Choosing your first knife

Learning how to cook requires lots of practice, and you're much more likely to practice if your equipment is a pleasure to use and gets the job done well.

When I first moved out, I started shopping for all of my kitchen equipment from scratch. The total price for my list of tools that I "needed" became simply ridiculous. This when I stopped window-shopping for every neat gadget I thougth I needed, and began doing some research into the tools that would be absolutely essential. This helped me not only reduce my total cost of equipping my kitchen, but also in selecting the tools that I know I will have for decades.

I hope that in my series of posts titled Essential equipment for your kitchen, I can save you some time and money as you begin making these important decisions for your self. Subscribe to my blog to get more tips for cooking and selecting your essential kitchen equipment!

Today, I will share what I learned about selecting essential knives for your kitchen.

My current knife set. Don't need much more than this.

Buying a complete set of knives you see arranged neatly in a knife block might seem like a good idea, but in reality, unless you spend several hundred dollars, you are paying for quantity over quality. Instead of choosing a knife block full of knives you likely will never really have a use for, focus on buying just two or three essential kitchen knives that you will actually use every single day. The types of kitchen knives you will need are an 8 or 10 inch chef's knife, a pairing knife (usually around 3 or 4 inches), and a serrated "bread" knife.

Choosing a chef's knife

Your chef knife will really be the work horse in your kitchen. This is the most important tool in your arsenal and should be something you spend lots of time researching and testing before you buy.
As an extension to your hands in the kitchen, the chef knife is used for chopping, slicing, cutting, mincing, and many other fun and impressive-looking actions.

My 10" Chef's knife. All-around work horse and also
the one thing I would run into my burning apartment to save. 

The knife you see in the picture is the one I settled with after a few weeks of searching. I had originally intended to buy something very different but once I got in a store where I could actually handle the knives I had short-listed, this was the only one that really fit well in my hand. The lesson is here is to never buy online; always go in-store to physically try out the knife you plan to buy.

I bought this knife in 2012 or a bit less than $200 and really have no regrets. You can definitely get a great quality knife for significantly less (or mind-blowingly more), but you should really spend as much as you are able to on this one item.

There are a lot of anatomical pieces of a knife you should consider when shopping, but instead of listing them all here, I recommend you watch this entertaining video explaining these many details. Yes, I am totally biased towards Shun, but in my defense I bought my knife before I watched this video :)

A great tip I learned from a knife salesperson, especially as a first-time buyer, is to avoid looking at the price. Pick out a few different shapes, sizes, and brands of knives, handle them until you find one that's a perfect fit, and then look for a similar product in your price range.

Pairing knife

My 3" pairing knife, great for more delicate cutting. 

A pairing knife is a smaller knife used for more delicate cutting jobs. You can use it to trim fat and skin from meat, peel, slice or carve fruits and vegetables, and other functions for which your chef's knife is just too big. No sense in carving the eyes out of a potato with your 10 inch knife, right?
This is my pairing knife which I got as a gift to match my chef's knife. Before getting this, I had another pairing knife which was a spare in my parents' knife set. It was cheap, didn't look as nice, and was not particularly sharp but did the job I needed it to do while I had it.
The point here is to focus on what you need first, then add to your collection as you go! I would recommend the pairing knife to be your second choice.

Serrated (bread) knife

Serrated Knife, often referred to as a bread knife or a tomato knife.

My third choice for essential kitchen knives is a serrated knife. These come in many sizes and various shapes, but I chose this "bread" knife, which is 10 inches long and slightly flexible. These types of knives (not this one in particular though) are also sometimes referred to as "tomato knives" since they are great for cutting through the skin of a tomato without squishing the flesh itself. 

I've had this knife for about two years and, again, got it from my parents' collection since it was a spare. Although it is perfectly functional, I plan to replace it with a better one which will match my current set of Shuns. This is certainly not necessary, but is just a personal preference. I like to build on my collection by adding a piece once per year. It's a great way to get what you want without spending a ton all at once. 

There are hundreds of different knives out there with an endless array of functions. Some are as cheap as $10-20 while others can cost many thousands. You know your budget and your needs best, but I think if you start with these three types of kitchen knives, focusing on your chef's knife first, then a pairing knife, and finally a serrated knife, you will build the beginning of a great set. 

