As A Pro Baker, These Are The Underrated Kitchen Tools I Rely On Daily To Make My Too-Small Home Kitchen Functional

For years I’ve joked that my kitchen is about as useful as an Easy-Bake Oven. With two square feet of prep space and an oven that runs fifteen degrees cold, it’s not the kitchen I grew up daydreaming about as a kid. When I first moved into my apartment, I was just beginning my professional career as a cook, and my home kitchen was filled with the basics: a non-stick pan, a paring knife, a cutting board.

It wasn’t until I had spent a year-and-a-half in fine dining and another year learning croissant lamination in a beloved Brooklyn bakery that my mind was open to the bounty of instruments at my disposal to bring my home-cooking game to the next level.

Many folks deal with limitations in their kitchens, especially those of us living in prewar apartments in big cities. Because the square footage of my apartment is smaller, my appliances and workspaces are smaller as well. My fridge sits somewhere between the size of a full-size refrigerator and mini-fridge and my dining table often becomes my primary prep space because of my lack of counter surfaces. Despite these limitations, the strong set of kitchen tools that are in my arsenal picks up the slack.

When the bones of your kitchen space aren’t exactly what you want them to be, these eight kitchen tools will become essential to the way you cook at home.

1.Offset Spatula — Whenever I use an offset spatula, I always think of it as an extension of my hand.

With every flick of the wrist, an offset spatula perfectly slathers a bare chocolate cake with rich vanilla buttercream. A golden pat of butter is smeared across a crisp slice of toast in one fell swoop. The offset spatula is my favorite kitchen tool because it becomes a part of the baker and with practice yields to whatever task is needed.

2.Kitchen Shears — They’re the most versatile kitchen tool in my book.

Most of my time spent in the kitchen is spent looking for my scissors. Without fail, I discover them forgotten at the bottom of my utensil drawer, wedged between a wooden spoon and a citrus juicer. Several months ago, after endless frustration, I pulled myself up from my bootstraps and invested in kitchen shears. With easy-to-grip handles and short, severe blades, a pair of kitchen shears are a great tool for breaking down a weeknight rotisserie chicken, cutting bacon slices into bite-sized pieces, or even trimming a flower bouquet for your dinner party tablescape.

3.Rubber Spatulas — It wasn’t until my roommate informed me that he had never even touched a rubber spatula before living with me that I realized many home bakers and cooks may not be implementing them into their practice.

I include “rubber spatulas” in the plural sense because it is the one kitchen tool that has strength in numbers. With one rubber spatula, so much of my time is spent rinsing and drying the same tool over and over again because I find myself using it for so many different things in one project. With three (or even five!) at my disposal, I don’t have to waste my time rinsing between jobs. From folding cheesy scrambled eggs to mixing cake batter, rubber spatulas do the most work for me in my kitchen.

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4.Food Scale — When I used a food scale for the first time in a professional kitchen, I realized that this tool alone would streamline my home baking immeasurably.

When you switch from measuring your ingredients in measuring cups to measuring in grams and ounces, your baking becomes instantly more precise and you cut back on precious time spent washing and rinsing your measuring utensils. My food scale is the tool that makes me feel most professional when baking at home.

5.Eighth-Size Sheet Tray — The eighth-size sheet tray is the little engine that could.

While it may live in the shadow of the well-received half and full-size sheet trays, the eighth-size sheet tray contains more depth and versatility than the others. Most of the time, my eighth-size sheet tray lives on my kitchen counter, holding my various cooking oils and spices. In a more active role, it’s the perfect size for toasting nuts and spices, baking a single croissant out of the freezer, or roasting a handful of baby golden potatoes. It’s the perfect tool for those living alone in small apartments as it’s the perfect size for the “dinner for one.”

6.Bench Scraper — Similar to the offset spatula, the bench scraper can become an extension of the professional or home baker’s hand when cutting dough, leveling cakes, and baking bread.

At home, I like to go to the tool’s roots and use the bench scraper for its intended use: scraping your bench. Your “bench,” or your workspace, can become messy very quickly, especially when working with shortbread doughs or other crumbly and sticky substances. I love to start my cleaning process with my bench scraper, gathering up all the craggly bits of flour, butter, and sugar and sliding them right into the trash. While the tool becomes versatile in many projects such as cutting freshly shaped biscuit dough or smoothing out buttercream on a vanilla cake, I think its best use is the one it was intended for.

7.Instant-Read Thermometer — The instant-read thermometer is another tool that implements precision into my home baking practice.

I never have to worry if the chicken breast I’m roasting is cooked through or if the pork sausages I’m grilling have come to a safe temperature. Aside from being an important tool for food safety, it’s also great for checking when cakes and breads have finished baking. Most breads are finished baking when they come to 190-200ºF, and most cakes are finished when they near 210ºF. While it’s an important skill to know when your pastries are done by sight and smell alone, the instant-read thermometer is a sure way to know when your cakes are ready to come out.

8.And finally, the Chef’s Press — I think of it as a "cherry on top" tool.

You certainly don’t need it, but aren’t you glad it’s there? For the crispiest grilled cheese oozing with melted gruyere to a perfectly smashed burger patty with fine, lacy edges, the chef’s press lets you apply pressure where you need it, instead of using the bottom of a heavy pot or cast-iron pan. Invest in multiple to add or subtract weight where needed.

Is there a certain piece of kitchen equipment that you swear by? Tell us about it in the comments!