Another day, another suggestion from social media that my cooking could be perfect – if only I had a certain gadget. Some days it’s an air fryer, other times it’s a KitchenAid, or a Nutribullet, or a rotary grater with three detachable drums. But none of us wants to fork out on kit that we’ll use only once, cluttering up drawers and cupboards.
So, how to tell the essential from the plain-old useless? I asked the culinary specialists who spend their lives cooking to name the contraptions they love – and shame the dust-catching chaff.
Paul Ainsworth
Chef patron of Paul Ainsworth at No6, Caffè Rojano and The Mariners in Cornwall
Top pick: HexClad pepper mill. Not fussed: egg separator
It’s taken centuries for someone to finally design a good pepper mill. For the past few years, I have had one from HexClad, and it’s amazing. They are not cheap, but you are paying for quality. The feeling is mutual among lots of chefs I know: Tom Kerridge rang me up the other day and was like, “Jesus, those pepper mills!”.
There are 10 settings for the size of grind, and they’re so precise because they use a burr grinder. Mine is really easy to refill and there’s a cap on the bottom so you don’t get pepper all over the worktop. I am a sucker for gadgets that look good – but it’s also an incredible piece of kit.
Do not waste your money on an egg separator; they are absolutely useless. Use your (clean) hands to separate yolk from white. Or place the egg in your palm and crack it with a sharp knife so you have two even halves, then pass the yolk from shell to shell, allowing the white to drop into a bowl below. It’s cheaper and far more effective.
Paul Ainsworth’s debut cookbook, For the Love of Food (Harper Collins, £20), is out on July 4
Tara Wigley
Cook and food writer at Ottolenghi
Top pick: Magimix Cuisine 5200XL. Not fussed: ice-cream maker, electric carving knife
I use my food processor twice a day. It’s a Magimix Cuisine 5200XL and I’ve had it for 10 years, maybe longer. I don’t use all the bits; I just like having the blend and pulse options to finely chop vegetables and so on. I love my hand blender, but it can’t do that without turning it to mush.
Not many people realise that you can chuck onions, carrots, celery, garlic in there, roughly chunked, and it will do in two minutes what you would spend an hour doing by hand. Nuts, too – you could spend 20 minutes chasing them around a chopping board or chuck them in the processor and boom.
I regret buying an ice-cream maker. It haunts me every time I look at it; there are so many recipes where you don’t need to churn! I would never entertain an electric carving knife, either – the aesthetic is a bit grandpa at the golf club. If we’re having roast chicken, I’d far rather let it cool and tear it with my hands.
How to Butter Toast: Rhymes in a Book that Help You to Cook by Tara Wigley (HarperCollins, £16.99) is out now
Ravinder Bhogal
Chef patron of Jikoni in London
Top pick: Thermomix. Not fussed: slow cooker
I am really possessive of the Thermomix at work. Anyone who breaks it is fired – it’s as simple as that. We grind all our own spices at Jikoni, and we need a big powerful machine that gives a fine grind. Those small spice grinders, we were blowing them up every few months. The Thermomix is like another member of staff.
I don’t have one at home, but I would if I didn’t have one in the restaurant. When I am making a spice mix, like ras al hanout, I can bring some of it back. They are expensive but worth every penny.
I am not a fan of the slow cooker. I am not organised enough to put it on in the morning. I am a pressure-cooker girl; that’s how I’ve been brought up, and if I want to cook lentils or beans or meat so it falls off the bone, I’ll use that.
Comfort and Joy: Irresistible Pleasures from a Vegetarian Kitchen by Ravinder Bhogal (Bloomsbury, £26) is out now
Melissa Hemsley
Food writer
Top pick: box graters. Not fussed: air fryers
I have three box graters, one for each of the most significant – or rather insignificant – relationships in my life. I always seem to hang on to them after a relationship ends. I bloody love them. They save on food waste: if you have different odds and ends of cheese, you can grate them onto toast. If you’ve veg to use up, you can grate them into fritters and frittatas, or a slaw. I use them to grate apples into porridge or muesli; garlic and lemon zest into dips; there is so much you can do.
They can stand in for a food processor or even a chopping board. I have a recipe with torn mushrooms and grated garlic and onions, for which you don’t even need to use a knife. You probably aren’t supposed to, but I always shove them in the dishwasher.
I see people having loads of fun with air fryers, but they wouldn’t work for me. I cook big, and always fill my oven to capacity if it’s on.
Paul Ainsworth (Ebury, £22) is out now. Melissa Hemsley’s Things That Make My Heart Sing newsletter is published on Substack.
Ed Smith
Chef and food writer
Top pick: meat thermometer. Not fussed: egg slicer, egg timer with no numbers on it, ice-cream maker
I think a lot of cooking can and should be intuition based, but the meat thermometer does a great job of giving instant reassurance. I’ve used a Thermapen for 12 years, but keep meaning to upgrade to a Meater as you can leave it in the meat even over an open flame.
When fish and meat are as expensive as they are these days, and you are interested in cooking to perfection, or as near as damn it, this is a good way to do it. Of course, you need to know what you’re looking for; there’s no point using one unless you know, for example, that medium rare beef is 54C.
I avoid anything that is bulky and only does one job, like an ice-cream maker, or anything where I could do the same job with a knife, like an egg slicer. Another useless thing is an egg timer with no numbers on it; you need one that operates more like a clock.