My simple, very functional set of knives. Includes a 10" Chef's knife, 10" Serrated knife, and 3" pairing knife.

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How to cook chicken breast

Knowing how to cook chicken is a staple for anyone who is learning to cook. Not only is chicken cheap and plentiful, but there are thousands of very simple, very tasty recipes that you can make which require chicken. You can add it to a simple pasta, mix it in with your salad, or wrap it between two pieces of bread for an easy sandwich. It's simple, fast, and works in so many ways!

But of course, we all know that under-cooked chicken is a health hazard and over-cooked chicken is dry as dirt. When I was first learning to cook, I went through dozens of articles and videos with tips for cooking chicken, and burned, dried out, or under-cooked a lot of meat.

Cooking chicken in a hot skillet or frying pan is quick, but it's easy to under-cook or over-cook it as a novice. Throwing it in the oven is a simple way to ensure it's properly cooked (there are tons of resources for how long you should cook it at what heat, etc.) but it takes much longer. When I get home from work after 6:30, I don't want to be preparing my meal for an hour or more.

So what do I do to solve all of these problems?

The easiest way to cook chicken breast

I was at the grocery store earlier and saw they had a great sale on chicken breast. I bought 8 pieces for less than $20, which will last me quite a while. I usually cook all of it, since you don't want that messing around in you fridge for too long, and there's really no point in freezing it raw. Once cooked, I dice it up the way I want it and freeze it. Next time I want a quick meal, the chicken thaws out in a few minutes in a hot pan, and I can add it to pretty much anything.

So here's what I do:

1. Place your chicken on a clean cutting board, preferably plastic since it's easier to clean. Make sure it's at room temperature, since cold meat will toughen up when you add it to heat.
2. Wash your hands.
3. Season chicken as you please. Salt and pepper, I like paprika, and you can add some hot sauce or cayenne pepper. Wash your hands.
4. Heat a large skillet or saute pan to medium-high. Around 6 or 7 on the knob. Make sure you have a lid for it.
5. Once the pan is nice and hot, throw some oil to coat the bottom and place your chicken in, using a set of long tongs, laying it away from you so the hot oil does not splash in your direction. Depending on the size of your pan, you can add 4 or 5 pieces, but it's important not to crowd them since the pan looses a lot of its heat. 
6. Sear the chicken, about a minute per side, and then cook for another 30 seconds to a minute per side on the same heat.
7. Now, put a lid on the pot, turn the heat down to low (between 1 and 2) and set your timer for 10 minutes. Do not lift the lid!
8. After 10 minutes, turn the heat off all the way, and set your timer for 10 more minutes. Do not lift the lid!
9. After 10 minutes, your chicken is completely cooked, and is perfectly moist. 

This works every time. If you find your self working with some huge, Frankenstein piece of chicken breast, just add a minute between each 10 minute period. This method is also great for adding different flavours. I like to throw in a few crushed cloves of garlic and a couple of slices of lemon. You can throw in a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme or rosemary, and the flavours will infuse while the chicken steams under the lid. It's great and it only takes about 25 minutes, including prep. While you wait for the timer to beep, you can prepare your salad, clean up, take a shower, whatever!

Once your chicken is cooked, take it off the heat and leave it alone for a minute or two to rest. Then cut into the thickest part of the fattest piece and make sure it's nice and white all the way through. If you see pink, but you shouldn't, it's not done. Heat your skillet again and throw it in the hot pan for another minute or two per side.

When you're happy with your chicken, cut it up anyway you like, put each cut up breast into a single ziplock sandwich bag, and then put a few of these into a large freezer bag. Done and done. A little tip here is to spoon some of the juices from the pan into the sandwich bags with your chicken, and maybe even throwing in a garlic clove if any of them survived the cooking. 

To thaw it out, take it our of the fridge and leave it at room temperature for 15-20 minutes, and then heat as you would. Or you can just dump the frozen chicken into a pot and heat it gently on medium-low (3 or 4) until it thaws. 

