Cooking is much, much easier if you have a good set of quality tools, appliances, and cooking equipment. Jobs that feel time-consuming and tedious can take just a few minutes and no effort if you have the right equipment. Starting with the right knife, bowls, or saucepan means less mess, time, and frustration. You don’t need a lot of things, but if you invest in a few quality tools they can last for years and will come to feel essential in your life.
This is a list of the equipment and tools in my own kitchen that I consider essential, not just for my regular life but for making the recipes in this book. You’ll notice it’s not long. I don’t like to get complicated with a lot of fancy gadgets, and anyway, New York kitchens are tiny so I don’t have the space. But these are the things I use nearly every day:
• CHEF’S KNIFE: This needs to be good quality and sharp. It should feel comfortable in your hand and make cutting feel easier, not awkward. An awkward-feeling knife is an injury waiting to happen. Some people prefer the feel and balance of a Santoku knife over a chef’s knife, so you might want to try them both. Either one will be indispensable for chopping and slicing everything from fruits and vegetables to meat and seafood.
• HIGH-SPEED BLENDER, SUCH AS A VITAMIX: This is absolutely essential for making smoothies and puréeing anything liquid. I use mine every day. Cheaper blenders are okay, but more often than not they can’t handle the tough jobs and don’t truly purée. They also seem to leak. High-speed blenders are more expensive, but they last forever and really do the job right.
• FOOD PROCESSOR: A processor is essential for chopping and mixing larger amounts of things like salsa. You can also fly through small jobs like mincing garlic by just popping in the peeled garlic and pulsing a few times—the food processor does all the work. Some also have attachments for grating vegetables (like if you are making coleslaw or zucchini noodles) and juicing citrus fruits. There are some jobs that a food processor really does better than a blender, and it can be easier to get the food out at the end. For small jobs, though, I would usually just use my chef’s knife so I don’t have a big appliance to clean. You can also get smaller chopper-type versions for doing small jobs like those garlic cloves.
• STAND MIXER: I bake a lot, so this is a requirement in my bakery kitchen. I have one with a basic mixing paddle, a wire whip, and a dough hook. KitchenAid is my go-to brand.
• HAND MIXER: Sometimes, smaller jobs call for a hand mixer, which is easier to take out and put away than a stand mixer and doesn’t require moving everything from a pot or a bowl into the stand mixer bowl. You never technically have to have one because you could always use your stand mixer, but you may decide that it is worth the savings in time and effort. I use mine maybe once every week or two.
• IMMERSION BLENDER: This wand-like handheld blender will purée soup or sauce right in the pan. This can be easier and safer than using a blender, especially when your soup or sauce is hot.
• SLOW COOKER: One of the best inventions ever. Just put your meat and veggies inside, turn it on, and come home at the end of the day to dinner. This is also a super-easy way to make bone broth (here) without worrying about watching it constantly.
• GARLIC PRESS AND POTATO/CARROT PEELER: Get sturdy ones that won’t fall apart in your hands if you use them a lot. Honestly, it’s not that much harder to mince garlic with a knife, but a sturdy garlic press can eliminate the peeling step.
• PASTRY BRUSH: This is good for brushing melted Earth Balance or ghee on foods, or basting meat. I like a silicone one, which won’t leave bristles in your food or melt when exposed to high temps.
• MEASURING CUPS FOR DRY INGREDIENTS AND WET INGREDIENTS, AND MEASURING SPOONS: I use dry cups in 1-cup, ½-cup, ⅓-cup, and ¼-cup sizes, as is the standard, as well as the standard measuring spoons. I like steel or wooden ones, personally. For liquid, I have glass measuring cups in 8-cup, 4-cup, 2-cup, and 1-cup sizes. You can eyeball amounts in a lot of recipes, especially things like soup, smoothies, and casseroles, but baking is a science. If you don’t measure ingredients for your cakes, cookies, or bread, your recipe might not work.
• STAINLESS-STEEL COOKWARE: I thought stainless would be a nightmare to clean, but it’s easier than I imagined. Stainless steel heats evenly and is totally inert, so you don’t have to worry about weird chemical-based coatings flaking off into your food. Just use lots of delicious ghee, Earth Balance, or coconut oil when you cook and soak the pots and pans immediately after. They come clean easily and you can even put them in the dishwasher. You don’t need a huge set. I mostly use a 2-quart saucepan, a large skillet, and a stockpot, all with tight-fitting glass lids so I can see what’s going on in the pot.
• ROASTING PAN: I mainly use a roasting pan to roast chicken and turkey. I have a heavy-duty cast-iron pan, but you could also use one made of stainless steel. Avoid nonstick pans, which are not only toxic but don’t create the juicy bits you can scrape up to make gravy.
• MIXING BOWLS: I really only use two, a large bowl and a medium bowl. I think the small ones are too small to be practical for much. I would only use one bowl but often you need to mix dry ingredients in one bowl and wet ingredients in another bowl. An 8-cup glass liquid measuring cup can also double as a mixing bowl.
• BAKEWARE: I reach for several key sizes and shapes of baking pans every day. If you like to bake you can’t go wrong with a muffin pan for muffins and cupcakes, 8-inch round cake pans (at least 2), loaf pans (regular and mini), a pie dish, an 8-inch-square baking pan, a 9 x 13-inch pan with high sides, a covered baking dish, a sheet cake pan with a rim, and baking sheets. These are the basics, but I do like to collect other things, like larger and smaller cake pans in interesting shapes and sizes, just because I love baking pans. For example, note that a few recipes in this book do require 6-inch cake pans. These are nice to have for small groups because they make a cake that is appropriate for just a few people. Note that some people only like steel bakeware, or stoneware, or glass, or even silicone. I don’t use glass as much because it browns too quickly and doesn’t come clean very well, but I like both steel and stoneware. Use what you have or find what you prefer. Whatever you get, you will learn with practice whether it works for you.
• COLANDER AND FINE-MESH STRAINER: I use these constantly for rinsing vegetables and fruits, draining cans of beans, draining pasta, and straining bone broth. I also sometimes use cheesecloth if I need to strain nut milk or anything else where I need an even finer strain than I can get with wire mesh.
• WOODEN SPOONS, RUBBER SCRAPERS, A WHISK (WIRE OR SILICONE), AND A GOOD STEEL SPATULA: I keep these in a crock on my counter so they are always handy to grab. I use them all almost every day.
• MEAT THERMOMETER: I use my meat thermometer a lot, for both meat and breadmaking.
• PARCHMENT PAPER: For lining baking sheets and wrapping up fish for baking.
• PAPER CUPCAKE/MUFFIN LINERS: They make it easier to take your cupcakes or muffins with you, and guarantee the bottom half won’t get left in the pan. It can be nice to get different colors or designs, especially seasonally.
• GLASS STORAGE CONTAINERS FOR LEFTOVERS: These are nice because you can see what’s in them, and your food isn’t sitting in toxic plastic.
That may seem like a lot, but it’s really not if you consider all the gadgets and appliances you could buy. Honestly, this is all I ever really use in my very active kitchen, but if there is something else you know you would really use (like a juicer, a tea ball, a spiralizer, a citrus zester, etc.), then definitely add that to your list, and take off anything you know you wouldn’t use (like maybe a food processor or an immersion blender). It’s your kitchen, your rules, and your tools.