Not long ago I spent a long weekend with friends and was tasked with overseeing our meals. This is an assignment I cherish - I love to cook, and while I might not admit it in the moment, I always prefer to be the one in charge of cooking or deciding where we eat. I think this is a product of growing up in a family that treated each meal like it could be the last; we were also a family that would talk about what was for dinner before we had even finished eating lunch (or during).
Cooking in a kitchen that isn’t your own can be a maddening process. If you’re a cook and you’ve stayed in an AirBnB then you’ll know the feeling: You don’t know where things are kept, how sharp the knives are, and what equipment might be at your disposal. Shopping for ingredients when you don’t know what tools you’ve got to turn those ingredients into a proper meal is a challenge. I love staying in a proper home on vacation but inevitably the kitchen is just never quite right. There may be olive oil, but no salt. Or salt, but no sharp knife. Maybe a sharp knife, but no good pans.
This entry is an effort to highlight what I view as the essential needs for any proper kitchen, whether it be your home kitchen or you are stocking a rental with what a real cook might require. As far as I’m concerned, if you have these pieces in place, all you need is a quick run to the grocery and you’re in the best possible position to put a great meal on the table.
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