Hey, if you are just learning how to cook and you enjoyed this post, subscribe to my blog! I will be sharing a ton of information based on my own learning experience and research. Also, feel free to drop me a line in the comments below! 

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Find the right cookbook

I could honestly spend hours in the cooking section of a bookstore. Learning to cook becomes almost an obsession when you start flipping through pages of countless books; mouth watering and stomach growling.

I've bought dozens of cookbooks, and honestly, I usually end up giving them away to friends and family. There are too many cookbooks catered to people with expensive kitchens and too much time on their hands. There are also too many cookbooks that forget to teach you, and instead just throw lists of ingredients, measurements, and cooking times at you. The beautiful pictures of perfect dishes only make it worse, when you compare the disaster you're attempting to enjoy.

I do have one or two favourite cookbooks, however. Not necessarily because of the recipes within them; many are dishes I would never be interested in cooking or eating. My favourite cookbooks are great because they really helped me learn how to cook, not just how to follow a recipe.

Choosing the best cookbook for beginners

Starting from the beginning, these are the things that make a good cookbook a great learning tool:

1. Lists essential equipment

When you flip through the pages of a cookbook and you see a section, usually near the beginning, that is dedicated to teaching what equipment you should have, how to use it, and how to care for it, you're in a good place. With such an overwhelming variety of tools and gadgets you can get for your kitchen, some direction is very helpful. Usually, these cookbooks will also list the equipment that you would need to go through all of the recipes enclosed. This is good because you can be confident that you're not going to turn the page to something that looks amazing, buy all of the ingredients, and start cooking only to realize you don't have an essential piece half way through.

2. Ingredients

Some cookbooks dedicate small sections in the beginning or throughout their various sections to ingredients and why you should have them. Not just a list of ingredients for a recipe, but tips for stocking your pantry, how to store food in your fridge, how long foods last, and so much more. Did you know that keeping your bananas with your other fruits and vegetables will make those fruits and vegetables ripen faster? This is a gift and a curse, since your produce can spoil faster than you expect it, or ripen sooner if you need it to. Great tip, right? From a great cookbook that taught me many more!

3. Lessons and techniques

What's the difference between dried ingredients and fresh ones? When should you use one over the other, or when can you substitute without sacrificing taste? How do you poach eggs? What do you do with left over ingredients? A cookbook shouldn't be just about the steps it takes to complete a recipe; it should have valuable lessons about the techniques you need to learn in order to cook well. If one cookbook has a great recipe that says "cook at 375 for 25 minutes" and another cookbook has a similar recipe but says "25 minutes at 375 will usually do it. You're looking for the sauce to reduce by about half and get nice and thick;" get the second book!

4. The recipes

This might be a no-brainer, but find a cookbook that is filled with recipes that you would actually love to have, and often. If you love Italian food, buy a cookbook with Italian recipes. If you love barbecuing, and the weather is nice enough year-round, buy a grilling cookbook.

5. Matches your lifestyle

If you don't have to feed a family of 5, don't buy a cookbook that has mostly larger quantity recipes. This might seem like a very minimal concern, but when you're just beginning to learn how to cook, wrapping your head around the different measurements and how the cooking time varies between a huge chunk of meat that would feed 5 versus your snack, it becomes very difficult to manage. Cookbooks that tailor to your lifestyle (including dietary preferences, obviously), will not only make your cooking more enjoyable, but will also help you plan out your grocery run and eventually save you money. Some recipes make for great leftovers, but you can only lasagna so many times in a row. If that lasagna recipe had been planned for one or two, you wouldn't have to throw it out 4 days later.

6. Categories

Categories within a cookbook help you out in many ways. It can be as simple as dividing up the recipes by meal, like breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It can be as helpful as separating everything into occasions, for example "cooking for friends" or "Sunday family roasts." And some even split their recipes by the main ingredient. Love lamb but don't know what to do with it? Check the 15 recipes that feature lamb as the main ingredient! It's a great way to plan not only a meal, but a whole week of grocery shopping.

There are many other features of a great and not so great cookbook. I have to admit that my favourites are written by the obvious celebrity chefs; Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey. There are many reasons why I like these books (they have sooooooo many!), but at the end of the day, these guys (and others like them) are not successful because they write terrible books. These books have made my cooking experience a pleasure and have honestly taught me about cooking, not just following a recipe.

