Spend time in the kitchen–any amount of time–and you’ll quickly figure out that there are few things as important as organization, quality equipment, and happy feet. Spend 10 years in a restaurant kitchen, as I did, and you’ll develop an almost unhealthy attachment to certain objects. For me it was–make that, is–a pair of Naot clogs and my chef’s knife. If I treat it right, the knife might last forever, but the clogs? Well, let’s just say I should have let them go a long time ago. But clearly, I have attachment issues.

After 10 years of service it might be time to say goodbye. Or at the very least move them out to the garden shed. But they’re still soooo comfy!

There is something wonderfully freeing and inspiring about having the right stuff in the kitchen. I think it makes us all better cooks. So, I’m passing along to you a round up of my kitchen essentials. These gadgets, tools, and yes, the clogs, holes and all, let me sail around my kitchen like a pro, making fancy stuff look easy, and adding those special touches that are mostly only seen in restaurants.

A Really Good Pair of Kitchen Clogs
I love my Naots. They were a bit out of my snack bracket when I purchased them 10 years ago. I was a cash-strapped restaurant owner, but my feet were killing me! I was suffering from an extremely painful case of plantar fasciitis and could barely walk. Hours and hours of standing on a hard concrete floor had done these dogs in. So after a few visits to an underground Chinese doctor and bone-cruncher and the investment in my clogs, I’ve never looked back. And if you’re wondering why chef’s almost always wear clogs, I was told it was because they are easy to kick off in an emergency. For example, a spill of boiling water or hot oil from a stove to the floor and all over your feet. If you’re tied into running shoes, so much more damage will be done to your skin while you frantically struggle with the laces. And they’re partially open, so they breath, and in a hot kitchen, that’s vital for comfort. Perhaps my next pair will be red. I think my late-forties will be my red period!

Check out these beauties from the new collection of Naots. To see more, go to: www.naot.ca

A Good Kitchen Supply Shop
Look for a professional kitchen equipment shop that is open to the public. That’s where you will find the coolest stuff and often, the best prices. Here in Toronto, I like Nella and Tap Phong. The Cooks Place is also good, and for high-end goodies, The Inspired Cook has the prettiest stuff. But, for all those things we use in the restaurant kitchen, the things that make the difference, and if you’re within driving distance, take a trip to Nella, and bring your knives. They offer a professional knife sharpening service too. Otherwise, seek out a restaurant supply place in your area and find out if they’re open to the general public.

Super inexpensive and super useful. Maple balsamic reduction in one, Dijon mayo in the other.

Squeeze bottle
These are essential in a busy kitchen, and get filled with everything from oils to cooking liquors, to dessert sauces. At home, they will make you look like a culinary super star. Fill with cr�me fraiche or yogurt to garnish a thick soup. Use one to dispense the perfect little drizzle of herb oil around a delicate salad or main course, or decorate a dessert plate with fruit sauces, chocolate or caramel sauce or cr�me Anglaise.

My beloved Henckels, a solid board, and a bar towel…now you’re cookin’ with gas!

A Good Knife
Supremely important. Vital. It’s a kitchen crime not to have one. If you can, make the investment of a hundred bucks or so for a really excellent, high-carbon steel chef’s knife. It will last you forever and you’ll most likely end up passing it along to your kids. And don’t let the salesperson talk you into a set. All you really need is one good chef’s or Santoku knife and a pairing knife for fine work.

With these three–santoku, chef’s, pairing–a home cook will be well set.

A Good Cutting Board
Pet peeve; those terrible plastic cutting boards that come in white or clear, hard plastic. I’m a wood girl all the way. I love the look, the feel, the heft of a well made board. I’ve picked up vintage boards in thrift shops, and new ones at any house wares store. Bamboo is the latest trend, because it’s sustainable, and therefore a more eco-frinedly choice than wood, and it’s really pretty and durable. There is a myth about plastic being cleaner and more hygienic than wood. Not true. When wood is washed in hot water, the fibers actually open up thus letting the soap in and the dirt out. A plastic board, on the other hand, becomes covered in grooves or burls that just hold onto gunk. 

