All the important tools I think you need. The exact ones I own in many cases.
Kitchen Equipment Listings
| Item | Purchase / producer | Commentary |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Saucepans | ProCook | Notes This set comes with lids and is certainly good enough to get you started; 18/10 stainless steel is the best bang for your buck and the gold standard in terms of easiest to take care of. Nonstick scares me, but only probably because I'm ignorant, and besides know full well my pots and pans are liable to get banged up overtime. Whence upon some good fortune, we'll one day maybe work our way up to work exclusively with something like Demeyere Atlantis, Mauviel, or Falk - which I understand is like owning/driving a sportscar in terms of better handling and potential, but also in terms of maintenence! |
| Frying Pan | All-Clad | Notes "All Clad" is itself a company, built on an eponymous term and technique, 70s space age science, defining that the more conductive metal elements of a pan (an aluminum core in this case) spans it's entire length rather than being solely concentrated only at the bottom as is the case in most entry level pans. They're also more reactive, reliable, and responsive. Heavier than you'll be used to compared to your average stainless steel or non stick pans. Gets really hot, evenly hot way faster so luxurious steak becomes possible without fighting for your life. Gets reliably hot enough that you don't need to worry about sticking. |
| Dutch Oven | Le Creuset | Notes Le Creuset dutch oven is basically cannon at this point. Stock pot, braising vessel, deep fryer, sourdough bread box, next-best-thing to a wok for stir fry; heavy as albeit but worth its weight for the sheer versatility. Pretty much irreplaceable. |
| Round Pastry Cutters | Vogue | Notes Cookies, burgers, scones, biscuits, buns, vol-au-vent, donuts. The ring needs to be sharp and hard, forceable enough to cut through thick enriched dough as well as thin short dough without tearing or breaking it. You also want high quality steel that doesn't rust. And best to have all sorts of sizes because just in case & why not? These come in a box so it's easy to store and apparent if you may've lost one in a drawer somewhere. |
| Microplane | Microplane | Notes Pith, Peel, Rind, Ginger, Cheese, Nutmeg, Garlic, Chocolate, Zest! Nothing better. Also the kitchen tool I've most injured myself with. My poor knuckles. Beware ginger in particular. |
| Mandoline | Benriner | Notes There's things that you just can't do or make without a mandoline (start with potato chips and expand), but also it just makes prepping vegetables 10x faster when you can get uniform thin slices with a few flicks of the risk (wrist) before you brunoise. |
| Flexible Bowl Scraper | Bread Company | Notes Flexible! Flexible is the name of the game here and most important quality. This tool will become your best friend for scraping chopped up anything off your cutting board and into your pan, getting particularly dough, but really anything else out of any bowl or rounded surface, any surface. This bread company one is built ingeniously ergonomically, it already looks like how a scraper usually folds and bends in one’s hand when you use it all the time. E5 bakehouse also sell perfect bowl scrapers at their Hackney Fields shop - I know theirs are made in France- unsure by whom. All that matters, and it really matters is that your bowl scraper is curvaceous and flexible. Another good example. |
| The Right Big Cutting Board | Hampson Woods | Notes I'm just going to say it - you only really need one big cutting board if you take care of it and make sure you wash it properly when handling raw meats/fish. But if you only have one, you need a big one, probably big enough that it doesn't so easily fit in a drawer, and will be out all the time regardless so I think it should look nice too. Next to your knife it will be the piece of equipment that you use the most in the kitchen. Your board should be at least big enough to comfortably carve a whole chicken, or slice a loaf of whole sourdough. Another board option: Asahi or Row and Sons. |
| Strainer | Three Snow | Notes The amount of straining that goes on is always worth it, or rather, always makes a big difference at least. The persistence of the ritual deserves a good tool. Anyway strainers get used over and over and over, and get massive piles of the full contents of whatever soups, stews, stocks, sauces, they contain pressed into them over and over and over, and still need to always be relied upon to keep the tiniest of things out- and still work to sieve powdered sugar, and be made correctly so that efficient cleaning and drying are possible. I was left scarred by a cheap strainer that started to unexpectedly rust, and I’ve been messed around by strainers it's impossible to clean the edges of, or even netting completely, I've seen them break too, and slip, and drop into pots. Just get a good one. |
| Colander | Vogue | Notes Pasta! I guess you could use a strainer but it's just better. You can steam things in a colander too if you want or need to (we're talking storebought dumplings!) |
| 2 Silicone Spatulas | Vogue | Notes Won't scratch the bottom of your pan, perfect for getting around the sides of your pot, bowl, or container, wide enough to fold your souffle, heat resistant - what more could you want? |
