22 Essential Kitchen Tools I Actually Own (And Use Daily)

I live in New York City, and my kitchen (like most!) is horrendously small. I’m used to it now, but in the beginning it was a complete nightmare to shop for the kitchen equipment I’d need to make this place my own. There are days when my kitchen is literally my office, and when your office is more or less just a hallway with limited storage space, things get tricky.

I’m a firm believer that you don’t need the most ridiculously expensive or fancy kitchen items to cook like a pro, so I’m sharing the items that I use more than any others — from the $8 essentials that’ve served me well for many, many years, to the reasonable investments that’ll last a lifetime and are worth every penny — plus exactly why I’m obsessed with each.

I’m pretty aggressive with my cookware and tend to put these over heat that’s probablyyyy higher than I should. Sorry. Even then, I’ve had these skillets for years and they’re just as nonstick as they were on day one.

You can buy the two-pack (10″ and 12″) from Amazon for $69.95.

As a food writer and recipe developer, I do a lot of dishes. Probably more than the average person, and even better: I don’t have a dishwasher! There are days when just looking at another dirty dish makes me want to crawl in a hole and stay there forever, but finally giving into the Scrub Daddy hype has honestly changed my life.

The brand itself assures customers that they “resist odor for eight weeks,” and I can fully back up that statement. Unlike regular sponges that get reaaaaal gross after just a few uses, these stay in tip top shape for weeks. Plus, running them under cold water turns them completely stiff, which makes them perfect for cleaning your more stubborn pots and pans. Hell, I even use these on my glass shower door to get rid of soap scum every once in a while. They’re truly my everything.

If you’re ready to make doing dishes way more fun — and way less stinky — you can grab a Scrub Daddy from Target for $3.59; or a 2-pack for $7.82, or a 8-pack for $27.99, both from Amazon.

Traditional mandoline slicers definitely have their time and place, but truthfully, they can be pretty intimidating. More than that, they’re a nightmare to store, and limited storage space in my tiny lil’ kitchen means I have to be selective about the products I purchase. This slicer is so compact that I can store it in my utensil drawer. It makes thinly-slicing anything an absolute breeze, and there’s a dial on the side to adjust the thickness of whatever you’re slicing.

You can grab one of these slicing life-savers from Amazon for $17.99.

My partner bought me some tweezer tongs as a “sort of gag gift” one year. Well, joke’s on him, because they’re my favorite kitchen utensil ever.

Regular tongs certainly serve an important purpose. If you’re trying to turn a big ol’ hunk of meat, they’ll do just fine! But in most other circumstances, I find them cumbersome at best. Turning over a single shrimp? Impossible. Flipping around some roasted veggies? No, no, no. Even worse, the nonstick ones have absolutely zero grip and even the most careful cook won’t be able to avoid scratching up their nonstick cookware with the metal ones. Enter: the funny (but useful) tweezer tongs.

They won’t totally replace a pair of standard tongs, but for most applications I find them to be far more user friendly. Plus, you get to look like a VERY dedicated professional while you turn whatever it is that you’re cooking, and honestly, that’s just fun.

Get a pair from Amazon for $17.95.

Williams Sonoma might not be the most budget-friendly brand, but their Open Kitchen line is always affordable and suuuuper dreamy. Case in point: this spatula. Not gonna lie, I use it daily.

Truthfully, I forget where I learned this hack…but I will never, ever, EVER go back to storing my food in regular tupperware. Period.

They’re listed as BPA-free so I’m not really concerned about the “plastic” of it all. I try to never microwave food in them as a practice, but TBH, the once in a while heating of food in them doesn’t bother me. Truth be told, the sheer ease of storing and using these outweigh any teeeeny tiny worries I have about food x plastic. The best part? If I have guests over for dinner, I don’t feel bad about sending them home with leftovers in my containers. The second best part? ALL THE LIDS FIT 😌.

Buy a 44-piece set of these deli-style containers (including three different sizes) from Amazon for $23.91.