If you're just learning to cook, feel free to subscribe to this blog! I write about my experience as someone who could barely boil water a few years ago, to someone who is comfortable and confident in the kitchen, loves to cook, and can put together a great dinner for date night or for a fun party with friends. It was a slow process, but I'd like to help you learn from my mistakes!

Getting Started

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How to set up your kitchen

When I first moved out on my own and realized I had to learn how to cook or starve/go broke (or both), there many mistakes I made. A few years later, I still make mistakes, but thanks to a few core skills I've learned along the way, I can put together some great dishes without wasting time or money on ruined groceries.

One of the most important things you'll have to do is to set up your kitchen. This means having a stocked inventory of essential equipment (check out my posts on choosing your knives and essential cookware) and a tasteful pantry. Once you've got all that you need to cook, it's time to start cooking.

So you've selected your favourite recipe that looks easy enough to make and you're about to dive into it. You dice your onion like a pro (almost) and throw it in your pot. You look up the next ingredient and prepare it as well. A glance back to stir your onions, and you realize the heat's too low and nothing's happening. Turning it up, you add your second ingredient. The recipe asks you to add stock, but you realized it's not boiling, so you pull out another pot, dump stock in, and throw it on the element. The onions and whatever else is in there are practically ruined by the time your stock is ready. and you keep stepping all over your onion peels as you stomp back and forth trying to salvage the situation.

Okay, maybe that hasn't happened to you, but it definitely has happened to me. More than once.

So I quickly learned how to really get organized. Chefs call this Mise en Place.

Mise en Place

A Mise en Place is a well organized cooking station, where you have everything you will need to perform the task at hand. This means both tools and ingredients. I also recommend a beer, because it's more fun.

Once everything is chopped and organized in the order in which it will be cooked, I can put a pan on the heat, splash some oil in there and get started once it's hot enough. A great benefit of organizing everything before you start is that you can also clean while you cook. Once you throw a bowl full of a few things in your pan, the bowl goes straight in the sink or dishwasher. By the time all your ingredients are in, the only thing left to do is wrap up the garbage bowl and have a drink.

Let's go over a very simple example. I have this "recipe" for a simple pasta; basically, ingredients I had lying around that needed to be cooked.

I cleared of my table, gave it a wipe, and brought out a clean cutting board and my knife. Since I'm making pasta, I threw a pot of water to boil while I prepared everything, which is always a good idea. Even if you think you don't need it, it's just water and you can dump it after. It's handy to have it going, just don't forget about it!

I collected all of the ingredients I would need, in the right quantities, and stacked them handy on my work station. Normally, I would look through the list of spices I'd need and arrange them as well, in the correct amounts (usually mixed together in a small bowl, if they go into the pot all at once), but this pasta called for only some salt and pepper.

With my ingredients ready, the water on the heat, and a cold beer within reach, the last thing to do is really to start chopping. I always place a bowl or two near my cutting board so I can put the cut-up ingredients there instead of clearing out everything after each piece. I also always have a bowl wrapped in a plastic bag for garbage. It's very convenient having it right there, and it's also a lot easier and more hygienic than dragging your garbage cans around.

While I was at the grocery store, I saw they had a great special on chicken breast so I bought a bunch. I knew I'd need one or two for the pasta, but while preparing my dinner anyway, it's a good idea to just throw a few more breasts in there and freeze for next time. I will share with you my ridiculously easy way to cook chicken breast in the next post.

Getting Started

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Cookware essentials

Learning how to cook is really about finding the inspiration, other than hunger, to keep practicing. My daily inspiration to cook comes in large part from the equipment I've collected over the years. By doing some simple research and buying the best I can afford, piece by piece, I've been able to save a lot of money while building a great set of cookware essentials.

It's important to consider exactly what you'll need before making a purchase, since buying a few items individually will allow you to get better quality items compared to purchasing a "complete" set from a single brand. These sets often have many items you are not likely to use, especially as a beginner. Instead, purchase just a few things that you actually need, and build your own custom set.

