It may not have fully sunk into our inner calendar yet, and in any case the scorching temperatures of the Israeli summer drive away any thought of hosting, but the season of the Tishrei holidays is already peeking at us from around the corner, and with it the joyous matters of home and family, friends and large meals, around a big table accordingly. May we all be able to celebrate such soon. May we.
The Israeli brand Magnus was founded about six years ago by Galia Moyal and Or Elbaz out of a “great love for the kitchen” and for hosting, and the aspiration to combine big ideas with small details. Anyone who has ever stepped into the most important space in the home knows how much this combination is not to be taken for granted. Most of the time, you get only one of the declarations – beautiful or efficient, aesthetic and designed or professional and useful – and compromise accordingly. Their new collection is aimed at doing both (and also).
Magnus’ homeware series offers a fine amount of options and kitchen amusements. It starts from the basics, as it should, but is not afraid to laugh a little and try things, go wild in moderation and add a bit of twist to the everyday of cooking, without really giving up on taste. On holidays, true, and on weekends, but also in the long summer vacation that threatens to consume us with yawns and routine.
You can find in it, among other things, sauté pans (32–36 cm in shades from light pink to dark black) with smartly detachable handles as needed, a multi-purpose cast iron pot, delightful enamel pans that are also suitable for baking (including ones with internal divisions, if you woke up craving variety), and glass pans with wooden lids, tableware with light spirit and intentions, as well as a set of pots and pans that can switch handles between themselves.
Alongside these, there is a divided pot that can prepare two dishes simultaneously, a cutlery storage stand shaped like an egg, a heart-shaped cast iron pot that knows what really matters, and also a four-slot pan for a massive and well-timed pancake (or just fried eggs) breakfast – but also anchors of practicality such as a silicone baking mat, a frying rack with a fitted tray for those important moments of oil drips, a multi-purpose slicing mandoline, a pasta pot, a wok, and spice jars.
In a world where similar tools are seen lasting very little working time in the kitchen, here the basic level feels good, and even what first appears as a marketing trick or just a gimmick quickly turns out to be a functioning product, for real. That’s what we asked for from the start, isn’t it?