For the longest time I rolled my eyes at people who used kitchen scales daily — they’re the go-to method for measurements pretty much everywhere except the United States, but IDK, I guess I just wanted to go against the grain or something. Then I finally purchased one for myself, and I was forever changed. Consider this my formal apology to the rest of the kitchen scale-using world. Y’all know what’s up.

Kitchen scales are awesome for precisely measuring things like coffee grounds, but they also make baking so much easier, and you won’t have to dirty every single one of your measuring cups. Measuring ingredients is as simple as dumping the correct weight in, pressing the tare button to zero it out, and repeating. Using a kitchen scale has made me enjoy baking a lot more, and the precision only means that my baked goods come out consistently great every time.

Buy the Escali Primo scale (in one of nine very fun colors) on Amazon for $24.95.

I was once told that my kitchen appliances would probably be jealous of the immersion blender for how much I use it (compared to the others), and honestly, that’s entirely correct. If you’ve ever tried to use a standard blender to blitz up anything hot, you know that it can be a tricky, sometimes dangerous chore.

For hot soups, warm sauces, and high-volume foods, the immersion blender above should be your go-to. But for everything else (as long as it’s not hot!), the Nutribullet the most powerful and convenient blender out there. Nutribullet’s marketing loooves to talk about “nutrient extraction,” and while I can’t testify to that being an actual thing or not, I can confidently state that this can handle everything my rarely-used Vitamix can. It’s also far easier to handle and store, which just means I use it way more often.

You can order a Nutribullet for yourself on Amazon for $79.99.

Here’s the thing about Le Creuset and Staub: They’re seriously amazing and long-lasting products, but unless you’re planning on using a Dutch oven every single day for the rest of your life, it might not be worth the money. In fact, if you cook as much as the average human, I’d say you’d be better off with Lodge’s Dutch oven and your wallet will be MUCH happier about it.

Here’s a pro-tip for you: Pretty much anything you could make in a slow cooker you could also cook in a Dutch oven (along with myriad other dishes, too). Instead of letting something simmer all day long in my slow cooker, I’ve been known to follow the instructions exactly and then let the whole thing cook in my Dutch oven, inside my actual oven, at a very low temperature. The versatility can’t be beat, and I find that food cooks more evenly in a Dutch oven anyway.

You can buy your very own Lodge Dutch oven from Amazon for $79.90.

I distinctly remember using this peeler for the first time in my parents’ kitchen, and the first thing I did upon returning home was buy one immediately. No one likes peeling vegetables — end of story. That said, the comfort grip on this one makes it way more comfortable, and the blade is so sharp you’ll wonder why you didn’t switch to this peeler sooner. Seriously, this thing could peel a five-pound bag of potatoes in half the time it would take using a regular metal peeler, and the blade stays nice and sharp for years.

The only downside to this vegetable peeler? Using any other brand’s version will feel horrible, and you’ll wish that you could take your OXO with you everywhere you go. It’s a weird thing to be this specific about, I know, but I’ll truly never buy another brand of vegetable peeler again.

Buy your soon-to-be favorite vegetable peeler from Amazon for $10.95.

I became a better cook the second I started using an instant-read thermometer. Celebrity chefs and foodies will tell you that there are many easy ways to check meat for doneness, but respectfully, I don’t think those “easy ways” are very easy for most beginner cooks.

The great thing about this thermometer is that it’ll never lie! The temperature you read is the actual temperature, and it’s scarily accurate at that. I’ve used many meat thermometers over the years, and let me tell ya: For the price, this is the most accurate one out there and it can normally register the temperature in less than three seconds. Restaurant-quality thermometers can easily sell for $100+, but for most home cooks, the $35 price tag on the ThermoPop can’t be beat. They also come in a variety of fun colors, so choose one that’ll spark joy whenever you need it!

If you want to take the guesswork out of cooking, buy the ThermoPop from ThermoWorks for $35.

Every 👏 cook 👏 needs 👏 a 👏 big 👏 metal 👏 mixing bowl 👏. I will die on this hill. There’s nothing more frustrating than tossing a salad or mixing up some dough in a bowl that’s just not big enough for the job. With this bowl, that problem is a thing of the past.