As part my series on essential equipment for your kitchen, I've listed below the bare essential cookware pieces you will use daily. Don't forget to subscribe for more information about the essential equipment for your kitchen and tips for learning how to cook!

Pots and pans

I really believe you need only three functional pieces. Buy them individually or look for set that only sell these three items for the biggest bang for your buck. Buying them individually is probably a better choice for selecting items that are of the highest quality for your dollar, but a set has the benefit of matching. 

One 2-quart pot

These are great for boiling or poaching a few eggs, boiling grains, making sauces and simmering smaller quantities of liquid. 

One 3- to 4- quart pot

A bit larger than the 2-quart sauce pan, these are great for working with larger quantities (especially when cooking for more than one) as well heating up leftover soups, stews, etc. If you had to choose between these two, go with the larger one. However, there may often be situations in which you will need two pots going at once (one to heat stock for risotto while cooking your risotto in the other, for example), so it's better to have two.

One 6-8 quart pot

 These are great for making pasta, soup, stews, stocks and other larger-quantity meals. You'll be boiling lots of water for many things, so this is a pot that will get plenty of use. Some of these also come with a strainer/steamer attachment, which makes it easy to steam vegetables or boil pasta without worrying about pouring the water out.

A copper or aluminum base for your pots will help evenly distribute and maintain the heat. Go for a stainless steel-lined interior for easy cleaning. If possible, and it should be, get pots with heat-resistant handles.

Frying Pans

These come in various sizes, most commonly in 8-, 10-, and 12-inch diameters. Frying pans are hugely versatile, allowing you to fry eggs, brown meat, searing food, and even sauteing. Most good-quality frying pans are oven-safe, allowing you to start something on the stove-top and finish it in the oven. This way, you can sear a nice piece of lamb or steak to get some colour on it (also seals in the tasty juices) and then finish cooking it in your oven for a more even cooking process. Two different sized frying pans would be best, with one being non-stock, though you can getaway with buying just one, larger pan.

Dutch Oven

Don't snicker. Usually made out of enameled cast-iron, dutch ovens are great for so many things. You can also start these on your stove top and stick them in your oven for long, slow cooking. Things like stews and soups, braising or roasting meat, or making casseroles are perfect for your dutch oven. Getting an enameled one also makes it very easy to clean and care for.

Check out this great video for more details about many of the pieces we talked about here, as well as offering some other options.


There are many other pieces that you can add to your cookware set, but I believe these are the essentials that everyone needs and will use often. Focus on these pieces, buy the best ones you can afford, and you'll be using them for decades! I will cover some of the other additions you can make to your set in a later post, so make sure to subscribe and get an email notification when that's available!

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Essential equipment

The first piece of advice you'll often hear when learning to cook is to simply cook, cook, and cook some more. That's a bit obvious and boring at a glance, so let's dissect it a bit.

Long ago I watched a video of some guy chopping vibrant vegetables with a wicked knife over a beautiful cutting board. I was inspired to try out his recipe for myself and pulled out the only knives I had in the kitchen; a small steak knife and a dull cleaver. 

After sawing and hacking my vegetables to mush on a wobbly, plastic cutting board for 20 minutes, I lost all desire to cook and went to the bar down the street for a $15 sandwich and several "might-as-well" beers. 

In order to enjoy cooking, you need to have quality equipment that inspires you to cook. These will certainly not be the cheapest pieces at the store, but with a few tips I've learned from my own experience with this, I hope to help you make the decisions that will minimize your spend and maximize your benefit.

Think about it this way; spending $200 on a great chef's knife that will last you decades with proper care will cost you the same as three or four trips to a mediocre restaurant. Buying three or four essential pieces of great quality cookware will cost you the same as a full set of 12 pots and pans that will likely take up space in your kitchen cabinet, collecting dust. 

In a series of blog posts I will title "Essential Equipment for Your Kitchen", I will help you Tame Your Kitchen by building a minimalist set of equipment that will inspire and even assist you in learning to cook.

When you get the basics organized neatly and displayed smartly in your kitchen, you'll soon realize that you are just looking for excuses to use them. Over time, this small bit of inspiration turns into a sense of confidence in your kitchen. Knowing that you can rely on a great knife or quality saucepan to get the job done, instead of ruining your ingredients, allows you to focus on the great recipe you are tackling. Great equipment helps you learn to cook by doing a lot of the work for you and being more forgiving on your initial mistakes. 

