apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I wouldn't rush anyone into supplies - I happily cooked for years with one reverware frying pan (left behind by previous tenant) and a couple of hideous cheap pots.

A good knife is the thing I was most happy to add - and a heavy bottomed pot (one precious piece of Creuset...)

okay, I guess I had a wooden spoon and an vegetable peeler too . . . anyway, my point is spartan can be good, and does not stop anyone from cooking.

Great list. I'm with Guido on keeping it simple especially if she's "ballin' on a budget" (living large on little money). If she chooses 2- 3 things from each catagory she'll be fine. She must be honest with her lifestyle and I say this as a person who is mostly vegetarian (seafood only).

Sara Kate: I love your list. This is my thing! I'm going to go through my kitchen and see how it compares. :)

The two posts have a point: my friend might do well with just a few simple things but at least as her kitchen grows, it should grow in the right direction.

I didn't post any favorite cook books. I have many, but I have noticed that there aren't many that give you real basics about starting to cook. I still have my copy of the Fanny Farmer Boston Style Cook Book (I think that's the name) and my husband used to use The Joy of Cooking as his basic cooking bible. The best read for my money has always been MFK Fisher "The Art of Eating".

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Great list! But to just start out, I think you can cut it down even more.

No need to have both cookie sheets and a sheet pan. Get 2 sheet pans and you're good. Unless you're a huge baker,drop the cooling racks (stick stuff on top of the stove to cool), the tart pans (make freeform ones on the sheet pan), a rolling pin (bottle of wine works just fine), heavy duty mixer (that's what a wooden spoon is for), and a flour sifter (in my mind the biggest waste of space ever, and I bake a lot. Just use a sieve.)

If you have a 9 x 13 pan (pyrex or metal) you don't need a roasting pan. In fact, you can buy a whole Pyrex set of pans--9x13, 8x8, a covered casserole, a pie pan and a loaf pan--for about $20 at any Bloodbath and Beyond.

There was an article about this in NY Mag recently...in looking for it I found this quote from Eric Ripert:

Edit your pots and pans. “Most people have 1,000 things they don’t need in the kitchen,” said Ripert. Eliminate what is never used, including ingredients more than two years old. The bare minimum: two spoons, two spatulas, one ladle, a full set of knives, one wooden and one plastic cutting board, and two or three saucepans. Le Creuset is his favorite, especially when he’s making a stew.

But don’t skimp on knives. Ripert’s own beloved Japanese MAC knives need to be sharpened on a ceramic rod every day, and on a stone once a week. For non-chefs, Ripert suggests Wüsthof knives. If a full set is too expensive, the three essentials are a paring knife, a chef’s knife, and a flexible slicing knife.

I would imagine the reason Ripert says to edit one's pots and pans, is because the price of his Le Creuset and knives will prohibit the purchase of anything else.

"RipertÂ’s own beloved Japanese MAC knives need to be sharpened on a ceramic rod every day, and on a stone once a week". Ok, I have two jobs. This part will have to go away.

You said, "For non-chefs, Ripert suggests Wüsthof knives" and this is good. I have them. I guess this makes me a "non-chef". And the Le Crueset, which I consistely mispell, is on the waiting list and is by all accounts, worth every little penny.

Ripert must be in agony knowing that for some "non-chefs" cooking is actually fun and we might like a gadget or two.

jmarieb
you can get Creuset *used* on eBay - I got a couple of excellent frying pans that way.
I started looking because I liked the older style of pan - not-non-stick and with a wooden handle. BIG score.
Best $20 I ever spent....

Knife sets go on sale all the time.
B'way Panhandler has a pair of Wüsthof Santoku knives (a big one and a paring sized) for $50-something due to some relabeling of the line. (this was my xmas present to myself, woohoo. LOVE that knife.)
A place like B'way Panhandler (meaning, excellent salespeople) will point you to knives you can afford. One Wüsthof chef . . . or perhaps the lesser priced but still perfectly servicable Brazilian-made copycat.
Lots of knives are good if you keep them sharp!

(note...I'd trade my chef's knife for the Santoku now, cause I don't cut up much meat which is what you need that point and heft for)

on the basics and cookbooks
Mark Bittman's "How To Cook Everything" is the book that made me trade in my mom's Fannie Farmer. (I was never a Joy of Cooking type)
After all the pancakes I made out of that thing . . . thanks Fannie!

So, Bittman is better? I should buy it? Ok, I'll take a look.

