Professional kitchen tools may not be attractive, but they are by far best designed for kitchen function, so feel free to check your logic and redesign your kitchen paraphernalia with this list to guide you. Please note they are affiliate links to Gonzo-approved products and brands, but you’re welcome to source similar items outside of our curated list.
Chef’s Knife: general produce chopping
Bread Knife: serrated blade allows for centralized aggressive biting into delicate items like bread without squishing them, but also super useful for similar delicate items like tomatoes
Boning Knife: you can get a stiff blade or a flexible one, I prefer flexible as it allows more movement around the bones, yielding more meat
Paring Knife: great for small hand-held tasks like stemming strawberries
Slicer: great for slicing meat and portioning large dishes
Honing Steel: re-aligns your blade, DOES NOT sharpen
Knife Block
Storage Containers: makes food production more efficient, storage cleaner, streamlines shopping by buying bulk refills, and shows you more clearly when it is time to refill
Stainless Steel Spatula: for flipping and portioning large batch dishes
Tongs: become an extension of your less dominant hand
Ice Cream Scoop with release trigger: used for portioning much more than just ice cream
Rasp/Microplane: perfect for garlic, ginger, and other roots, cheese grating, fresh nutmeg, zesting, etc.
Bench Scraper: helps keep your workspace clean, scrapes floured surfaces, picks up doughs and pastries from a stuck surface, can become an extension of your hand, much like tongs
Box Grater: for the in-between jobs where you can’t use the rasp and the processor is overkill
Measuring Spoons: to measure things… in a pre-measured spoon
French Rolling Pin: we learned with these guys at chef school, they are lighter and smaller than typical rolling pins
Wooden Spoons: you can’t make risotto without a wooden spoon, and once you do that, you can’t make anything without a wooden spoon
Mandolin/Benriner: adjustable, quickest way to slice a ton of something and get a consistent width
Digital Scale: used in recipe measurements as well as dough and meal portioning
Various Stainless-Steel Bowls: depth is a virtue
Fine Mesh Strainer/Sifter Small: flour sifting, pasta draining, liquid straining, lump removing, sugar dusting, very useful
Fine Mesh Strainer/Sifter Large:
Colander: heavy duty for straining weightier items like potatoes or stock solids like bones
Various Cutting Boards with nonslip feature: in kitchens, we designate certain colours to certain items, i.e. red boards for meat, green boards for produce, etc. best way to avoid cross contamination
4 Cup Measuring Cup: I’d buy two of these, they are a large measure, as well as a spouted vessel with a handle, comes in handy
Probe Thermometer: safest way to check meat doneness, also useful in candy and oil production
Ice Cube Trays: KEY in freezing large batch stocks and broths, sauces, pestos, etc. for utilizing small amounts at a time at any time
Freezer Bags: to freeze stuff in bags… in the freezer
Half Litre Containers with lids: seems to be a good standard portion for meal making/heating
Litre Containers with lids: best for freezing larger portions of broth/stock/soup/sauce
Cambros: clear, stackable storage containers with measurements on the side, best way to keep track of your pantry
Kitchen Rags: use these on prep days, then hide them in a drawer…
Muffin Trays Small: gonzo loves protein muffins
Muffin Trays Large: gonzo still loves protein muffins
Muffin Liners Small and Large: because PAM isn’t food
Muffin Liners Small and Large: because PAM still isn’t food
Parchment Paper: prolongs life of your baking sheets/roasting pans, makes less mess, can help with portioning and freezing
Baking Sheets: to bake sheets of things… or something, multiples of these would be helpful
Roasting Pans (hotel pans) and lids: least attractive, most functional; durable, lightweight, easy to clean, perfect for large scale cooking, cook like the pros
Various Sized Sauce Pans and Lids: everything has its purpose and different sizes come in handy
Various Sized Sauce Pans and Lids: everything has its purpose and different sizes come in handy
Various Sized Sauce Pans and Lids: everything has its purpose and different sizes come in handy
Stock Pot and Lid: everything has its purpose and different sizes come in handy
Stand Mixer: cause learning by hand at first is key to gaining skills… and for appreciating mixers when you have one
Food Processor: most often used for sauces, grating, and chopping on the fly amidst large production days, efficiency is sexy
Emersion Blender: I use this in place of a stand blender, but if one were to add a stand blender to their collection I would only recommend the Vitamix
Slow Cooker: for slow professionals