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: