Claymates
Stacy from Marketing, here! On my first day at East Fork, I sat down for orientation and was gifted a Mug in Morel. Four years later, it’s still one of my most treasured pieces—a reminder of those early months getting a first peek behind the curtain, seeing colors before launch, hearing about products in development, and holding pieces that would later become seasonal collections.
This spring, Elliot joined our product team as Assistant Buyer, and we wanted to catch them in that brief window of fresh eyes and new discoveries. With a culinary school background and prior experience as a pastry chef, they came to East Fork with a deep knowledge of food and tools (and they’re already testing some top-secret new pieces!)
We asked them to share a few favorite products so far.
If you were building your dream kitchen right now, what items from our assortment would you need?
I went to culinary school in Chicago so I got to learn under a lot of chefs that learned under huge names, like Charlie Trotter. His motto was “Keep it Simple”. So I live by that when choosing items I want. I’m going to start with the question ‘what are the basic things that I need to function properly?’
Linens, something that I can just throw over my shoulder as I’m cooking to keep my hands clean, keep my space clean, keep my utensils clean.
A bench scraper is always a go-to. A good, classic chef's knife is a basic necessity along with a nice cutting board. That’s the trifecta right there.
I hear you have chickens, a garden, and a little mini homestead. Tell me about that!
We try to live as sustainably as possible. We have a compost pit, we’ve got 4 chickens. It may be unreasonable for us to think we can get ALL of our food from our own land but we supplement as much as we can. Every year we build a new garden bed. We’re up to 4 now.
What are some products that you find helpful at home?
The garden snips, I need a pair of those…. The ones we have are not cutting it.
The boot scraper, I live and die by that one. Especially going in and out.
The Opinel pocket knife, I use that for everything—eating an apple, picking something off a stem in the garden, all kinds of uses every day.
Let’s talk pottery. What are your go-to forms?
The Coupe was my entry point to East Fork. That’s what got me hooked. After The Coupe we went to Everyday Bowls, then I got very into the mug.
I get it, it’s a classic. But you did go out of order! Usually it’s Mug, Everyday Bowl, Coupe. You went big.
Exactly! And lately we’ve been making charcuterie boards and sort of a hodge podge on the Oval Platter. We’re using it for everything. My partner had a little party this weekend, they were watching the movie Wicked with a couple of friends so they did a green and pink spread.
I also love the Espresso Cup. We have an espresso machine at home, and every morning I make myself a coffee. I worked at Starbucks for 10 years so I have the experience! The size is perfect for me, I’ll do a mini cortado.
And I hear Amaro is your favorite color?
Oh yeah, it’s my ride or die. We’re also getting into Heron lately. I did find some soapstone cake plates at a thrift shop, I feel very blessed to have them :).
What a lucky find! Alright, tell me how are you settling in?
I’m feeling good, it was very hit the ground running, trying to figure out where to grab on. But I came up in kitchens so I thrive in it, it’s very similar brain activity, constant movement. I feel very much at home.
Yes, and we’re always working ahead—it’s April right now, we’re planning fall, winter, 2027, what we’re bringing in over the next year.
They say in kitchens you live and die by the clock, it’s kind of the same here but you live and die by the calendar.
Totally. Ok, now I’m thinking about the future. I hear you got to test some products.
I love testing products. I’ve been so fortunate to take a few things that haven’t been released yet and see how they function, see how they work in my kitchen, my oven, how well they wash. I just took the [REMOVED] and [REMOVED].
[Editor's Note: We can't wait for you to see what we’ve got cookin'.]
How did they hold up?
They were great!
And we’ll leave it at that.
