're going to be able to find KitchenCraft Professional Series utensils at department stores like Lakeland, and not-surprisingly, KitchenCraft outlets. They also have a pretty nice Amazon UK Store, where the prices look pretty good! (Eg. For the professional spoon it is £5.25 on Amazon and and £8.29 on cookserveenjoy.com - the official online store for KitchenCraft).

If you're in the US you can thank globalization for the availability of the KitchenCraft Professional Spoons! They're available at Amazon.com but are coming in from the UK so the markup is fairly steep. At the time of writing Amazon lists them for $12.80. However, if they end up lasting 25 years, I think you may be happy with the purchase, especially if your looking for the cooking spoon used on The Great British Baking Show!

So what do I prefer? Honestly, I prefer nylon or wood utensils as they don't scratch our GreenPan pans. I had a OXO Good Grips Nylon Spoon that lasted roughly 12 years then broke in half at the metal embellishment. I promptly replaced it with the same spoon. I also have a Island Bamboo Pakka wood spoon that I love, however it is handwash only, and therefore sees slightly less usage. Be warned, you'll probably end up spending money if you follow that Island Bamboo link.