📍 Recommended Basic Tools
Essential kitchenware to get you cooking like a pro.
So first things first. You can totally learn to cook awesome food without any of these particular tools, but you will need a few basics. Having good sharp knives makes a world of difference in terms execution time and safety. It might sound counter-intuitive, but you are much less likely to cut yourself with very sharp, quality knives. That’s because knives that are not sharp will snag and slip on things, and suddenly the blade is landing on your fingers instead of slicing neatly into that beautiful heirloom tomato headed for your caprese salad. So skip the bloodbath, and get yourself a few good knives. You don’t have to empty your bank account on fancy Japanese knives. The three listed below are pretty much all I ever use in professional kitchens.
Knives
Arcos 8 inch stainless steal Nitrum chef’s knife. This knife is all purpose and can be used for cutting meats, skinning fish, and chopping larger vegetables. It has a thin, slightly flexible blade, which makes it an excellent option for slicing things that tend to crumble.
Arcos 4 inch stainless steal Nitrum paring knife. This is my go-to knife for smaller detail work. You can peel produce, prepare shallots or garlic for fine dicing, and use it for pretty much anything that doesn’t require a large blade. The handle fits nicely in my smaller grip, so much so that it almost feels like an extension of my hand.
Global 5.5 inch stainless steal vegetable knife. This Japanese knife company makes high quality knives out of high-tech molybdenum/vanadium stainless steel for very affordable prices. The blade is thicker and quite a bit shorter than the Arcos chef knife, so it’s not suited to chopping larger vegetables. But it’s very ergonomic, feels so comfortable in my hand, never causes blisters even when I’m chopping away like mad. I use it for dicing and chopping anything that doesn’t require a larger, thinner blade. When it’s nice and sharp it does an excellent job of slicing tomatoes. No serrated blade needed to cut through that touch, snag-prone skin. This is my all around favorite knife.
Global 10 inch diamond sharpening steel. This is a pretty pricey sharpening steel, but hear me out. Yes it costs more than the knives themselves, but I rarely have to take my knives to a sharpening stone (or a professional) thanks to this baby. It’s covered in diamond dust, so really just a few passes several times a day when I am cooking in professional kitchens keeps all my knives razor sharp. I pretty much only sharpen my knives on a whetstone a couple times a year, which is pretty amazing considering how much I use my knives every day as a professional cook.
Utensils
Microplane premium zester grater. This grater will not replace a regular cheese grater, unless you want to spend a couple hours grating cheddar for your famous crowd-pleasing home-baked macaroni and cheese. It’s an awesome tool for topping dishes with fine citrus zest, or ultra thin shavings of parmesan that melt on contact. You can also use it to grate nutmeg. Forget about investing in a garlic press. Those things are useless. If you want to make a fine ginger garlic paste for your Indian dishes, use the microplane instead. It’s very versatile and well worth the investment to up your game a bit.
Microplane Coarse Cheese Grater. As mentioned above, you will need a coarse cheese grater for grating larger quantities of cheese. The traditional box graters take up too much precious kitchen storage real estate, and you really only end up using the one side with the larger holes. This Microplane grater is very efficient, and shreds through the hardest if cheeses in record time. Plus they store flat in a drawer, and come in fun colors, if you’re fancy like that.
Microplane Stainless Steel Professional Swivel Peeler. You’re going to need a peeler. May as well go with the legendary microplane brand. It cuts fine and smooth. Careful with your fingers too.
OXO Chef’s mandoline slicer 2.0. If you have some kind of awesome state of the art food processor that perfectly slices vegetables to paper thin width, or produces regular julienne cuts, never mind this caveman suggestion and skip this one. Just one thing….it is way less cumbersome, faster to put to use, and easier to wash than fancy robot machines, so it can be practical to have both. A mandoline slicer is an awesome tool, and every decent kitchen should have one to be honest. Just be very careful with your fingers. It also cuts those really well too. No, I’m not speaking from experience or anything. No I, professional cook, did not almost have to go to the hospital last Christmas while slicing potatoes for my Gratin dauphinois. Seriously, don’t drink wine while using this.