| Wooden Spoon | London Green Wood | Notes So hear me out - you can make your own wooden spoon, and you only really NEED one. I made my spoon doing the course at Abney Park Cemetery with London Green Wood. I cut myself twice. Another tantalizing London spoon opportunity: Barn The Spoon. |
| Tiny Whisk | KAJI donya | Notes Perhaps the tool I think that shines the most in a home setting vs a professional kitchen where there's rarely if ever a need to whisk anything so small. But at home there's seemingly always a reason to whisk something so small, in your smallest sauce pan, in a container on the fly. You'll use it more than you think. |
| Bigger Whisk | Matfer Bourgeat | Notes Comes in handy. Absolutely necessary if you don't have a kitchen aid. Good for bigger sauces and when making custards and creams. |
| Thermometer | Thermapen | Notes Take the guesswork out of cooking and baking. Just give things a poke and cook to the temperature that always means done. Though the more you're just relying on your thermometer the more you'd better be sure it's a good one that works. |
| Scale | Escali | Notes The best scale. Would survive a nuclear apocolypse and work fine. Comes in cool colours. Simple and easy to use. Never runs out of battery. |
| Rolling Pin | Tommy Woodpecker | Notes You can use a wine bottle in a pinch but if you're going to get into the creme de la creme of baking i.e. laminated pastry then you're going to need a rolling pin. You may as well get one that's neat. Don't get something too gaudy. Ones with handles can let you down. |
| 2 Sheet Trays | Clover | Notes Just barely the right size for a small kitchen. Don't be afraid to go bigger provided your oven can accomodate. Very sleek, good for staying organized, great for baking and broiling and can take a better beating than aluminum; which is key for me. |
| Hotel Pan | Matfer Bourgeat | Notes Roasting and braising, for when things get juicy, and casseroles, and sheet cakes, and cinnamon buns, and lasagna, good for catering on occasions. |
| Loaf Tin | Nordic Ware | Notes A very good size. Champion of a mold: the loaf. Quintessential shape for bread that really makes the most difference when it comes to baking effort and predictability, plus you can do cakes, and pate en croute. Another option: Samuel Groves |
| Sheet Tray Rack | Clover | Notes Let air circulate around your roasting meats and vegetables. Let them cool off the same way too. Stop them getting stuck when it makes sense to. |
| Big Tupperware | Beaufort | Notes 4.5L - important for marinating big meats, storing baked goods, and proofing bread inside of. Would also vouch for a Cambro. |
| A Good Pastry Brush | Matfer Bourgeat | Notes The rubber ones really just don't work the same in terms of coverage, and considering you're almost always cleaning beaten egg off of it, the thing needs to hold up being washed hard and bounce back just fine. |
| Quart (Deli) Containers | JoyServe | Notes NYC pro kitchen mise en place vessel. American Chinese take out's secret weapon. A quart is four cups, the middle size, pint container, is 2 cups, and smallest size, is 1 cup. Makes eyeballing measurements of anything easy while simultaneously working good for storing most all of anything in. I have seen the good kind of quart containers withstand temperatures that would've casually melted any other vessels on earth. Inexpensive enough that if you need to throw one or two out due to a disaster you won't lament. |
| Jars (Various) | Kilner | Notes Save your jars! We all get jars of stuff, as gifts, as treats, as staples, jams, mustards, butters, salsas, chutneys, pickles, spreads and so on. They're great storage vessels for all sorts of spice mixes, small amounts leftover of dry quinoa perhaps, a little bit of almond flour you have remaining and so on. For bigger pickling and overall storing jobs Kilner is the classic in the UK and Weck also works like a charm. All said at the end of the day a glass jar with a seal is a glass jar with a seal. If the seal and clamp and good you're good and you can buy both seperately in various sizes for whatever jars you may happen upon in the wild. |
| Pastry Bags | Kee-Seal 18" | Notes Putting things in pastry bags and using them will be messy unless you've done it one million billion times, and even then sometimes it still is. And there's nothing worse than your cheap pastry bags breaking, or not fitting how you need them to, or being so unexpectedly flimsy they're just impossible to use. If you're going to go all the way to the trouble of doing something that needs/deserves a pastry bag, the pastry bag itself better not be the thing that f*cks it up. |
| Plastic Wrap | Wrapmaster 3000 | Notes Plastic wrap sold in grocery stores vs what's used for catering and restaurants is night and day. All I can say is that if you haven't used it before- when you do- you'll think "so this is how this was supposed to work the whole time." Grocery store plastic wrap will always crumple, hide, withdraw, tear, and elsewise torment you forever. |
| Parchment Paper | Vogue | Notes Try to make sure it fits your sheet trays and that you don't run out any time soon. Cut to size if/as necessary. |
