Good taste: Ila’s pantry essentials pair fine flavours with a flair for design

Nothing completes a well-appointed kitchen like an attractive collection of ingredients. Ila, a recently launched line of kitchen and home essentials, has taken the hard work out for you, selecting top quality ingredients from around the world and packing them in elegant jars and bottles that would please even the pickiest of cooks.

Founded by Karen Mordechai, a photographer and stylist who’s also behind the online community Sunday Suppers, Ila sources salts, honey, spices and other pantry staples from producers around the world. Each item is as prized for its taste and quality as the story behind it; extra virgin olive oil originates from a century-old mill in Cordoba, Spain, while Cyprus sea salt is gleaned from a solar evaporation process that can take up to two years to complete.

‘Our focus is on beauty, utility and integrity of ingredients,’ says Mordechai, who’s based in New York and raised the funds to start the brand on Kickstarter. ‘Just the same way we focus on knowing where our meat and vegetables come from, we feel the same should apply to all the ingredients in our kitchen – in particular the essentials that are used for our day-to-day cooking.’

Ila’s artisanal products include spices such as turmeric, sumac, cumin, za’atar, Madras curry, black sesame, cinnamon, coriander and more. There’s also wildflower honey from the Finger Lakes region of New York state, maple syrup from Vermont and pure vanilla extract from Mexico. Supplied in reusable glass bottles and copper foiled labels, they're almost too good to eat.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Ila’s website