The 7 Kitchen Tools I Actually Use Every Shift

Step 1: A chef's knife that gets sharpened

Not an expensive knife. A sharpened one. The knife I use most cost about as much as a takeaway, and it works because it goes on a steel before every shift and on a stone once a week.

A sharp cheap knife beats a blunt expensive one at everything. Most people have the second one and blame the knife.

Step 2: A bench scraper

In my hand twenty times a day. Chopped onion off the board in one sweep, dough divided, worktop cleaned flat. The cheapest tool here and the one I'd replace first if it vanished.

Step 3: A thin fish turner

Thin enough to slide under a fillet without tearing it, stiff enough to lift it. It also scrapes the fond off the bottom of a pan, which is where the flavour hides.

Step 4: Tongs

An extension of your hand for anything hot. You turn, you lift, you check whether a steak has released from the pan without putting your fingers near it.

Buy a pair with a locking ring and a flat, scalloped tip. The scissor-action ones with silicone paddles are for salad.

Step 5: A fine grater

Zest, garlic, parmesan, nutmeg, ginger. It turns five minutes of chopping into ten seconds, and it is the single tool I notice most when a kitchen doesn't have one.

Step 6: A probe thermometer

Professional kitchens use them because guessing is a liability. At home it is the difference between confident roast chicken and chicken cooked an extra twenty minutes out of fear.

Step 7: A cloth that is only for drying

Not the one that wipes the surfaces. A dry cloth folded next to the board, for hands, for a knife blade, for the rim of a plate. Half of looking organised in a kitchen is having dry hands.