Nice Cotton Dish Rags or Tea Towels
In the biz, we call them bar rags or bar towels, and cooks steal, stash, hoard, and guard them with…well those knives I mentioned earlier. Cooks are the first to pounce on the linen supply guy when he arrives with his Santa sack of fresh linens. We dig furiously though the table cloths, napkins, and bistro aprons, looking for our perfectly white, fluffy, absorbent, pay-dirt. Have I mentioned that professional cooks are a strange and wonderful lot? In a fast-paced kitchen there is no time for oven mitts. We use a dry, folded bar towel to pick up hot stuff. We use a damp, folded bar towel to keep our stations clean and tidy at all times, and we keep one hanging jauntily from our apron strings for wiping hands and polishing the rim of a plate before it heads to the dining room. When we chop, we place an open, damp cloth under the board to stop it from slipping, and a clean, damp rag will keep phylo dough pliable while you work.

Cheeky styles from www.domistylegifts.com

A Comfortable Apron
I’m wearing it right now, as I right this. I’m so comfortable in my favourite apron that I often forget I’ve got it on. It’s a simple, black, bib number with a couple of pockets for who knows what. I’ve never used the pockets. When I cook professionally I prefer a bistro apron, but at home, the bib style let’s you cook in your company’s-coming clothes without a care. There are lots of really cute styles to choose from now, here are a couple of my faves.

And from www.luprints.com, the Heartbird apron. So pretty.

Tongs
After the chef knife, this is the tool that gets the hardest workout in the kitchen. Mine hang on the oven handle, always at the ready. I use them for almost everything: bbq’ing, fishing foods out of hot oil or boiling water, stirring, flipping, and serving, especially salads and pastas. Look for a pair with a bit of weight to them and a really tight and responsive spring. 

Two sizes: long for dipping into deep hot water or fat and short for getting up close and personal with your cooking.

Hard to imagine a pastry chef crisping up the sugar on your delicate creme brulee with one of these babies, but that’s most often what you’ll find in restaurant kitchens.

Torch
If you haul out one of these babies at your next dinner party your guests will either be wildly impressed or think you have finally gone completely mad. I’ve got the standard, hardware store special, guy-type torch, but there are pretty little kitchen torches available at most kitchen shops. It’s absolutely the best way to finish a cr�me brulee or to brown the peeks of that lemon meringue. I don’t think I’d be giving anything away if I told you that I use it in food styling to make foods look as it they just came off the bbq for the camera.

And then there is this handsome devil.

Bottle Pour Spouts
Perhaps you’ve noticed these on all the bottles at your local pub. Jamming one of these into the top on a bottle allows the bar tender to control the pour. The stream created by a pour spout + a count of 4 generally equals about a one ounce shot. That’s called free-pouring, and in my opinion, that’s what makes a good drink and a good local. In the kitchen, I stop many bottles with these, from olive oil to vinegar to maple syrup to my cooking sherry and other cooking liquors. Tossing the lid and using these instead saves time and, just like the bar tender, offers you better control.

Lotta Love. Cast iron, especially vintage, will give you a lifetime of great frying.
 
A Great Cast Iron Pan
You’ve got to have at least one of these. I’ve got a complete set of vintage pans from a large 10″ skillet to a wee tiny one–about 3″–that I use for melting butter when I make popcorn. Cast iron is one of those things that will never go out of style. Once it’s properly seasoned (heated and oiled and heated again) it will last forever and provide you with years and years of stick-free frying. Some say that cooking acidic foods in cast iron, such as tomato sauce, will leach some iron out of the pan and into the food, and we ladies can always use more iron. Second hand, thrift, and antique shops are a great place to hunt for pre-seasoned cast iron. And here’s another bonus; the pans weigh a ton, so they turn frying an egg into a workout!

An essential kitchen multi-tasker; spend as much as you can afford to enjoy sharp blades for the longest amount of time.

Micro Planer
While a micro planer is now fairly common in most kitchens–home or pro–there was a time when this wonder-tool was relegated to the woodworking shed. I think it was Martha Stewart who may have been the first woman to infiltrate the manly world of carpentry (and trader fraud, but that’s another story) and commandeer one of their tools for the kitchen. This is simply the best tool for grating a block of fresh Parmigano over a plate of steaming spaghetti. Now made specifically for the kitchen, it’s available in different gauges and available at pretty well all kitchen shops. It gives you fine, feathery, ribbons of any hard cheese, and even chocolate. It’s perfect for zesting citrus, grating fresh garlic or ginger or powdering whole nutmeg.

Happy cooking, and maybe even a little showing off, everyone!!!

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