Kitchen gadgets galore
Americans love cooking tools – although most food can be made with minimal equipment.
By George Erdosh | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the April 18, 2007 edition
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As a caterer in northern California, I worked in countless unfamiliar kitchens. Even if we didn't cook meals on the spot, clients' kitchens often became our work areas. Most kitchens were spacious, modern, and fully equipped – kitchens of clients who could afford high-end catering. But occasionally we worked in more modest kitchens and sometimes in simple, basic kitchens at second homes or cabins.
Wherever we worked, all the kitchens had something in common: Drawers filled to capacity with kitchen tools and gadgets. Gadgets, it seems, are part of kitchen life everywhere.
Caterers travel fully equipped, but occasionally we were short of an item or two and needed to borrow from our clients' cupboards. And at the end of an event, we often searched for storage containers, aluminum foil, and plastic wrap to pack away leftovers.
No matter if the household had a real cook, or simply someone to heat up frozen dinners or bring home take-out food, the drawers and cupboards never failed to bloom with everything from toast caddies to electronics that had outlived their usefulness.
People love their kitchen tools and gadgets. With each newly bought item comes the hope that it will facilitate their work and ease the drudgery. But it is rarely so. With good kitchen skills, cooks can get their work done with minimal equipment.
An artist or a craftsman can create well only with the best of tools, and this is equally true in the kitchen – even if your creation is simply soup, salad, and sandwiches.
"When I need a new piece of equipment, I go for high quality. I visit one of the local or nationally available high-end kitchen supply stores," says Mary Jean Anderson, an accomplished home cook in Sacramento, Calif. When pastry chef Ingrid Fraser of Amador City, Calif., needs a new piece of equipment, she takes a hands-on approach.
"I pay extra and buy it locally," she says. "I am careful to shop with the price in mind. I don't buy new equipment through catalogs or on the Internet. I want to see and have the equipment in my hand. Besides price, I look for sturdiness and functionality."
Good tools make work easy, efficient, even effortless. Poor tools make your kitchen work uninspired.
Consider the simple task of cutting up vegetables for salad. Using a small, unsuitable and not-very-sharp knife on a small cutting board turns your job into a chore. Use a good, sharp chef's knife on a large board, and you will whistle while you work.
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