| Mixing Bowls | Cristel | Notes Important to have one very good mixing bowl of large proportion. I like the silicone base of the Cristel one. It's necessary insurance given I use this big mixing bowl to hold piping hot, just strained stock that would be disastrous if spilled. Also it helps if you're whipping egg whites or cream (without a kitchen aid) (though of course you could just put a wet kitchen towel beneath any mixing bowl to anchor it in place [but this saves you the trouble]). You'd do well to have on hand more mixing bowls, say at least 2 or 3 like these from Borough Kitchen for general use (they look snazzy when apportioning mise), and are convenient to store. They help keep you organized as you cook. They're absolutely needed in times of dips, creams, sauces, custards, making-dough-by-hand weighing out your wets and dries, and perhaps as somewhere to collect your onion skins and various counter detritus while cooking. Etc etc etc. |
| Immersion Blender | Braun | Notes Good enough. I've had to draw the line somewhere - and if we're ruling out a Vitamix there's not enough of a point settling midway I think. Great value immersion blender - 450W - I have it and would say again, it's good enough, small and simple to wield, and for our purposes a quick shubba-shubba with this guy, and perhaps a straining after, is just perfect for the most wonderful of home made anything. |
| Chef Knife | Takamura | Notes A very difficult thing for one person to put words to- what knife to get. At the end of the day you're going to use your knife more than anything else, almost every day, for years. I tend to think about it like that. I want it to feel good in my hand, look good, work well, and deal with being in a sink full of other dishes sometimes. Great knives do that and more. Nearly forever with just a little care. Good knife shops I've been to in London are The Japanese Knife Company, and Kitchen Provisions, though I'm sure there are others. There are of course tons of resources online regarding knife buying and a healthy amount of debate worth brushing up on if you're in the market. |
| Pairing Knife | JKC Shoichi | Notes Gives your bigger knife a break. A small knife for small jobs and small amounts. Maybe for jobs that require a little more precision. Here’s an excellent no frills knife from MAC. |
| Bread Knife | Opinel | Notes I had an artisan bread knife once made by Lamson that I really enjoyed, it was razor sharp, and had a curved blade toward the handle before straightening out to make pushing into bread easier. I've still always thought that when it comes to cutting through bread (of which there is no substitute for a bread knife) simply the biggest/heaviest knife wins. And besides if only one thing ever was allowed to be "rustic" it would be bread, I think one's bread knife could be all about personality, or simplicity, it definitely needs to be good enough to work, but at home doesn't need to work that hard. Another good enough knife: Mercer |
| Ladle | Sori Yanagi | Notes I keep my spatula and ladle hanging so for me it was important that they match and besides, the Sori Yanagi stuff really does deliver in terms of quality while looking splendid side by side. That said a more traditional ladle like this one works better. |
| Tongs | Suncraft | Notes Since I keep my big tongs in a drawer and kind of always have it doesn't really matter what they look like. It matters that they're durable and won’t rust, and work well enough for me to pull the bone clean out of a piece of stewing meat. Tongs too seem to tend to come in handy in various other random household emergencies - always important to have a pair. |
| Offset Spatula | Town Cutler | Notes A very “cheffy” tool in the sense that it’s mostly good for playing your food above all else, but for reals there are times when things are too delicate or tiny to make sense to be lifted with your big spatula, i.e. one scallop, and so that’s where this guy comes in. Also works to ice cakes. Thus I think it’s worthwhile getting something handsome to take care of the delicate work it’ll be involved in. Can be used to plate surgically, and again, should look good if on display for an audience. I also think you can get away with not having one. |
| Kitchen Aid (Optional) | Kitchenaid | Notes Saves time, effort, and energy big time when baking, and increases consistency when you use it; especially wonderful for high hydration breads in a hurry, for making meringues and icings, or even just very enriched doughs. Makes baking more instantly an option. I won't say you need a Kitchenaid, but I do think, if you can, you should have one. |
| More Containers! | Zuvo | Notes It was pointed out to me that rectangular containers stack and fit better than quart containers in the fridge in cupboards and it blew my mind. British Chinese take out's secret weapon and a good place to start harvesting extra containers from. Also used in British restaurant kitchens of note. |
| Metal Spatula | Sori Yanagi | Notes I keep my spatula and ladle hanging so for me it was important that they match and besides, the Sori Yanagi stuff really does deliver. The point is that the spatula is sharp while still be round and dull, hard while still being flexible, and light and easy to clean and so works absolutely perfectly for lifting that fish filet out of the pan. |
| Scissors | Whiteley | Notes Cut your pizza with scissors! Open grocery packages safely. Important that they're sharp and strong enough to spatchcock a chicken. |
| Peeler | Ritter | Notes One good peeler is worth 1000 bad ones. |
| Kitchen Towels | Fergusons Irish Linen | Notes Washing and drying. It always come down to and or back around to one of the two of them in the kitchen. So do so with linen that dries glasses and such without leaving marks, spots, or residue, launders excellently and lasts eons, really reaching it's peak after many years of use. |
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