Issue #24: My top 10 most used commercial kitchen tools
These are the tools that make cooking so easy, every domestic kitchen should have them.
A weekly dose of tidbits, spanning food, recipes, health, wellness, fitness, nutrition, destinations, books, advice, ideas and musings. Let’s spark conversation.
to read
This post from a brilliantly named substack is a fascinating deep dive into just how uncontrolled and (un)reputable supplements companies can be. The author writes about a prebiotic designed to minimise hangovers, which has zero robust studies to prove its efficacy in vitro or in vivo. I am so here for the author’s healthy scientific cynicism. Whenever I see or hear about a new nutritional product, I remind myself that nobody profits from telling us to eat more whole foods. Companies profit from selling us their manufactured product. A good rule of thumb to live by, is that if it sounds too good to be true (aka, banishing hangovers with an enzyme) then it most probably is.
to listen
I’ve been hearing more and more lately about the dangers of phthalates (forget the ph, they’re pronounced thalates). They are chemicals added to plastics to make them pliable. In our modern world, they are everywhere, and they leach into whatever they come into contact with. Plastic water bottles, plastic food containers, even plastic tubing used in milking equipment for cows. We all subsequently have varying levels of them in us. Studies have shown a direct link between phthalate levels in the mother, and the ability of their offspring to reach appropriate sexual maturity. The research is alarming, to say the least. One thing I see a lot, are old plastic food tubs used as makeshift tupperware. These are not safe to house food repeatedly, nor to be warmed with food inside. To keep your leftovers phthalate free, invest in some glass tupperware (the Ikea range is amazing, and well priced).
to watch
Baby Reindeer is a hilarious, dark and twisted Netflix show about a struggling comedian in London who acquires an intense Scottish stalker, who falls madly in love with him, and proceeds to ruin his life. This is hard to believe, but it is based on a true story. The comedian both wrote the show, and plays himself. Like the main character, the viewer feels pity for the stalker, and ensuing horror for what may happen if he is too kind to her. A must watch.
The wide, fine microplane
I think I mention this in every other newsletter. It truly is a revolutionary tool, and no other brand is as good. It’s wide, so the food doesn’t slip off, it’s sharp, so you grate the zest and not the pith. It’s multi-functional. I use it for citrus zest (if you are going to juice a lime or a lemon, zest it too, otherwise 50% of it is going in the bin), for ‘crushing’ garlic cloves, for a fine dusting of parmesan or cheddar, and for grating nutmeg.
The Mexican elbow
Used by stewardesses across the seas to juice lemons and limes for cocktails. It crushes and pulverises halved citrus fruits like nothing else. I also love it for the fact that it’s hands free - your poor hands, which are inexplicably always covered in tiny cuts, don’t come into contact with the viciousness of citric acid.
Little Victorinox serrated knives
These are a chef’s secret weapon. On every job I go to, every chef has about four or five tucked into their knife roll. They are so incredibly useful for so many things. They slice through tomatoes like a dream, give ultimate dexterity handling fruit, and they are far sharper than they look. I once ended up taking my knife roll through security at Barcelona airport (a hideous story for another time - I’m still not over it) and out of all my knives that were confiscated (all of them, obvs) they weirdly let me keep these serrated ones. Which were honestly sharper than my actual knives.
Heat proof spatulas
I, like Mary Berry, my mother, and all women before me, hate waste and love scraping every bit of batter out of a bowl. It irks me to see a whole muffin’s worth of batter left behind. These spatulas get every single speck of batter, and these are phenomenally heatproof. Just please don’t mix the ones you use to stir curries with the ones you use to make cakes.
Non slip mats
There is nothing worse than a freely moving chopping board that is not affixed to the kitchen surface. You can’t slice into anything with confidence. The first thing all chefs do when they set up their station, is to stick the chopping board to the worktop in some way. I’ve seen people do all sorts. Some run a load of blue towel under the tap, and snake it into a sort of rectangle. I’ve seen some rapidly spray disinfectant onto said blue towel, wetting it that way (which seems unnecessarily wasteful). I’ve seen dampened microfibre cloths and tea towels. But what I think works best, because it’s re-usable, purpose built, and it doesn’t need wetting, is plain old non slip matting. Just cut it so it’s the right size for your board, and away you go. It’s also useful to steady a bowl that’s being enthusiastically whipped.
