Zeal

Zeal was founded in 1975 by CKS, a kitchenware company based in central England, and has spent the last fifty years doing one thing well: making the everyday tools and tableware in a kitchen a bit more colourful and a bit more thoughtful than they need to be.

The range splits into two clear families. The silicone side covers the cooking tools — spatulas, tongs, brushes, mats, lids, turners — designed not to scratch non-stick cookware and to handle temperatures up to 250°C. The melamine side covers the tableware — egg cups, spoon rests, butter dishes, coasters — designed to wipe clean and live on the bench day after day without picking up stains, odours or scratches.

What ties the two halves together is the colour. Zeal release products in palette collections — Cosy (cream, charcoal, dark blue), Forest Blush (forest green, rose pink, French grey), Neon (aqua, neon pink, red, neon lime) — and most products come in two or three palettes, so a customer can build a colour-coordinated set across a brush, tongs, a baking mat and an oven mitt if they want to.

The British design background shows in the small details. Mini tongs that lock closed in the drawer. A flat-stacking egg cup tower with a chrome base. A silicone basting brush with a brushed stainless steel handle. A toast tong shaped like a duck. None of it is essential, all of it is considered.