Essential Kitchen Gear

Y-Shaped Vegetable Peeler

A Y-shaped vegetable peeler is a better alternative than a straight vegetable peeler because the Y-shape gives far greater accuracy, resulting in prettier vegetables, faster prep, and less waste.

• Kuhn Rikon Original Swiss Peeler (3 sets)

Cutting Board

There are two types of cutting boards: Wood and Plastic. Wood is better because of its healing and antimicrobial properties. Buy those at least 1 foot by 2 feet, preferably much larger

• Ironwood Gourmet 20-by-14-inch version or larger

10-Inch Honing Steel

A honing steel doesn’t sharpen a knife; rather, it realigns microscopic dents of the blade, making the blade last and feel sharper longer. It's recommended to hone a knife every cooking session.

• Buy a steel 10-inch long honing steel like the Wusthof.

• Or a diamond honing steel; cost twice as much because it shaves off microscopic amounts of edge material more every time you run your knife across one of them.

• All items below are listed for all types of cooking, but buy the ones you think are needed

All items below are listed for all types of cooking, best to do more research before buying. *not in order of importance.

Utensil Holder

A utensil holder is an effective organizer to place frequently used utensils when cooking, like a spatula, ladle, spider strainer, etc.

• Le Creuset Utensil Holder

• IKEA metal Utensil Holder

• Or a tall plastic deli container will suffice

Bench Scraper

Use for quickly transferring chopped vegetables or dividing food like dough or meat, or cleaning/scraping up surfaces.

• OXO Good Grips Pastry Scraper

• C. R. Manufacturing scraper

Pepper Mill

With a pepper mill, you can easily control the amount of pepper. Different sizes of peppercorns affect the level of pepperiness. Whole peppercorns last way longer than pre-ground ones. Plus, pepper mills last longer than plastic ones.

• Peugeot Pepper Mill (Very good and crafted nicely)

• Unicorn Magnum Pepper Mill

Prep Bowls of All Sizes

Help you store food when preparing to cook. Choose different sizes: a couple of smalls, mediums, and large.

• The best are inexpensive stainless steel bowls from a restaurant supply store

• Prexy clear glass or Cheap ceramic condiment and cereal bowls

Wooden Spatula

Best for stirring pots or stir-frying without scratching the pan surface

Slotted Flexible Metal Spatula

Scraping and transporting food like fish or scraping meat when sticking to a pan

• Lamsonsharp model

• Peltex

Tongs

For flipping large quantities of food when grilling, like hot dogs, steaks, corn, etc.

• OXO Good Grips 9-inch Stainless Steel Locking Tongs

Microplane Zester Grater

Zest citrus, hard cheese, or whole spices.

• Microplane Zester Grater

Whisks

Mixing batters or emulsifying sauces.

• OXO Good Grips 9-inch Whisk

Salad Spinner

Dry up any greens or fruits fast.

• OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner

Stiff Spatula

Better control and gentle enough in flipping food with a large surface area, like burgers, pancakes, or fish, without breaking.

• Due Buoi Wide Spatula (Great Size)

Japanese-Style Mandoline

Get fast and perfect thin slices of vegetables (cucumber, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, etc.). WARNING: It’s very, very sharp. Be super cautious when cutting; it cuts skin like butter. Wear a protective glove if possible, and cut more slowly when there is 1-1.5 inches left to cut.

• Benriner Mandoline Plus

Spider/Skimmer

For fishing out dumplings, vegetables, or noodles. Or many small pieces of fried food like fries.

• Chinese grocery store with wire-mesh spiders with bamboo handles

• Typhoon Professional Cooks Wire Skimmer

4½-inch-long Small Offset Spatula

In leveling any kind of batter to frosting a cake or to flip quickly, many small foods.

• Ateco Small Offset Spatula

Fine-Mesh Strainer

Comes in handy when wanting to strain liquids from larger solids or sifting flour.

• 8-inch Stainless Steel Strainer from OXO

Chopsticks

Very helpful kitchen tools: grab, whisk, saute, stir, etc. Good at simple tasks but not great for larger tasks, but not a replacement for tongs, whisk, or spatula.

Wine Key

Open a bottle of wine or a bottle with a cork; additionally, the top is a bottle opener.

Citrus Juicer

Neater and less messy while giving more juice from a citrus.

• Two-in-One Juicer from Amco

Cake Tester

Great for checking doneness for cakes, potato tenderness, or meat doneness (by conducting the temperature inside a meat, giving a rough insight of its doneness. Cold=raw, slightly warm=rare to medium-rare, warm=medium, hot=medium-well to well-done).

• Cake Tester from OXO

• Or any cheap one like Fox Run

Lots of Squeeze Bottles

An easy and convenient way to get liquid and thick sauces out. More control, less mess.

• 12 oz standard size Squeeze Bottles: Buy from Chinese Supply Store or Amazon