Good Eggs (Quadrille, £22) and Crave (Quadrille, £25) by Ed Smith are out now. Ed’s Rocket and Squash newsletter is published on Substack.
Itamar Srulovich
Co-owner of Honey and Co, Honey and Smoke and Honey and Co Daily in London
Top pick: air-fryer. Not fussed: traditional filo pastry roller
If you’d asked me a month ago, I’d have given a different answer – because now we have an air fryer, a Ninja. I was neutral verging on negative at the idea, and I don’t need anything new in the kitchen. But then someone explained that it’s just a more efficient oven, with a powerful fan. Our oven is so big and takes hours to heat up, so sometimes we avoid turning it on.
The air fryer has been life-changing. It doesn’t take long to heat up, it uses less energy, and you can chuck the baskets in the dishwasher. You need to adapt and do things differently, especially when it comes to baking. We’ve definitely had some flops, because the fan is much stronger, so things rise differently – but it’s a fun work in progress. A chocolate cake turned out to be more of a pudding, but it was still delicious.
In Greece a few years ago, we were taught how to make filo pastry, and we were very excited. We thought we’d make it all the time so we bought a traditional filo pastry roller. We got it all the way home through HM Customs and thought “where do we keep it?”. The only place we could think of was the broom cupboard, and that’s when we realised we’d basically bought a broomstick. We’ve used it once, to reach something high up, but the number of times we’ve made pastry with it is a big fat zero.
Chasing Smoke: Cooking Over Fire Around The Levant (HarperCollins, £26) and Honey & Co: Food From the Middle East (Headline, £30), both by Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer are out now
José Pizarro
Chef patron of José, and Pizarro, both in London, and The Swan Inn, Surrey
Top pick: pestle and mortar. Not fussed: spiraliser
I love my pestle and mortar. Almost everything you can do with a hand blender you can do with a pestle and mortar, and while it might take longer, I love the feeling of using your strength to do something for yourself. I bought mine about 25 years ago when I first moved to the UK. I use it wherever possible to make marinades, salsas and aïoli with just garlic and olive oil. I like my Thermomix, but I only really use it to make gazpacho.
The gadget I really hate is the one that makes spaghetti out of vegetables. I can never remember the name [spiraliser], because I hate it so much. It’s the most ugly, plastic thing that doesn’t even make sense. People think it makes food look pretty, but I cannot understand why. I was on television once with someone who spiralised everything – and the food at the end was no better for it.
The Spanish Home Kitchen (Hardie Grant, £27) and Recipes from Andalusia (Hardie Grant, £18.99) by José Pizarro are out now
Tim Hayward
Food writer and co-owner of Fitzbillies, Cambridge
Top pick: digital scales, Bamix stick blender. Not fussed: food processor, Instant Pot, air fryer
Digital scales should change people’s lives. I have two sets: one that weighs up to 10 kilos, and a small one which I think is designed for narcotics, but really helps with accuracy if I am scaling something down.
My Bamix stick blender is a lovely piece of kit. I had a plug-in one for years, then my daughter stole it when she went to university, so I treated myself to a battery-operated one last year, which is even better. I use it mostly to make mayonnaise. Get a jar that a stick blender fits into, blend a whole egg with 250ml olive oil and a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, and you’ll never buy mayonnaise again.
I never use a food processor. I use a box grater or Microplane for chopping or slicing, or the stick blender. It’s much easier to clean. The only gadgets I have got rid of within minutes are the Instant Pot and the air fryer, which has no advantages at all over a good fan oven. It’s made largely of plastic, which I don’t trust, and has a weird-shaped cooking space. And if you’re frying chips properly, you shouldn’t need much oil.
Steak: The Whole Story (Quadrille, £30) by Tim Hayward is out on May 30, and Hayward’s Charcuterie From Scratch (Quadrille, £12.99) is out now
Tom Brown
Chef patron of Cornerstone and Pearly Queen in London
Top pick: Robert Welch knife sharpening wheel. Not fussed: electric salt and pepper grinders
I am terrible at sharpening knives on steel; I’ve never been able to do it properly – but a good set of sharp knives is by far the most important thing to have in the kitchen. So my slightly embarrassing gadget is a Robert Welch sharpening wheel. I’m sure that will have chefs everywhere vomiting, but I’ve used one for years; I just replace the wheel when it gets worn down.
Electric salt and pepper grinders really annoy me. What world do we live in where the effort of turning your hand one way, then the other, is too much? They break, they need replacement batteries – it makes no sense to me. If twisting your hand is that much of a struggle, buy table salt.
Diana Henry
Food writer for The Telegraph
Top pick: Gaggia ice-cream machine. Not fussed: apple slicer/peeler, banana slicer
My Gaggia ice-cream machine was given to me as a wedding present 32 years ago and is the kitchen gadget I feel most affection for because of its steadfastness. It was expensive but has churned a fortune’s worth of ices in its time. No element has ever been replaced. I sometimes pat it fondly and smile because it’s been a constant kitchen companion.
Someone sent me a heavy and bulky gadget that could peel and slice apples. You might use it in a restaurant kitchen if apple tarts were regularly on the menu – but not at home. I was also sent a banana-shaped banana slicer. Who can’t slice a banana with a knife?
From the Oven to the Table (Octopus, £26), Roast Figs, Sugar Snow (Octopus, £22) and Simple (Octopus, £30) by Diana Henry are out now