GET A GRIP

Howonecouple’sdilemmaledtothecreationofarevolutionarykitchenbrand

ONE OF THE hardest collections to cull when moving house earlier this year – tougher than clothes, yellowing paperwork and bathroom potions – was that contained within one kitchen drawer. Utensils from fish slices to garlic presses, often in duplicate (or, in the case of spatulas, multiples of five), hoarded over many years because, well, you never know when you might need a zester or three, especially when one of them is a paring knife and juicer combined. The drawer, bumping over balloon whisks and tin openers, barely closed. Yet most used were the smooth-handled, comfortable-grip items that cleaned easily – traits that Sam Farber, the founder of Oxo household tools (a business unrelated to Oxo cubes, but with rights to the name), had in mind when he designed a vegetable peeler more than 25 years ago to better suit his wife’s arthritic hands.

In 1990, after much research and many design tweaks, Farber’s Oxo Good Grips range launched in the US (and in the UK five years later). The swivel peeler, with its plump handle and rubber ‘fins’ modelled on bicycle handles and intended for people of all abilities to use, is celebrated in The National Museum of American History and won an Arthritis Foundation award.

There are now more than 1,000 Oxo Good Grips products, from silicone-tip tongs to handy storage boxes, making kitchen tasks more comfortable – and my next spring clean even harder. oxouk.com