A good knife, and a good sharpener
Blunt knives are dangerous knives, and sharp knives are safe knives. All of my worst knife related accidents have occurred when I was lackadaisical about keeping my knife sharp. Interestingly, you will cry more cutting onions if your knife is blunt. It bruises and smushes the plant cells, releasing more of their juices into the air, rather than cleanly and sharply running through them, keeping more of the cells intact.
I am not a knife connoisseur, but I took a trip to the Japanese Knife Company on Baker Street, and had an absolute ball. I was Harry Potter, going to Ollivander’s, to pick out my wand (or have my wand pick me). It was a magical experience that I would recommend to anybody. If you work as a professional chef (I just told them I was a yacht chef - they didn’t ask for any proof) you get a 10% discount. I came away with a beautiful chef’s knife, with an elegant pale wood handle, with the characteristics I wanted (fairly low maintenance and robust).
They also advised me on the right whetstone. Every so often, I watch a YouTube video to remind me how to do it, because, this kind of thing is really not my forte.
Robust, stainless steel mixing bowls
On private jobs, I often find myself looking in horror at the ceramic mixing bowls in people’s kitchen cupboards. I admit, they look lovely and charming and homesteady, but I am so clumsy, and never have dry hands, so anything breakable in my kitchen is just a recipe for disaster. I really like these nesting stainless steel mixing bowls. They have lids, which I love, because they reduce the need for a makeshift cling film lid. They also have rubber bottoms, so they stick to the worktop, and won’t set on fire if you accidentally leave one on an induction hob. I’ve been there, I have actually done that.
A stand mixer
I am desperate to get a ‘bowl lift’ KitchenAid. I find the ‘tilt head’ ones too top heavy, and not heavy duty enough for the extreme bread making I want to put it through (said tongue in cheek). I want it primarily for mixing my sourdough, because I honestly despise mixing the dough by hand. It is a lovely and romantic thing to do from time to time, to feel and love the dough, but I make it about once a week, I have other things I’d rather be doing, and I really want it to be as easy and less messy as possible. I’m happy to do the folds every hour, because the dough has enough structure by then not to leave half the dough in between your fingers, but at the start, I really want to just bung the ingredients in a bowl and let the dough hook do the work.
A few things are holding me back from le purchase of le dream KitchenAid. 1) I live in a lovely, spacious flat, but my kitchen counter space is somewhat limited. The espresso machine is permanently out, of course. The Thermomix has been banished to a cupboard. I am in the process of sourcing extra storage, by which point, the KitchenAid could have a home. 2) It is a high priced item. Something you hopefully buy once, and never have to buy again. So, I want to love the colour with all my heart. I very nearly bought a matte black one when I was in France, but stopped myself when I realised I’d a) have to get it back to the UK somehow, and b) get the plug changed, which would void the warranty.
Cast iron pots
To bake my sourdough, I love this cast iron pot. But I don’t use it for much else, and it is really bloody heavy. In an ideal world, I’d have a Le Creuset, but this cost less than £30, and Le Creuset are, like, not that.
Anything made by Joseph & Joseph. I find this brand borderline insulting. Everything is so plasticky, bizarrely designed and tiny; better suited for children who want to play at cooking.
Small chopping boards. You do not want to feel cramped. You want to have enough space so that you can chop various things, and give them designated spots on the board. I love to keep a few garlic cloves, a chunk of parmesan and, say, a lemon, at the top corner of my board. You never know what you might need, and when you might need it. My rule for chopping boards, is, the bigger the better.
Non digital scales. It’s 2024; we can do better.
Garlic crushers. They are a bitch to clean, and half the garlic stays stuck in the basket. Just use a microplane.
What are your biggest kitchen icks? And do you have any tools you literally could not live without? Please, let me know in the comments. I’m always looking to make my life easier!
I am an evangelical convert to microplanes since the home economist and former pastry chef who joined me cooking everything from my last book for the photoshoot introduced me to it!
However, you're wrong about the chopping boards and this is why: I LOVE my small ones because I have a tiny kitchen (I also keep most of my big appliances in boxes in cupboards around the house, though my stand mixer does live out because of the weight) - I manage (and it follows on from two more tiny kitchens) but with the volume of work I do in there there is not always space in the dishwasher for a big plastic one that takes up both of the bottom rack spaces, or by the sink for big wooden ones while I'm waiting for the dishwasher to finish, to empty the sink of things I can dishwash instead of washing up, because I don't have the drying space to do it all by hand. So I grabbed a tiny chopping board, smaller than my iPad to do my fresh fruit for this morning's yogurt bowl because it was all I needed, and using a big one would be screwing over future me when I start work in a bit!