Kitchen Essentials

I get asked very often what “gadgets” or tools I use most often in my kitchen. The answer is surprisingly simple.

A good sharp knife and a clean cutting board.

Most people get very upset at this response.

I’m not 100% why though. I think that people expect me to tell them that I use some crazy kitchen equipment at home like a Sous Vide or a Thermomix. The truth is I don’t really believe in those kinds of things, unless you have a solid foundation on which to build on. If you can’t dice an onion and you need some kind of “gadget” to do it for you, then maybe you shouldn’t be cooking.

Part of the fun and enjoyment of cooking is creating something special. Something that you put hard work and energy into. If it were supposed to be easy then why doesn’t everyone have a Michelin star? That being said I don’t think any home cook is aiming for a Michelin star. However I can offer my advice when it comes to what you should spend your hard earned money on in your kitchen to make you a better cook! I do enjoy browsing some of the silly things Temu has to offer though! I mean a meat ball scoop maker thingymajig?! Crazy!

No. 1

These were the first real knives I ever bought.

I still have them and use them to this very day!

As I have already stated this is the most important piece of kitchen equipment anyone can own, be it at home or in a fine dining restaurant; a sharp knife. Now you probably have a bunch of knives lying in  your kitchen drawers right now, but go take a look at them and see how many are actually sharp. The best way to test this is to take a piece of paper and try to slice it with your knife. A good knife will easily carve through the paper without tearing it! In one smooth motion. Another test you can do is with tomatoes. Just try to slice the tomato with as minimal effort as possible. If you have to struggle and really force the knife to get through the skin, it’s not sharp enough.

Something I was taught very early on is; a sharp knife is a safe knife. This sounds counterintuitive but think about it. If you have a blunt knife and you have to force it and really put a lot of energy into the knife to cut something, the more chance you have of the knife slipping and sliding and hurting you. The knife should easily slice through whatever it is that you have to cut with minimal effort. Of course, this doesn't mean the knife isn’t dangerous, one should always handle it with care.

So why is a sharp knife so important that I have spent the last two paragraphs on it? Well because I think; a lot of the work involved with cooking is cutting up different ingredients, smashing things, slicing, dicing etc. All of the above are much easier to do with a quality blade. Do you know why you hate cutting onions so much? Why do you get more teary than watching MArley and Me (If you haven’t seen it, I don’t recommend it unless you want a massive cry.) Well a blunt knife damages the onion cells a whole lot, which in turn causes enzymes to be released which, when mixed with oxygen, create a compound called sulfuric acid. This in turn makes your eyes water like Vic Falls. However if you have a sharp knife, the knife will damage less onion cells, releasing less enzyme and creating little to no Sulfuric acid. Chefs don’t cry when they cut onions because they’re tough, it’s because their knives are as sharp as razors.

So why drop a couple hundred if not a couple thousand rands on a high quality knife? Why not buy something like the Verimark chopper gadget and take all that hard work out of the equation? Firstly, the Chopper is a single purpose product. It does one thing, chop. Sure you can chop different things in it, but that's it, it chops. A knife is a multi purpose device that has so many applications outside of just chopping. Secondly, all of those types of kitchen gadgets are made in china. They are of very poor quality and will break on you easily. So why waste your money? You’ll end up buying more choppers. Rather spend your money once on a good quality product that you will not have to replace in 3 months time. This is also why I say to look for a knife that costs a bit of money. Ultimately you get what you pay for. But I’ll stop here with knives; this is a topic which I will eventually dedicate an entire article to. For now just keep your knife sharp!

The knife on the left is a hand forged, Japanese Nakiri. It is the sharpest thing in the world, besides for my wife’s wit.

And there next to my chef tweezers is that Furi pairing knife that I still use!

As an aside; you don’t need chef tweezers. In fact I think they are highly unnecessary and a little silly. But they are unnecessary and silly the same way a meticulously arranged throw pillow collection is—more about style and presentation than actual function, yet oddly satisfying for those who care about the finer details.

No. 2

Cookware. Pots and pans.

