At Kitchens Cookshop we have enthusiastic and hard working teams in each of the stores. Some of our staff have trained and worked in the catering industry and they readily share their vast experience with colleagues and customers. Others are passionate cooks and have a great deal of knowledge on cooking and cookware. We enjoy working with the products and meeting the needs of our customers; from the youngster looking for a gift for Mum to professional chefs. We’re here to help you. If you’re looking for advice then we’ll happily share our recipes and cooking experiences with you and we can tell you which tools we found to be the best for the job. Kitchens’ staff have been acknowledged as amongst the best in the industry. Since 2000 we have had six finalists for the Excellence in Housewares Retail Employee of the Year award. We celebrated a winner, Ruth Paget, in 2001 and again in 2009 when David Lee, the manager in our Bath store won the award. Long service has made a terrific contribution to the knowledge and experience amongst the staff. Many have been with us for a great number of years. At least six staff have worked at Kitchens for over 20 years and a further 14 have been with us for over 10 years. Our two directors, Nicky and Karen, and Linda, the General Manager have over 90 years at Kitchens between them! From a market stall in the ‘60s to three large specialist cookshops by the ‘90s. Kitchens Founder Douglas Bullock The founder of Kitchens, Douglas Bullock started the business in April 1968 when he began selling a few kitchen utensils and aprons from a Sunday market stall. Douglas quickly recognised the potential for a permanent shop and within five months had opened a small shop in Clifton Village, Bristol. Three other, much larger, stores were opened in Bristol, Bath and Cardiff between 1970 and 1990. Kitchens subsequently out-grew the original shop in Clifton and it was closed in 1991. The second shop opened in September 1970 in Whiteladies Road, Clifton, a main route into Bristol just south of the Downs, the road includes a number of foodie destinations with great produce and a choice of restaurants. The store is an Aladdin’s Cave with product displayed on three floors. The development of Kitchens in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s coincided with an increasing national interest in cooking. This was brought about by cheaper foreign travel, television cookery programmes, greater coverage in national press and some popular and widely recognised cookery writers, most notably Elizabeth David. At the time there were few retailers of kitchen utensils. Many of the traditional hardware shops were closing down and department stores were not offering the more specialist and unusual items that the growing band of cooking enthusiasts were seeking. Kitchens took full advantage of the situation and sourced an extensive range of cooking utensils for the broad customer base of novice cooks, amateur enthusiasts, professional chefs and restaurateurs. In 1979 Kitchens opened a shop in the beautiful Georgian city of Bath to help serve the ever widening customer base and also the many tourists who visit this World Heritage City. Kitchens Bath extends over three floors. The store is centrally located just a few yards from Milsom Street, a major shopping destination in the city. The Cardiff store opened in 1990 and is one of the many and varied stores within the Welsh capital. Kitchens is situated in the High Street, close to the Millennium Stadium. This extensive shop is bigger than the Bristol and Bath shops with over 9,000 sq.ft. of retail space across two vast floors – indeed Kitchens Cardiff is probably the largest specialist cookware shop in the UK.
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