I should also look on ebay for the Le Creuset - someone else mentioned this to me. Problem is, I want the new lime green color. I will look, though. Good suggestions and I will follow up.

Here's perhaps a silly question but I'll ask anyway: if used items of quality are on ebay, why are they selling them? My cook friends rave about Le Creuset and so I think its a good thing to have (their meals have been grand). But if its such a good thing to have, why are so many being sold used? Told you, silly question.

People get rid of all sorts of nice things -- declutter, bitter divorce, or they hate the orange and are going All White (some people really DO have too much money in their care)
Some people find Creuset too heavy to lift, or they bought out an estate or are moving in with a chef who has more and better or . . .
I bought a pan from a guy that had burned it and was not interested in cleaning it. $5 + $5 shipping.

It *had* sustained damage, but it's perfect for things with splattery oil . . . and I used the lid handle on it to replace the one I cracked on my first piece of Creuset when I dropped it . . .

Bittman was worth the update for me because he brings the modern multicultural world along with him. Now I marinate a leg of lamb in coconut milk and spices sometimes instead of red wine and herbs. He has a relaxed tone, and there is good basic technique info.
If you do book clubs, HTCE is one of the books available for a penny.

Ok, 90% of the stuff on that list is completely unnecessary. Tart pan? Only if you are going to make tarts on a regular basis. Heavy duty mixer? I think you can get by with a whisk or at most a hand mixer for a long time -- a lifetime if you are not a baker.
My list:
vegetable peeler
6-inch chef's knife
paring knife
sharpening steel
2 cutting boards -- one wood, one plastic.
the 2 pots already owned
a big bowl
9x13 inch Pyrex pan
large strainer (doubles as a colander)
wooden spoon
silcone, heat-resistant spatula
whisk
slotted spoon
maybe a pancake flipper if you are the brunch type

If you are just starting out on your own, your cooking is most likely going to be limited to making yourself some dinner.

My experience with beginning cooks, or occassional ones, is that they equate gadgets with cooking. Handing them the perfect pot and spoon with the instruction "Go for it!" might elicit horrified looks, but a takcy Grill Machine will excite in them all kinds of menu planning (though maybe no actual follow-through)....As a compromise, perhaps this vegetarian novice cook needs a WOK, electric or non.

The baking portion of the list seems a bit extensive - for me baking is a little too labor intensive to make it habitual.

Pyrex pyrex pyrex. It's good for baking, casseroles, roasting veggies, for storing food, etc.

I got a ton of stuff for my kitchen from garage sales - good pots and pans, dishes, measuring implements, slotted spoons, etc. Cheap and good.

And don't forget chopsticks. ;) I cook with chopsticks and eat most meals (regardless of cuisine) with chopsticks. Two sticks of wood. Doesn't get much better than that.

I think basics would be dictated by the style of food someone liked to eat and cooking techniques they were already familar with.

If Le Creuset is too expensive for your friend, I recommend at 6 qt Lodge, preseasoned dutch oven. I use mine constantly. It's great for stovetop, oven, browning, soups, stews, roasting, brasing. If it's seasoned properly, it's easy clean up. When I first started cooking, it was one of the things that I used the most. Lodge makes quality cast iron and it's inexpensive.

I usually wait to buy something until I need it for something I really want to make. It was years before I really "needed" a tart pan with a removable bottom. I think a vast amount of cooking can be done with a large skillet, a dutch oven, a few good sauce pans, a stock pot, colander, a good chef's knive, a pairing knife, a bread knife, some wooden spoons and a couple cutting boards. I think this is especially true of a beginning cook. I think too much stuff is intimidating for someone just starting out.

Actually, Sara Kate's list was close to what I have. One accumulates things year after year. I do have tart pans. I like these things, know how to use them, and do.

My veggie friend is not an inexperienced cook, she is just busy working and writing and has no interest in making a real mess in the kitchen, having just made a major geographic relocation and is starting over; probably eats better than I do, certainly healthier than I've been eating lately. I'm very serious about things like pots & pans so I'm rather proud of my "kitchen", although ChrisB's "list" is a good one.

Guido: I do have a book club and will check and order Brittman's book. Your description sells! Someone sold a dirty pot out of laziness? Ok, that beats all. I guess my next step is to go through ebay like a hawk and find a pot I want. Thanks so much. This has been a real help.

I like what everyone said about trimming the list down. Giving her only enough to get started means she'll get to develop her own preferences.

