Every now and then, I see what someone has done with their cast-iron cooker, and it gets me a little jealous…

This week, it came from TV presenter Ben Fogle’s porch.
(You might recognise Ben from presenting many shows on ITV, BBC, and Channel 5).

Both Ben and his wife Marina have recently kitted out their Oxfordshire home with two ESSE products, and I have to say, it’s one of the nicest real-life examples I’ve seen in a long while of how these cookers and stoves fit into everyday living.

It all started with a slightly forgotten little porch on the side of their house. (The sort of space most of us use for muddy boots and the odd Amazon parcel)...

Ben decided to turn it into a cosy little garden room – timber panelling, soft lighting, pillows and blankets – and right at the centre of it, an ESSE Garden Stove with the built-in pizza oven.

In his video, he calls it his “perfect autumn project,” and you can see why…

<Photo from his Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/p/DQQ5S1YDIwP/?img_index=4>

With the stove glowing away, it suddenly becomes a place you’d happily spend the evening in. And the pizza oven being used for quick family snacks feels exactly the sort of thing these stoves are made for.

Then, inside the house, they’ve gone for something a bit different:

An ESSE 1600 X Electric Range Cooker in matt black.

<Photo from Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/DPlGO2ajDFE/>

It looks fantastic, yes – but what I love is his wife talking about how they actually use it…

One of their go-to lunches is simply tomato soup and quesadillas cooked entirely on the ESSE. Nothing elaborate, nothing fancy for Instagram, just simple, honest family cooking.

And she said something that made me smile, because I hear it from ESSE owners all the time:

“The most used place in the house is in front of the ESSE – to eat, to sleep, to chill, to chat.”

That’s what ESSE do so well.
They slot into the background of family life, but somehow manage to bring everyone into the same room. On cold days, you’ll find someone sitting in front of them doing absolutely nothing except enjoying the warmth…

And there’s something rather lovely about that.