There are many tools as a professional chef that I cannot cook without. After 16 years of experience in kitchens, coffee shops, food trucks and catering, I have tried most kitchen gadgets and gizmos. I’ve compiled a list below of my five must-have essential, practical tools in any kitchen. These are the staples – I have multiples of these essential kitchen tools for my each of my workplaces and home! These are also great gift ideas for housewarmings, sending your kids off to college, or Christmas presents for a budding chef.
If you like this post, check out my list of Six Of My Favorite Inexpensive Kitchen Items that includes some smaller items that I always have on hand.
Essential Kitchen Tool #1: One Sharp Knife
If you only have one high-end kitchen tool, make it a sharp knife. A high quality, well cared for knife will make your time in the kitchen more efficient, safer and make for better presentation.
I use my 7″ Wustof Classic Ikon Santoku knife for 90% of my cuts in the kitchen. I own another Wustof chef knife (an 8″ Ikon Classic Chef Knife), bread knife and a paring knife, but rarely need to reach for them.
Knife shape and size are personal preferences. I HIGHLY recommend going into a knife shop or a restaurant supply store and trying them out in person.
Some factors to consider:
A wise chef friend of mine gave me this advice when I was searching for a new knife: “How often do you drop your knife?” In that instant, my mind was made up to get a German steel knife (I am very clumsy!). Japanese hand-hammered steel knives are beautiful and also very high quality, but as someone who drops their knife a lot more than they care to admit, I’ve always been very satisfied with the durability of German steel. It really comes down to personal preference.
What are you using your knife for? A larger (8″-10″) chef knife is great for heavy duty use and cutting larger, harder objects like meats and melons. If you tend to do a lot of slicing and dicing, a santoku or nakiri style with grooves on the side allow for quick, precise cuts and also prevents food sticking to the blade. I once worked with chef who solely worked with a serrated blade, so there are no wrong choices if it feels right to you.
Caring for your knife:
The most important things are to keep your knife sharp, only hand-wash, and baby the thing, and it will last you a decade.
I get my knife professionally sharpened about once every 6 months, and use a honing steel in the meantime to keep the edge. A honing steel can (and should!) be used before every use. It will keep the edge on your knife straight and sharp between regular sharpenings. While you can sharpen your knife at home, I let a profession take care of it for me. On average, it costs about $10-15/knife to get a knife sharpened professionally. For me, that’s worth it. But if you like learning new skills, grab yourself a set of whetstones and a Youtube video!
Essential Kitchen Tool #2: Japanese Mandolin (+ cut glove)
Speaking of very sharp kitchen tools, a mandolin will cut your chopping time in half and give you precision cuts every time, provided you use it in a safe manner.
I’ve used the same Benriner mandolin since I bought my first restaurant in 2017. They are well crafted and made to last. I use it to make very fine and uniform slices of cucumbers or red onions when I’m making my own pickles, like my Pickled Red Onions recipe here, or for salad vegetables or garnishes.
Safety First:
I have to warn you, these things are SHARP. One slip and you will be needing a ride to urgent care and 10 stitches. They will slice you to the bone without losing any sleep over it.
While mandolins do usually come with a safety guard, I find them cumbersome and that they only get in the way. Instead, I use a cut-resistant glove. to save my fingers and speed up the process. With a cut glove, there’s no worry if your attention wanes or finger slips. They are an inexpensive way to ensure your hands stay in working order. Bonus: I use mine when I’m using a box grater or microplane zester as well. While those are less dangerous, I have taken pieces of flesh out with them and would just rather not.
Essential Kitchen Tool #3: Kitchen Scale
Three reasons why you need to start weighing your recipes, especially when baking:
- Everyone measures differently. How you pack a cup of brown sugar might be denser than how I pack it. How you scoop flour (spooning it into the cup, leveling it out, or scooping it from the bag while compressing it) can lead to huge discrepancies from what the author of the recipe intended. Did you sift before or after measuring? I’ve found that there can be as much as a 75 gram difference in flour depending on how you measured it. A cup of flour should weigh ~125g grams. These differences add up quickly.
- It’s easier. No more trying to get molasses out of a 1/4 cup measuring cup, or using the water displacement method to measure butter (yes, this is how I was taught to measure butter in Grade 8 Foods class). Simply tare your scale back to zero each time, and add away! Less dishes and much faster.
- Math is easier. Okay. Math is the same, but the process is easier. Tripling a cookie recipe? There’s no need to remember how to multiply fractions ( 1 and 2/3 cup * 3? No thanks. I’d rather do 150 grams * 3) . As well, more complicated recipes tweaks, like calculating the hydration for dough, is done by weight. Math is annoying but it’s easier when there’s no fractions or converting tsps to tbsps to 1/4 cups.
My favorite scale I found was when I started making my own soaps at home, the KD-8000 I loved it so much that I bought one for my kitchen as well! It measures down to the gram but also up to 8000 grams, will also do ounces and pounds, and you can disable the auto-off so it will never time out on you.
Essential Kitchen Tool #4: Metal tongs
I had never used tongs in the kitchen before taking the Culinary Arts program in college. They felt very awkward in my hands for the first week, but now I can’t imagine cooking without them. I use them for grilling, sautéing, deep frying, twirling pasta into a sauce, and even to remove hot pans from the oven. When I ran my restaurant, I always had at least four pairs within arms reach on the line. If you don’t have a pair, grab some today or stop by your local restaurant supply store and grab some in every color handle.
Essential Kitchen Tool #5: Swiss peeler
I realize that by now, three of the items on this list are related to preparing vegetables or some sort of slicing and dicing. However, I will strongly stand by my opinion that the last must-have tool in your kitchen is a proper peeler. I find these swiss peelers are always sharp, ergonomic, and cost effective for how many times I lose mine, and I love the little bump-out to remove spots and sprouts from your vegetables. I hate fighting with a bad peeler, so always keep multiples around and in my knife wrap.
Your thoughts?
I’m so curious to know if you agree with this list of my five essential kitchen tools! Have you tried any of these products, and do you have any feedback on them? What kitchen tools can you not live without?
Want More?
Check out my next post in this series, Six Of My Favorite Inexpensive Kitchen Items where I share my most-used smaller kitchen tools.
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