It’s easy to geek out on equipment these days. Every time I turn around, there’s a new Internet-based kitchen store touting cutting-edge gadgets that will take all guesswork out of cooking, simplify your life, and amaze your friends. Sure, some kitchen gadgets are helpful, and some tools may help you take your cooking to a higher level. Mostly, however, they just offer a false promise of kitchen success through the all-American, pain-free, time-saving tradition of charging your credit card. Shopping may give us a hopeful sense of possibility, but just as the world’s most expensive camera won’t turn a beginner into Annie Leibovitz or an expensive laptop doesn’t guarantee a writer the Pulitzer Prize, the most advanced range of kitchen gear won’t turn a home cook into Jacques Pépin.
That said, good tools are essential—it’s just that most of the necessary ones were identified centuries ago. This book is about classic cooking techniques, and classic tools are all that’s needed to perform them.
The best tools have a few things in common. They are well designed. They are made from good materials. And they are built to last (i.e., they won’t crap out on you in a time of need). Those criteria are worth a little extra money, because quality kitchen tools are not like smartphones—they won’t be outdated in two years. Rather, pay the extra money up front and you will be happy for years as long as you clean your tools properly, practice regular maintenance, and hopefully use them regularly. In fact, some tools just get better with age and use, just like a chef.
In this chapter, I’m just going to run down the basics about the tools you might want to have in your kitchen for preparing the recipes in this book with a focus on getting the most out of your steaks and other cuts. Where applicable, I also offer some thoughts on other items that aren’t necessary but which come up frequently in conversation with home cooks.
