- Category
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- Prep 107
- Cooking 71
- Serving 50
- Entertaining 16
- Storage 25
- Miscellaneous 16
The Essential Kitchen
We thought it might be helpful to group our Cool Tools in categories that reflect their role in the meal creation process. So here is our attempt to be helpful:
- Prep: These are the tools that are your workhorses, and the ones that most take the place of a sous-chef. These Cool Tools help you prepare your ingredients to be cooked. In finding Cool Tools for food prep, functionality, time saving and ease of use are the most important things we look for. Each and every one of these does its job particularly well and takes your food prep from drudgery to fun (well, almost!) When we finally carry knives, they will fit in this section.
- Cooking: These are the Cool Tools that you actually use during the cooking process; that means they have to be easy to use, handy to pick up, and work well without thinking about it, because your focus should be on the food--these Cool Tools take a supporting role.
- Serving: These are the Cool Tools that take your meal from the kitchen to the table, and make it easy and beautiful to serve your food.
- Entertaining: These are all the Cool Tools that are part of your entertaining repertoire and make the event easy for you and memorable for your guests.
- Storage: When the meal is over, what do you do with all those leftover bits? These Cool Tools will help.
- Miscellaneous: These are some more Cool Tools that we love, but they didn't fit neatly into one of the other categories.
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Norpro Stainless Steel Scoops-1 TbspOne of my favorite hors d’oeuvre to make when I have company is gougères: those airy, cheesy puffs that melt in your mouth. The hardest thing about gougères is dealing with...
OXO V-Blade Mandoline SlicerA mandoline is both awesome and scary. Awesome, because it really can do things a knife can’t (at least not when wielded by a mere amateur), like julienning a couple of pounds...
Gefu Flexicut Vegetable Splitter (Cutter) - G30Why It's Cool: Easily cuts round things (fruits or vegetables) into quarters or eigths, without risk to life or limbOne of the most difficult categories of things to cut a lot of are round things. Think about it: Brussels sprouts, carrots, small potatoes, cherry tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers,...
fusionbrands Silicone WaveSponge - F51Why It's Cool: A great multi-functional cleaning tool for all your pots and pansWe’ll start this review from a 180⁰ perspective: instead of discussing tasks that need to be performed in your kitchen, and concluding with ‘why this Tool is a...
Olipac Stainless Steel Olive Oil Bottles by IPAC - I10Why It's Cool: Strikingly beautiful olive oil bottles for kitchen or dining tableWe always look for kitchen tools that are high design, high functionality, but sometimes we see something that blows us away. When we were walking the show in Chicago last month,...
Norpro Stainless Steel Herb and Kale Stripper and Chopper - N12Why It's Cool: Not only does this strip all different kinds of herbs and kale, it has a blade to chop them as well.OK - you know you love the special flavors that herbs can add to a variety of dishes. But the ‘dried’ stuff in bottles doesn’t deliver the punch you want, and the effort of...
GEFU Primeline (Fish, etc.) Turner - G25Why It's Cool: At last: the perfect turner! The silicone edge makes it usable in non-stick pans, while the flexibility of the fish turner design makes it easy to slide under your food.The ‘basic’ turner - or ‘spatula’ - presents several issues, especially if you use non-stick or coated pans. Many have single-piece blades, either rigid or semi-rigid,...
Gefu Primeline Carving / Serving Fork - G26Why It's Cool: Thin tines and sleek look make this carving and serving fork as pretty as it is functional.Serving a beautiful roast is a celebration, but it can also be a challenge … you spend all the money, time, and effort to acquire the perfect piece of meat - in quality and size...
Tovolo Perfect Cube Silicone Ice Trays (Set of 2)Why It's Cool: Freezes a variety of things in perfect cubes, from ice to herb nuggets and more!If you’re like us, then you may think: why do I need an ice cube tray? My freezer makes all the ice I need without human intervention. That’s what we thought until we saw the...
Trudeau Dripless Oil Spout-GreenWhy It's Cool: Truly dripless pouring from any bottle.We all buy - or receive - bottles of olive oil or vinegar that we store for another day … they come either corked or with a screwtop that has to be removed and/or replaced every...