At home we have a very small kitchen. There is not a lot of storage space nor is there a lot of counterspace. As a result we don’t have the luxury of having hundreds of pots and pans to choose from. However, that is 100% okay! In my honest opinion one only needs 1 pan in their entire kitchen. Maybe 2 if you keep a Kosher kitchen like I do.

And the pan I would recommend would be a high carbon stainless steel pan. Somewhere in the area of 14 inches wide. If it comes with a lid, then great. If not then, oh well. 

Now I can already hear people screaming at me. STAINLESS STEEL?!? But everything sticks, I hate stainless steel.

Well if you have trouble with stickage, that’s because you are using the pan wrong!

Allow me to tell you a little story. I was once catering for a large group of international guests at a very very nice safari lodge. One morning during breakfast service, all of the guests decided that they wanted fried eggs. I don’t know why but hey, that’s life as a chef sometimes. So inevitably we ran out of non-stick pans. The head chef of the safari lodge who was on service with us was just trying to move as quickly as possible. My sous chef at the time was having a meltdown. Now neither of the chefs are bad. In fact I would very highly regard them. However they had no idea how to use a stainless steel pan. So off I went. I grabbed 3 stainless steel pans, lined them up on my burners and proceeded to send off 3 sets of perfectly cooked, sunny side up eggs. No stickage whatsoever. Needless to say, the other chefs were astounded.

So what's the trick? 

No trick, just science.

Heat up your pan dry. Do not put any fat into the pan at all. Allow the entire surface to heat up first before adding in your oil, or butter. How do you know when it is hot enough? When you splash a little bit of water into the pan the water should bubble and dance around the surface of the pan. This is called the Leidenfrost effect. Basically when food is heated it releases moisture which in turn evaporates and turns into steam. If your pan is not hot enough the water does not turn into steam fast enough and sits in the pan. This cools the surface which causes the steel to contract and your food sticks. If the pan is too hot the water evaporates too quickly and the food sits on the super heated surface directly. However if your temperature is just right the water will evaporate and almost cause a small pocket of air to form underneath your food. To quote America’s test kitchen, “...like an air hockey puck…” and so your food gently floats and glides along the surface of the pan.

Video credits to America's Test Kitchen. @testkitchen on TikTok.

Now it is tricky to get right but once you do, it is a complete game changer. 

Stainless steel pans are also the best when it comes to even heat distribution and maintaining that heat. You can also put them into the oven, which you can’t with a non-stick pan. A good stainless steel pan is like a toyota hilux. Tough and reliable. 

Hashtag not an advert, Hashtag not sponsored.

No. 3

Deli containers.

I mentioned these in my last post about being one of the best things I learnt in the industry.

I used to buy these in bulk at Westpack, before they went bankrupt but there are so many places to get them, you can even find them online. And they are dirt cheap, so I buy lots. They are reusable and are actually quite durable. Best thing is when they inevitably break and crack you chuck it away and grab another. It cost you maybe R5 depending on where you got it from. This alone makes these vastly superior to old fashioned and expensive tupperware.

But the list of pros keeps on growing. They stack better than an organized library. They come in different sizes for different applications. I buy them with different coloured lids to differentiate meat, milk and parev. They are great for storing prep or leftovers and everything in between. I also use the smaller ones for making salad dressings. Just throw all of your ingredients in, pop the lid on nice and tight and give it a shake. Boom instant salad dressing. 

In the industry these containers are used for just about everything you can think of. We even eat our meals out of them sometimes and often we will fill them with cold water to drink during service. I cannot tell you enough how amazing these little containers are. Additionally I use some masking tape and a marker to label them so that I know straight away what I’m looking at in the fridge. I also put dates on them, but that’s just a habit I guess, although not a bad idea to do at home too.

My point I’m trying to make is KISS.

Keep. It. Simple. Stupid.

No need for crazy gadgets and overly expensive kitchen equipment. Have the simple fundamental things in your kitchen first to create that foundational layer for yourself. Honestly all of those expensive machines and such are just that expensive. If you have the basics, you can do just about anything!