Rösle stainless steel 7.9 inch fine mesh strainer. You’re gonna want to get one of these. Yes you can find cheaper ones, but even quality brand names make fine mesh strainers at lower prices that don’t stand up to straining boiling hot liquids, or they have design flaws and fall apart after a few months’ use. It’s worth it to invest in quality, and not have to face a disaster mid-recipe just 30 minutes before your dinner guests arrive. Also, if you want to do any kind of serious cooking, you will absolutely need a fine mesh sieve to strain your coulis, sauces, soups, and more. You can also use it to sift flour and other dried goods.
OXO Good Grips 12-Inch Stainless-Steel Cooking Tongs. If you own one of those meat turning forks that dudes like to use to turn steaks on the barbie, chuck that thing out the window right now, please. Professional cooks left that barbaric caveman tool behind long ago. Shoving a giant fork into sizzling hot meat will drain all the delicious juices that keep it tender and succulent. What you need are some cooking tongs. They’re very handy for sautéing just about everything else too. I regularly use them to stir things up in the deep fryer and check for doneness. These are nice because the tips are not covered in rubber of any sort, and the locking mechanism makes them easy to store.
GIR: Get It Right Non-Stick Heat Resistant Premium Silicone Spatula. Pretty sure it goes without saying that you need one of these. Rated the best food scraper spatula by the New York Times, it’s BPA & BPS-free, and it comes in a bunch of different colors if you want to match it to your kitchen decor.
GIR: Get It Right - Premium Ultimate Silicone Spatula Turner. You’re gonna need a silicone flip spatula to use with your nonstick cookware. This brand is reliable and affordable with lots of colors to choose from.
Mercer Hell's Handle Heavy Duty Turner Spatula. These are going to be your go-to tool for smash burgers. I use flat edge steel spatulas for a bunch of different applications, not just flipping things. If I’m sautéing a large quantity of veggies I will shove them around the pan with one of these. It’s more efficient to move large quantities around than your traditional wooden spoon or silicone spatula. I also use it to scrap the bottom of my pan to get any meat drippings and caramelized elements up. It’s also great for deglazing and getting all the good stuff loose. You obviousl do not want to be using any kind of metal on nonstick cookware, so having two different kinds of spatulas is essential. And don’t you just love the name of these? Hell’s Handle. Sounds legit.
OXO Wooden Utensil Set. I still like to use wooden utensils like these for stirring big pots of soup or tomato sauce.
All-Clad Stainless Steel Ladle. Soup anyone? How else are you going to get it from the pot to your bowl? Rating this a must have.
TENTA Stainless Steel Cooking Skimmer Slotted Spoon and Spider Strainer. Essential if you’re going to be doing any frying for pulling food out of piping hot oil and on to some absorbent paper. These are also handy tools for straining vegetables or noodles out of boiling water. Plus they look cool hanging on your wall.
de Buyer 8” Whisk Get yourself a good whisk. You’ll need it for mixing sauces, salad dressings, emulsions, beating eggs, and so much more. The 8” size is ideal for smaller quantities. If you plan to do a lot of baking, you might want to go for a larger size. The de Buyer brand is expensive, but it’s what we use in professional French kitchens, and I can vouch for its quality. It’s sturdy, dishwasher-safe, won’t rust, and you’re unlikely to see any of the wires pop out, which happens with cheaper models.
Ateco mini 4.5 inch stainless steel offset spatula. This is not a must, but it’s a tool I use really often in the kitchen when plating up purees or thick sauces. It’s very handy for dragging a sauce as a design element across a plate. I also use it to help me lift and set small and delicate elements onto a plate so as to avoid damaging them with my fingers.
Cookware
T-fal 12 Inch Nonstick Fry Pan. If you’re on a budget, go for this option. Nonstick pans have come a long way. This one is oven broiler safe up to 400F if you remove the silicone sleeve over the handle. Compatible with all cooktops.
HexClad 12-Inch Hybrid Nonstick Frying Pan If you’re not on a budget invest in HexClad. Everyone swears by them. Dishwasher, oven, and metal utensil safe, it browns meats like a stainless steel skillet, and cooks eggs like a true nonstick pan. It’s also super easy to clean. It’s two pans in one. Compatible with all cooktops. Comes with a lifetime guarantee.
