How Molly Baz Restocked Her Kitchen After the LA Fires

A collage of images featuring Molly Baz eating a sandwich, a manual juicer, and photos of different prepped food dishes.

Shortly after the devastating Los Angeles fires of January 2025, cookbook author and recipe developer Molly Baz shared a note with her followers on Instagram. “You can take away the physical kitchen, but you can’t take away the spirit of the cook,” she wrote. The Altadena house that she’d shared with her husband, Ben Willett; her baby; and her miniature dachshund, Tuna, had just burned to the ground. “If there’s anything that will bring me some semblance of normalcy, comfort, and routine right now, it will be cooking. So that’s what I’ll do.”

Still, “I felt so out of sorts,” says Baz. She recalls thinking, “Where is my pinch pot with my salt? I cannot cook, because I do not have the things that make me feel comfortable and like myself in my kitchen.”

All the cookware, pantry staples, appliances, and beloved glassware and dinnerware that Baz had collected through her years of working in food were gone, and Baz suddenly faced the question of what had really mattered to her and made a difference in her cooking life. As Baz told me, “I’ve been thinking a lot about ‘things’ lately — whether things are important, whether they’re not important, why they are important, in what ways.”

Over the last seven months, Baz has been meticulously reoutfitting her home kitchen with the same attention to function and unapologetic, sensory pleasure that she imbues in each dish she makes — whether that be a charring technique or a crunchy garnish.

Below, Baz shares her kitchen essentials that she restocked as soon as possible. Many of them are classic workhorses, the staples you’d expect from someone who makes a living by sharing food. Others satisfy what she describes as a newfound craving for ritual and self-care.



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