Chef Favorites: Kitchen Tools

Today, we begin a new series that gets us into the minds and memories of our global chef team.  All of us answered questions on our favorite tools, food cities, cookbooks, and childhood dishes.

The first question posed was this:
What is your favorite or most indispensable tool for the kitchen and why?

Master Chef Florian:

A vacuum machine.

First I can preserve my fresh ingredient for longer than the traditional way in a vacuum bag.

It saves me space in the fridge.

I can use it for sous - vide cooking and slow cooking.

Executive Chef Kevin: Chef's knife - if you can't cut it, it makes it hard to cook it and prepare it.

Chef David: A Mixing bowl, a good stainless steel one, preferably made by Vollrath. A mixing bowl is good tasks such as mis en place, prepping sauces, melting chocolate, proofing bread, to washing vegetables.

Chef Jenny: Tongs which can be used for so many different uses from flipping items in a saucepan, to stirring, to ladling and most importantly for me grabbing items high on a shelf since I am vertically challenged.

Chef Bryan: Chef knife has already been taken, so I would say a side towel. chefs are constantly having to handle very hot objects, we would have a much more difficult time without a side towel

Chef Sarah: A good quality pastry brush - for removing excess flour from doughs, oiling crackers, and applying egg washes.

Chef Michael: Cling Film - poaching, rolling balontines, forming meats, and of course, keeping things fresh.

Chef Ingreth: A good pot or pan with triple layers, made of ceramic or stone. This types of pan that hold the heat slow, give a special taste for food.

Over the next couple of weeks, we'll be posting the team's responses to more of our Chef Favorites questions.