We will begin exploring your equipment with these topics:

1. Knives
2. Minimal Cookware
3. Essential "Gadgets" 

Make sure you don't miss any of these posts by subscribing to Tame Your Kitchen. 

Essential Equipment

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Tips for grocery shopping

Knowing how to keep your groceries organized is an important part of learning to cook. From proper food storage to actually planning your trip to the grocery store, there are a few simple tips you can follow to make the most of your grocery budget and reducing wasted food.

Stocking your pantry

Having a running inventory of a well stocked pantry is a huge help while cooking. This is where you keep your nonperishables that can really transform a simple meal. Canned beans, pickled vegetables, dozens of spices, pastas, rice, condiments, and so much more! I could do a whole post on just this, but for now I will share this article, which covers your pantry essentials much better than I can. I will post a more condensed list of pantry essentials soon, but for now Jamie Oliver will keep you going.

Buying your protein

I believe that when buying a nice piece of meat or seafood, it should be as fresh as you can find it. That's why I always buy my protein on the day I plan to cook it. If you know you have everything at home to make a great beef stew, stop by on the store on the way home and pick up the beef. You know what you want, and it's just one ingredient, so it will only take minutes. Besides, keeping meat in the fridge could be potentially unhygienic, or you could forget about it and it spoils.

My only exception to this is chicken, which you can cook in a large batch and freeze. Check out my post on the best way to cook chicken for my way of doing this.

Don't overbuy 

Plan your meals on a daily basis. What I mean by this is that you know you have to eat at least three times per day, with a snack or two in between meals. Don't buy a huge bunch of ripe bananas for yourself just because they're on sale. Buy three of four, which will ensure you eat them all before they ripen too much and attract flies. Don't buy tons of produce because you plan to have a salad for the next three nights. You may get a last minute invite from a buddy and while you're out face-deep in saucy wings, your poor salad wilts and stinks up your fridge.

Meal Planning

Remember, you have to eat tonight, tomorrow for breakfast, and lunch at work before you can come home to cook again. Plan a few days worth of meals and make your grocery list on a per-meal basis. If you know that you plan to eat a salad twice per day for the next 2 days, and one tomato per person, per salad is plenty, then buy only enough tomatoes for that many salads. One full head of lettuce will make two decent salads that will fill you up for a few hours or keep you and a friend going while the main dish is in the oven.

Grocery List 

If you don't feel like carrying around a pen and pad, your phone has plenty of functions to help you keep an organized grocery list. Besides many apps actually being designed specifically for this, you can simply use your native Reminders app for iOS (I'm certain there's something similar for Android). Having your phone handy allows you to jot down an item you think of, when you think of it. And you should do it right away; don't wait for later, because you'll likely forget. Especially if it's an item you don't shop for often. I usually have a large bottle of oil with which to cook, so I don't buy a new one for at least a month or two. I forget that I'm running low almost every time. It really sucks when you realize you're all prepped and ready to go, but you've got no oil to cook with.

Another tip is to take pictures of your pantry and fridge. You can see what you currently have and what's running low, which helps when you're in the grocery store and see a great sale; remember, don't overbuy!

Explore Local Grocers

If you live in an area with great amenities, explore different stores besides the big box grocers. Check out the produce guy on the corner or the butcher across the street. These merchants often source superior product at great prices, since they have to compete with the convenience of the big guys. They are also very knowledgeable about their products. The kid stocking the asparagus at Sobey's probably doesn't know how long it will last in the fridge or if you should trim the stems. The friendly lady at the small produce store will, and much more.

If you don't live in the city, perhaps you've got great access to farmer's markets sourcing fresh produce daily from local farms. Either way, pick a day of the week, or even once a month, and explore different grocers in your area. Eventually, you may learn a lot more about the food you eat, and your relationship with the small-business owner will always have its benefits.

Make sure to subscribe if you found this article helpful. I post often about the experiences I had while learning to cook. With this blog, I hope I can help you learn from my mistakes.

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