Cuisinart Stainless Steel 5.5 Quart Deep Sauté Pan with Lid. A deep sauté pan is really useful for browning meats, and then braising them over low heat. Having those high edges not only keeps your cooktop cleaner, it retains heat in the pan unlike a shallow fry pan, and it allows you to add enough liquids to cover chicken thighs for example. You can also make large quantities of sauce and vegetables for larger families or dinner parties. It’s good to have both types of frying pans. If you’re on a budget Cuisinart is a reliable brand. Compatible with all cooktops.
HexClad Hybrid Nonstick 5.5 Qt Deep Sauté Pan with Lid. If you’re not on a budget go with a HexClad deep sauté pan for all the reasons mentioned in the previous two items. Compatible with all cooktops.
Cuisinart Custom Clad 5-Ply Stainless Steel 1 Qt. Saucepan with Lid. This little pan is perfect for making small quantities of sauce when plating up food. It will be practical to have around for boiling eggs, making rice for two people, or some ramen on the fly. Compatible with all cooktops.
Cuisinart Custom Clad 5-Ply Stainless 3 Qt. Saucepan with Lid. You’re going to want to have two sizes of sauce pans. You will basically use them for the same thing, the quantities will change. Also, if you put a small amount of sauce in a large pan it will often evaporate and thicken too quickly, or worse yet burn. Same goes for rice. So trust me and get both sizes. You can also use the larger one for cooking small amounts of pasta. Compatible with all cooktops.
Cuisinart 10-Quart Stockpot with Lid. You don’t need anything fancy as far as stock pots go. You’ll mostly be boiling pasta, vegetables, making soup and stocks. If you’ve got a large family or tend to have a lot of people over for dinner parties, go for the 12-Quart.
Le Creuset enameled 6.75 qt. cast iron oval dutch oven. Yes, this is an expensive investment, so don’t do it until you’re sure you really like this cooking thing. But if you’re already convinced, then it really is worth splurging, or pay for it in installments if necessary. It is so worth investing in a good cast iron dutch oven, because it’s the best thing for roasts and stews, and the way cast iron distributes heat evenly allows you to slow cook at low temperatures without stirring constantly to avoid things burning on the bottom. You can find cheaper, quite decent versions at Ikea that will do the trick, but nothing beats Le Creuset, in my opinion. Le Creuset has been around for about 100 years, and has really withstood the test of time. I inherited my grandmother’s, the exact same color and shape as the one pictured above. She acquire hers when she was newly married, which would have been sometime in the 1930’s. It is still in mint condition, and perfectly cured thanks to countless roasts over the decades. Do yourself a favor and get one. It’s very versatile. You can even bake awesome crispy crust bread in it. Compatible with all cooktops.
Electrical Appliances
Vitamix Immersion Blender. This is a bit pricey but you could pretty much get away with only having one type of blender by investing in this awesome Vitamix invention. It’s professional grade, and the brand we used in the last high end French restaurant I worked in. I do prefer to have both an immersion blender and a stand-alone blender. You can really only achieve the kind of ultra smooth texture with a stand-alone, but that’s for more advanced cooking so go for this one if you’re a beginner, and skip the next item on the list.
Vitamix 5200 Professional-Grade 64 oz. Blender. When you’re ready, invest in one of these. It’s for more advanced cooks, but even the newbie can do amazing things with this. It will blend sauces, soups, purées, smoothies, frozen desserts, and so much more to the creamiest, silkiest texture ever.
KitchenAid 5 Ultra Power Speed Hand Mixer. Unless you’re going to be doing some serious pastry production, don’t bother with a fancy stand-alone mixer. You’re really only going to be using this for beating eggs, whipped cream, pancake mix, that type of thing. A simple hand mixer will do. Kitchen Aid is a reliable brand, plus they have a ton of cool colors.
OXO Stainless Steel Scale. I highly recommend investing in a good gram scale. It is absolutely indispensable to have a gram scale if you intend to do any serious baking, or if you want to measure out accurate quantities for say gelling or thickening agents. This one consistently gets good reviews, has a 1 gram accuracy, and a handy pull-out display so you can still read it when using larger bowls.
Reading
McGee on Food and Cooking. This is my go-to reference book for everything. It is hands down the best volume on food science available today.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking. Everyone is talking about this book, and with good reason. It is a fantastic primer for beginners, but I learned a ton from it too. It does an excellent job of simplifying the way you should think about cooking, and everyone should read it, especially beginners.
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