Equipment

A lot of inexperienced cooks believe that they are prevented from a wide range of recipes because they lack the proper equipment in the kitchen. This is nonsense! My lifestyle has demanded that I move around quite a bit over the last decade of my life and the result is that I've never invested in any equipment that I would ever take with me. Each new city means an entirely new set of equipment. Having quality equipment is important, and desirable, it makes your job in the kitchen much easier to accomplish, but you can still do so much with very little.


Below you will find the essentials that you will need for any recipe found here:

1. A cutting board. This is one of the few items on this list where you will really see a difference between a cheap one and a proper one. Get something large enough to work on, and then a smaller cheap one.
2. A proper kitchen knife. Ideally two. It doesn't have to be expensive.
3. A knife sharpener.
4. A measuring cup, and measuring spoons
5. Three or four wooden spoons
6. A deep plastic ladle
7. A spatula
8. Tongs
9. A large heavy skillet
10. A lighter non-stick frying pan
11. Large stock pot
12. Medium stock pot
13. Small stock pot
14. Several baking trays
15. Large glass bowl
16. One large plastic bowl, and several smaller ones
17. A whisk
18. A colander
19. A wooden kitchen mallet
20. A potato masher
21. A vegetable peeler
22. A can opener
23. Cooking gloves or hot-pads

Couple of points:

• Don't fret! You can find just about all of this for under $100, or even much cheaper if you stop by a second hand shop.
• You do not need all of these for every recipe. You can acquire what you need to start and then add to it over time.
• Luxury items like mixers, garlic presses, and food processors are worthwhile investments once you have the bare essentials covered and you know you enjoy cooking!