- 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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Kyocera Hand-held Ceramic Slicers (Mandoline) - K21 - K22Why It's Cool: Easy, smooth, fast slicers that just work perfectly!You know how there are just some tools that you reach for time after time, because they are so useful; as a matter of fact, they rarely see the inside of the drawer, because...
Lékué Silicone and Ceramic Spring Form 9" Pan - L16Why It's Cool: Even cooking, easy clean-up, easy release, ready to serve, more compact storage.What I love about a springform pan is that it hugs your batter until it becomes a cake, and then, without regret, it lets it go. OK, maybe that’s too much personification for a...
Progressive Prokeeper Canisters - P11Why It's Cool: Smart canisters: each one has its own special features that make it incredibly usefulMost storage containers are nothing to get excited about. You want them to be functional (hold what they are meant to contain) and pretty unobtrusive. You may buy them once and...
Cuisipro Silicone Slotted Spoon - C56Why It's Cool: Heat resistant, beveled edge to get into corners, deep bowl is perfect for retrieving all kinds of food.It's rare that I go ga-ga over something as simple as a slotted spoon, but in this case, this spoon is sooo well designed, my reaction is justified. We’ve all used a lot of...
blomus Basic Large Butter dishWhy It's Cool: Simple, elegant design that goes beautifully from refrigerator to tableThere are “basics” in every kitchen: those tools that you always need, and use constantly. But often these are so simply utilitarian that they also are boring to look at: they...
Cuisipro Greek Yogurt / Yogurt Cheese Maker - C64Why It's Cool: Turn your plain homemade or store bought yogurt into rich thick Greek yogurt or even thicker yogurt cheese.Greek yogurt is all the rage these days, and for good reason! It’s so much thicker and creamier than regular yogurt that it feels almost sinful...but it isn’t. Greek yogurt...
Paderno Puree MakerWhy It's Cool: Everything you need to turn fresh tomatoes into glorious tomato sauce, leaving the skins and seeds behindThere is that certain time of year when fruits and vegetables are prolific, when canning and preserving are essential activities, and when you need the right tools to be most...
Fox Run Brands Swift Sift - F30Why It's Cool: Fast, efficient, and very tidy; compact and so well designed that it beats other sifters hands downSo we don’t bake that often, but when we do, we want it to be easy, neat and with great results! One of the processes that is often called for in baking recipes is to “sift...
Tovolo Kiwi ToolWhy It's Cool: Makes it easy to enjoy kiwifruit, with all their great flavor and health benefitsI’ve loved kiwifruit ever since it was introduced in the US in the early sixties. It was originally called Chinese Gooseberries, but apparently the importers didn’t think that...
OXO Garlic (and stuff) Slicer - O32Why It's Cool: Slices paper thin with an effective food hopper to protect your fingers!Two of the greatest flavor additions to almost any savory dish are garlic and ginger - fresh of course! We love these ingredients, and have found some wonderful Cool Tools over...