Whether you’re a professional chef, a catering chef or a home chef, you will need the items listed below. They are the most essential utensils and gadgets that every chef will need in order to properly prepare, store and serve food.
Knives
A decent knife set is essential for a chef. In fact, it is probably the number one tool that a chef needs, aside from his or her own two hands.
Your knife set doesn’t have to be extravagant or out of this world expensive. However, it shouldn’t be too cheap because cheap knives are not effective knives. They will make your job that much harder.
Cutting board
Your cutting board should be large enough to handle the food needing to be chopped on it. You should also have at least two cutting boards. One of them should be completely designated to cutting meat products and one cutting board for cutting fruits, vegetables, and basically, everything that isn’t raw meat. Having two different cutting boards (labeled) ensures that the raw meat product doesn’t contaminate other foods.
Skillet
A lot of dishes can be made almost entirely with a skillet, some of which can be made in a single skillet (one-pot recipes). A kitchen will most certainly not be able to properly cook and serve food to people if they do not have a skillet to cook it in. The best-case scenario for a professional chef would be to have several skillets in several different sizes. A home chef can possibly get away with a skillet or two because they are not required to serve 20 to 30 people at a time. Which means they have time to wash their skillet between uses.
Saucepot
Similar to requiring a skillet, every chef needs a saucepot. These gadgets are required to boil water, cook pasta, make hard-boiled eggs, create sauces, soups, and much more! There are also several recipes that are made entirely with the use of a saucepot.
Cheese grater
A cheese grater is one of those kitchen gadgets that aren’t 100% necessary, but it should be in every kitchen that can afford one. If you do not have a cheese grater then you better fine-tune your knife skills to create cheese shavings that are required by certain recipes. For example, freshly shredded cheese from a block (not a package) will automatically make a better macaroni and cheese. It is also a nice gadget to have when customers or family members have some cheese shavings on their pasta, etc.
Measuring utensils
Measuring tools are essential to properly create intended recipe results. Recipes can not be recreated without measuring cups and measuring spoons. Liquid measuring cups are clear and typically made of glass. Dry ingredients are measured by measuring spoons and measuring could which are typically made of stainless steel or plastic.
Cooking utensils
Cooking utensils are an obvious requirement in the kitchen. Otherwise, chefs would be stirring, flipping, sauteing, and baking using their hands (that is both unsanitary and painful). So, every professional and home chef needs a decent set that includes spatulas, ladles, slotted spoons, and solid spoons. You should also have rubber spatulas (not for cooking hot food) but, for making baked goods such as cakes, pies, cookies, and bread.
Baking sheet
Baking sheets are required for any oven cooking. Cookies, bread, pizzas, roast chicken, fish, so many foods are made in the oven and almost all of them have to be on a shallow baking sheet. Deeper baking pans are best for brownies, cakes, deep-dish pizzas, etc.
Meat thermometer
A meat thermometer is essential to ensure that all meat products are cooked to the proper temperature. If meat is undercooked you could cause a person to become severely ill and overcooked food is unappealing and often inedible.
Appliances that every kitchen requires
- Oven
- Stove
- Refrigerator
