I Asked Great Cooks What They Always Keep in Their Kitchen—and They All Said the Same Thing

Stackable mixing bowls, a sharp knife, and a reliable cutting board—these are powerhouse tools that any good cook will swear by. But behind every cooking whiz are products they can’t live without—and all too often, they fly under the radar.

Before I joined the Allrecipes editorial team, I worked in our Test Kitchen testing and developing recipes with talented cooks with a variety of culinary backgrounds and areas of expertise. I learned so much about different techniques, cuisines, and tastes, but I also adopted a few new habits and go-to gadgets, thanks to the advice and influence of my colleagues. I never would have so many opinions about peelers, but my kitchen inventory is all the better for it today.

With that, I think it’s high time to bring kitchen secrets out in the open—so I talked with three of our Test Kitchen professionals, Amanda Stanfield, Craig Ruff, and Julia Levy, about the items they always keep on hand. And they had no shortage of recommendations. Whether they’re testing a recipe or whipping up dinner at home, it was clear that one gadget came out on top.

The Perks of a Bench Scraper

A bench what? It may sound niche, but it’s actually one of the most versatile objects in the kitchen—and it’s about as light as a feather. The key, says Amanda Stanfield, is remembering that it’s in your arsenal if you do have one. “Every time I remember to use it I remember how useful it is,” says Stanfield, “for gathering items, working with dough, or even cleaning up the bench—its just really helpful.”

It serves many purposes.

The task of a great bench scraper does not start and end with flour and bread. Instead, it’s a universal tool that can simplify and improve the cooking process—making it easier to manage as you hum along in the kitchen. “Perhaps its greatest use to me is just transferring manipulated ingredients to where they need to go [like a] bowl or pot,” says Craig Ruff. “They have loads of uses besides just dividing dough.”

If you’re a meticulous cook works with exact measurements of dough for pastries or dumplings, it can be useful to have a bench scraper that demarcates units of length. “Some of them even have a ruler on them, which can be handy,” says Ruff. And if you simply prefer not to dirty-up another sharp knife, use it for those menial tasks that shouldn’t require so much fuss. ‘I have no use for butterknives anymore, because they are great for cutting up butter,” Ruff adds.

It’s simple to store.

“They are inexpensive, take up a relatively small kitchen footprint, and are easy to clean,” says Ruff. Relatively flat and typically no larger than six inches on the lengthiest side, bench scrapers slide easily into crowded drawers or tucked between baking essentials.

It makes clean-up a breeze.

Very few essential kitchen utensils pull equal weight in cleaning and cooking—but a bench scraper does, which makes it a true powerhouse whether or not you’re baking bread. Julia Levy lists the ways one small bench scraper can help her from start to finish: “Cleaning off my cutting board, moving things from my board to a prep bowl or container [or] scraping off crud from the prep surface.”

Types of Bench Scrapers

Not all bench scrapers are created equal. Some are bendy and flexible, while others are straighter-edged and firm. Different cooks have different preferences, but one thing is for sure: Every great cook has one—and some have more than a few. Here’s a breakdown of the main types you can find:

• Stainless steel: A metal bench scraper can vary in thickness—while thicker ones tend not to bend as much, thinner ones offer some flexibility that’s useful for dividing and manipulating dough of different viscosities. Pros of a metal bench scraper include its often seamless design with few nooks, crannies, or jutting edges, which makes it particularly simple to store and clean.
• Combination (stainless steel and wood or plastic): These bench scrapers are stainless steel with a handle made of either wood or plastic. Differences in handle material can often help with comfort—some cooks prefer the feel of wood, while others appreciate the contours of plastic, especially if using the scraper often. Note that wood requires a little extra TLC when cleaning.
• Nylon or plastic: These bench scrapers tend to be curved on one end and straight on the other, making them ideal for dividing and scraping, but also for scooping dough out of mixing bowls with curved edges.

More Must-Have Kitchen Tools

While all of our cooks agreed that a “good” and “sharp” knife was perhaps their most important kitchen essential, a few more got an honorable mention—bench scraper aside. It’s notable that none of these items is very large or pricey. In other words, you don’t need a ton of funds or a commercial kitchen to get cookin’.

• Instant Read Thermometer: Take away the guessing game with a good instant-read thermometer—and not that retro dial thermometer. An instant-read works fast and helps gauge the doneness of not just meat for food safety—but temperatures of bread and confections that help you know that it’s truly baked-through.
• Fish Spatula: With thin stainless steel slats and a flexible, thin paddle, the fish spatula may be named for pescetarian applications, but its design is endlessly applicable from frying delicate eggs to sautéing to flipping tender, fluffy pancakes.
• Y-Peeler: Shaped like the letter ‘Y’, the Y-peeler’s design makes for quick and efficient vegetable peeling, but better suits fruit peeling for candying or mixing cocktails.