Grab this mega mixing bowl through Amazon for $21.92.

Food processors are total workhorses when it comes to food prep, but the full-size units are absolute behemoths. I have one, and I swear it weighs just as much as a fully-grown adult and it’s just about impossible to store.

While the standard food processor’s miniature-sized cousin lacks some of the features of the former — like a shredder and slicer — it’s endlessly useful for prepping sauces, salsas, and turning the horrible job of mincing garlic or onions into a task that’s complete in mere seconds. It also has less parts overall, which means that you won’t have to scrub a zillion tiny pieces by hand every time you use it.

You can grab my favorite mini food processor for $49.95 on Amazon.

When I moved into my apartment and audibly gasped when I realized just how small my kitchen was, this dish rack was the first thing I bought. I genuinely don’t understand the physics of it, but the amount of dishes you can stack on this thing genuinely shocks me every now and then. I wash dishes multiple times a day, every day, without the help of a dishwasher. This dish rack is the true MVP.

To be clear, I aspire to have a massive kitchen someday (a guy can dream, right?) — but in the meantime, I’ll take this dish rack with me to every single tiny kitchen I have to operate in.

You can buy this space-saving dish rack from Amazon for $40.25.

This $8 oven thermometer is the best investment you could ever make if you’re a baking enthusiast…or if you ever use your oven for any reason. Oven temperatures fluctuate pretty wildly. When I bought one of these, I realized that my oven’s actual temperature floats somewhere between 40–50º lower than whatever it’s set at. I thought I was roasting veggies and chicken in the most intense heat known to humankind, and that couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

If you purchase an oven thermometer for your home, chances are you’ll be in the same boat as me. Unless you have a luxury kitchen with a seriously-fancy oven or range, your oven temperature will definitely be a bit off…or, a lot off. Even a few degrees can make all the difference in the end, so yes, this is an $8 purchase I think every home cook should make.

Buy this oven thermometer from Amazon for $7.99.

On the subject of knives, here we are! If you’re a beginner cook, please absorb this bit of advice and take it with you forever: Sharp knives not only make cooking a lot more enjoyable, they also keep you safe. I know it feels counterintuitive as hell, but work with me here. If your knife is dull, you’re more than likely to slip at one point or another and cut something that you probably didn’t want to. I pray it’s not a finger. Keeping your knives sharp will keep you safe in the long run, and it’ll also make the process of slicing and dicing your food more enjoyable.

No, an electric knife sharpener won’t get you the same results you’d get from sharpening them manually on a whetstone, but I don’t care how many times people say doing it by hand is “so easy.” It can be intimidating! This machine won’t grant you the ability to cut a tomato in midair or slice a sheet of paper in half with the flick of a wrist, but it surely is easy and user friendly. Frankly, I think that’s what matters to most people.

Treat yourself to actually-sharp knives with this $34.05 knife sharpener from Amazon.

Pre-seasoned skillets are usually bumpy, and this one is perfectly smooth. IMO, it makes for a genuinely pleasant cooking experience, and I found that it built up its layer of tried-and-true seasoning really quickly.

You can buy this skillet directly from Field Company for $145.

If you love coffee as much as I do but don’t want to shell out hundreds of dollars for a pro-grade coffee grinder, I think you’ll love this small-but-mighty unit. There are so many things I love about this thing — it’s compact, easy to clean, and grinds coffee beans into the uniform size of your choosing — but the best part is that it’s a lot quieter than other models at this price point.

Before switching to a burr grinder, I used a blade grinder for many years. They’re definitely cost-effective, but you have baaaasically no control over the size of the grinds. It’s pretty much just intuition, and if your intuitions are as bad as mine are, it can be an occasionally frustrating process. This one takes out all the guesswork, and considering you can also store a bag of coffee beans in the hopper, it occupies a permanent spot on my counter.

Grab this burr coffee grinder from Amazon for $49.99.