One wonderful, splurgy present would be one of the higher rated knife sharpening doohickies--either the Furi manual or a Chef's Choice electric. Having a sharp knife makes such a difference, but learning to use a steal properly is hard. In fact, I tell most of my friends to go cheap on the knives (Cook's Illustrated loves the Forshner commercial knives,a nd my 10" is wonderful) and pay a little extra for a sharpening tool that'll be easy to use.

i agree completely that the baking portion of the list is waaaay too long!
it seems to me that very few people are both interested in cooking AND baking
they require such opposite sets of skills, its like the difference between a poet and a rocket scientist (poet being the cook, rocket scientist being the baker)
i've survived very happily for my 13 years of living on my own with exactly one cookie sheet, one silpat and one pie pan
the cookie sheet and silpat are most often used for roasting squash, but hey, its all for the betterment of my tummy (just don't tell my mom!!! ;-)

In response to the numerous comments that the list, particularly the baking section, was way too long - I wanted to make sure I was clear. As I said when introducing the list:

"Of course, not every item on this list is "necessary" - based on one's cooking habits, they can add or take-away. For example, if they do not intend on doing any baking, very few of the items in the baking section would be needed."

However, for those people who are really interested in baking (and although many of you are not and we forgive you, there are many who are), this section of the list is important. Items can be purchased piece-by-piece as well. I published such an exhaustive list so that it can be referred to over time.

Soon I will post a "Bare Minimum" list, based on my own experience and all the wonderful input you all offered.

I just read two books on food & cooking that included the writers' idiosyncratic and very opinionated ideas on what things belong (or do NOT, as the case may be) in every kitchen. One of these was The Wedding Supper of the Lamb, by Robert Farrar Capon - utterly splendid book, imo. His description of a good bread knife, in particular, sent me looking fruitlessly on ebay for the old-fashioned wavy blade he describes.

Also, Laurie Colwin in Home Cooking gives a really simple, pared down list that insists on never buying baking tins and pans anywhere else but a rummage sale. I rather agree on this; I got a wonderful set of heavy cook-pans at a garage sale for $20.

And my own two cents in this discussion: thin bottomed pans are worse than useless, especially for a beginning to middling cook. Unforgiving, hard to clean. Also, cast iron is wonderful.

I agree, Faith, the Wedding Supper of the Lamb is amazing and beautiful. Food and theology, two of my favourite subjects.

I think that one of the reasons I try to keep on the brief side with all the pots and pans, is because my husband and I move so often. We move on average, every 2 years. I never know what kind of storage space we are going to have, or what kind of workspace. For the first few months in our current place, I was chopping onions on a cutting board on the washing machine ;).

I bought a 3 piece set of fire engine red le creuset saucepans on ebay for 60 pounds. And then a set of Wusthoff knives for $150 on overstock.com. (Actually - I had 4 Wusthoff knives already for my birthday, so now I guess I have 1.5 sets) So I guess if you are willing to scrounge you can get your stuff at a decent price.

Note that if you aren't very strong, then a le creuset saucepan full of water is seriously hard to pick up.

I just got married and got to start from scratch with all kinds of fantastic kitche implements. Now I have a couple boxes I'm going to donate, of "good enough" stuff, mostly mismatched. I'm amazed that for the past 7 years living with my husband, we made incredible meals with our 3 farberware pans and one all-clad frying pan. Our bakware was all hand-me-down.

Here's my question. Why do you need plastic and wood chopping boards? I have both. I prefer the look of the big wooden chop block and see all the chefs on food network use it. Is it so bad to use just a wooden one (germs and such)?

Why not just let her evolve and get what she needs as she needs it. If she is just starting surely her cooking will be fairly simple. Too much advice can be inhibiting.

Since this was all posted nearly a year ago, I wonder what our vegetarian friend has now? I'd be very curious to know how her kitchen has evolved, and how it's changed her cooking habits (or not).

Kirby: Good question. My friend bought a slow cooker, a few new stainless steel pots, some strategic knives and a steamer. Her lifestyle is causing her to eat out a lot. The baking list never interested her, however, she has taken her interest in cookware up a notch. She's always cooked, but never with any furious intent.

I'm the one who has pared down. I bought a rice steamer and a convection oven, rid myself of some redundant baking items and replaced some items (such as my tea kettle) with items that are either dual purpose, or easier to clean. Nothing, however, will ever replace my stainless steel pots. We all evolve.

Happy Holidays!