Let me tell you about my kitchen. It's a typical New York City apartment galley kitchen, luxuriously roomy for one; unbearably cramped for two. I am lucky to have a big sink, a full-sized 30-inch gas stove, and an expanse of counter space that easily handles my clutter of olive oil bottles, half-full bottles of wine, a coffee grinder and big glass jar of coffee beans, little bowls of salt, my 15" x 20" polyethylene cutting board, and a large white Aplico ceramic bowl filled with onions, garlic, and shallots, and often some shriveled jalapeño peppers bought with ambition but rarely used. My biggest luxury? A window.
I'm describing my kitchen to make the point that we don't need fancy or big ones to be a contented home cook. In fact I think we often do better with less. A few years ago I visited an apartment with an exquisite kitchen that had every glamour appliance and status piece of All-Clad. But the only cooking ever done in that kitchen was when its owner would re-heat paper cups of deli coffee in the microwave. Occasionally sushi would get transferred from a take-out container to a serving plate, but that certainly doesn't count.
While that was an extreme case, it's easy to have your kitchen outsize your cooking. Consider how many unused gadgets you have right now. Contrary to what Williams-Sonoma or Cooking.com might have us think, we really don't need all those little utensils to cook well. I think the gadget that best makes my case is that garlic peel sleeve-thing. To begin with, it doesn’t really work, and once you use it, it never gets clean, leaving behind little bits of dried garlic skin in your drawer. It's much easier to just hit a garlic clove with the side of a chef's knife and the peel lifts right off. If you don't want to break the clove, use a paring knife to snip off the tip and root and again, the skin will lift. And if you're making "Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic" and have lots of garlic to peel, quickly blanch the separated cloves in boiling water for about 10 seconds and the peels will slip right off. See, you don't need that sleeve-thing at all.
In the spirit of less is better, and apart from my favorite pots and pans (see our series of articles, "The Essential Kitchen" in the Advice & Ideas section), here's my list of favorite tools, edited down to desert island status:
- 3 knives: chef's (mine is 9"), paring, and serrated (for bread and tomatoes)
- Cutting board . A big one.
- Vegetable peeler
- Measuring spoons and 2-cup measuring cup
- Tongs
- A wooden spoon
- Microplane rasper
- Clean kitchen towels -- used to dry things, wring water out of shredded potatoes, pick up hot pans, wear as an apron, and much more
- Instant thermometer
- Wooden citrus reamer. This is probably a luxury but I love it and it's my list so it goes to the desert island with me.
- Parchment paper
Why does parchment paper make the short list? Because it's a simple tool that's multi-purpose. See our article in "Advice & Ideas" for more reasons why I love parchment paper.
So next time you're browsing at The Broadway Panhandler or Bridge Kitchenware or another tempting kitchen store, count to ten before you buy that avocado masher or cherry pitter or apple peeler or flavor injector or whatever it is you momentarily believe will transform your cooking. Just put it down and walk away. Because the things that will really make you a better cook are to taste a lot and cook often.
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