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