Kitchen ‘Can’t Live Withouts’

A really fun part of our job is often equipping our clients kitchens with the tools needed to effortlessly create their weekly menus.  That being said, we don’t ever want to clutter up a space unnecessarily.  We’ve taken on the approach of the incredible chef and TV host Alton Brown and done our best to eliminate “unitaskers,” or kitchen gadgets that only serve one purpose. That avocado peeler you’re storing in your drawer? Pitch it. The apple slicer that can really only slice apples, get outta here! 

There isn’t much that can’t be done with a good sharp chef’s knife, a solid cutting board, a microplane, a set of good tongs, a set of sheet pans, and a peeler.

A good set of dry and wet measuring cups and spoons and a good set of graduated mixing bowls round out our kitchen must-have list.

Each of these tools can serve multiple purposes. Your knife is obviously the heavy lifter. We discourage people from purchasing knife blocks or knife sets because the three knives you need most are a 6-8” chef’s knife, a paring knife, and a bread knife. But that’s for another blogpost. A non-porous knife-friendly, ridge-free cutting board is the work surface you need under whatever it is you’re doing. Any recipe that calls for minced or finely chopped ginger or garlic will be made far easier with a microplane which is also an essential tool for zesting citrus or grating hard cheeses. Tongs serve as an extension of the arm of any skilled chef and we use ours to turn meats on grills, remove hot lids from pans, fish out strands of pasta from pasta water into its sauce for finishing among many other things. Sheet pans reign supreme for organizing mise en place, roasting off vegetables, and more. One of our favorite writers, Melissa Clark of the New York Times has created an entire how-to of meals that can be made entirely on a sheet pan.  

Do you think our essentials list is missing anything? Comment below the one thing in your kitchen that you couldn’t live without.

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