With the hol­i­days on their way soon, many peo­ple will be beef­ing up kitchens to han­dle the increased demand for ‘fit for a king’ meals. Not being a pro­fes­sional Chef shouldn’t stop you from being able to cook like one. But, you’ll need the right tools to cre­ate those tan­ta­liz­ing dishes. Read on and find out the five tools that no kitchen cook should be without.

Mix­ing Bowls

Make sure that you have a good, qual­ity set of mix­ing bowls on hand – the big­ger the bet­ter! Many dishes need to be beaten, blended or mixed. You’ll be glad you didn’t skimp on the mix­ing bowls when you need to per­form any of those tasks. Most pro­fes­sional chefs pre­fer to use stain­less steel mix­ing bowls. How­ever, there are many qual­ity plas­tic sets avail­able, like the ones made by OXO. But be aware that plas­tic bowls can become hard to clean over time, espe­cially if used for heavy duty sauces, and may need to be replaced.

Pre-Seasoned Cook­ware

Cast iron skil­lets, pots and pans have long been a choice of the pros. But, cast iron cook­ware can be a lit­tle daunt­ing. Sea­son­ing, pre-seasoning, re-seasoning, cook­ing the sea­son­ings in, oils to use, etc. to ensure your skil­let is ready, is a has­sle many cooks would rather not deal with. Now you don’t have to. You can buy cast iron cook­ware galore – already sea­soned – so that you have no fuss and still get the same great ben­e­fits of those using sim­ple cast iron. Lodge is a well known maker of pre-seasoned cook­ware and offers many dif­fer­ent types of cast iron cook­ware. Be aware –soap nor dish­wash­ers should be used for your prized possessions.

Spe­cialty Mea­sur­ing Spoons

If you’ve ever seen one of grandma’s old recipes refer to a pinch, smidgen or dash and have had to take a guess at the mean­ing (and hope you’re right) then you absolutely must grab a set of pinch, smidgen or dash mea­sur­ing spoons. No more guess­ing or test­ing your inter­pre­ta­tions on your guests (as fun as that may be). This set also makes a great con­ver­sa­tion starter – espe­cially at fam­ily gath­er­ings where elder mem­bers may take you on a trip down mem­ory lane.

First out Pie Spatula

What could pos­si­bly ruin the per­fect home­made Dutch crumb apple pie? Hav­ing it fall apart while you try to get that first piece out of the pie dish. Well, here is a secret of the pros – use a first out pie spat­ula. You bake the spat­ula in with the pie. When the pie comes out of the oven and cools, you make the cuts and lift that first piece out in per­fect appe­tiz­ing condition!

Kitchen Com­pan­ion Guide

Ever won­ders how long you need to steam aspara­gus. Not sure how to stick a ther­mome­ter in a turkey? Never but­ter­flies a pork chop before? For all the weird, rarely used infor­ma­tion you may need, while prepar­ing a feast, you can turn to a kitchen guide. Look for a kitchen guide who spe­cial­izes in every­thing and any­thing you may need to know while cook­ing any meal in any kitchen. For a com­plete guide that has got­ten rave reviews, check out the Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Com­pan­ion: The A to Z Guide to Every­day Cook­ing, Equip­ment and Ingredients.

Many of the above items may not be fea­tured at your local retail store, so you might want to find a local kitchen spe­cialty store near you or do your shop­ping online. But, if you enjoy the art of cook­ing and want to be armed with the best tools pos­si­ble, you now have a few more to add to your arse­nal which will help you cook like the pros.

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