- 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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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...
Gefu Adjustable Handheld V-Blade Mandoline Slicer - G13Why It's Cool: Compact size, wonderful slicing capabilityAs you may know, one of the key criteria when selecting a Cool Tool is that it is a home cook's substitute for a sous chef (chefs have sous chefs; home cooks have Cool Tools!). In...
Progressive 12" One-handed Tongs - P17Why It's Cool: Intuitive one-handed tongs with a locking position for compact storageTongs are like an extension of your hand...they reach further, and can pick up hot things that you wouldn't want to touch. We find that they are most useful when, like your hand,...
Tovolo Flex-Core Spatulas - T35Why It's Cool: Flexible, yet strong, mixing and scraping ability with a comfortable stainless steel handle for easy clean-upEvery kitchen needs multiple spatulas … it’s an unavoidable fact of cooking! Wherever anything is, you need a spatula - of one size or another - to scrape or fold one...
Chef'n Corn StripperWhy It's Cool: Makes fast easy work of stripping the kernels off a corn cobAhhh summer! The time for tomatoes, and berries, and CORN! I love corn (kennedy, not so much, but he’s from the south, what can I say!?) I love it on the cob (and have a great...
AdHoc Chili MillWhy It's Cool: It cuts (not grinds) dried chilies into tiny pieces to add a hit of flavor to any dishThe “Pepe” Chili Mill from AdHoc features the unique SchneidWerk® cutting mechanism - a special stainless steel blade that cuts your choice of dried chilis against sharply...
Cuisipro Peelers - C51Why It's Cool: Ergonomic handle and balanced weight, along with wicked sharp blades make peeling chores easyEvery kitchen needs a peeler … or two. This most basic kitchen tool performs so many functions: from peeling potatoes, carrots or beets, to cleaning knobs of ginger or jerusalem...