Quick Takes Special Edition: Our Experts’ Trustiest, Most-Reached-For Kitchen Tools

If you’re not a paid subscriber to Remodelista and Gardenista, you’re in for a treat this month. Every Sunday until the end of the year, we’re opening up Quick Takes content—normally reserved for subscribers—to everyone with four best-of roundups from our first year of Quick Takes.


(You can learn more about Quick Takes here. And sign up for a paid subscription by clicking “Join” in the upper right corner of this page.)


Today, we’re gathering the responses to a question we have a particular affinity for: What’s your go-to kitchen tool?


Without further ado, here are some picks from the 2024 class of Quick Takes experts.
Above: Photograph by Justine Hand from Kitchen of the Week: Hudson Valley Farmhouse Kitchen Reborn.



* The hardest working thing in each of our kitchens is a Moccamaster Technivorm coffee maker. – Hollister and Porter Hovey

* A microplane. – chef Flynn McGarry

* Japanese cast iron pans [like these]. We’ve changed to an induction cooker, and these are perfect. Also knives from David Mellor. – designer Cassandra Ellis

* A new go-to is Brad Leone’s signature griddle turner from Lamson. It’s just a perfect-sized small spatula. – Alison and Jay Carroll

* A white flour-sack dish towel. – Michael Breland of Breland Harper

* Sori Yanagi tongs. We’ve sold them since we opened the store. – John Baker of Mjölk

* My Mac pro chef’s knife. – shop owner Carol Song of Dae in Brooklyn

* Small antique chopping boards. I have too many to mention. – designer Sophie Rowell

* Coffee maker, no doubt. Italian, old style, no-nonsense. We drink a lot of coffee. – Pablo Lopez and Iñigo Aragón

* The teapot and the kettle. – designer Marianne Evennou






And the most frequently reached-for item? “The perfect wooden spoon: a beautiful object in itself and a natural material,” says designer Heidi Lachapelle. Ditto Peter Harper of Breland Harper: “A $4 French beechwood spoon.” And Fanny Singer: “the two-in-one spatula-spoon hybrid from Permanent Collection. It does it all!”


Katie Bowes of The Post Supply has a several on hand: “I use them constantly. My husband made my favorites, of course, but I have also collected some from antique shops, country markets, and frankly wherever I see one with a good weight and feel.”


To sum it up, Kai Avent-deLeon: “A good spoon.” We couldn’t agree more. | bit.ly/3XLoEJb


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