5 Simple Tools For The Gourmet Home Chef

Are you moving into your very first apartment orroasts and vegetables all in your kitchen oven. A
home? Do you love to cook but never reallygood size standard roasting pan is about 16 to 22
learned the basics that a gourmet home chefinches which is big enough to a cook a 20 or 30
should know? Maybe you are an old dog at homepound meat roast or turkey. The general pan
cooking and very accomplished at it, but you don'tsizes will vary from 14 to 22 inches long and 8 to
have all the basic tools that a gourmet home chef4 inches wide by 5 to 6 inches high. Of course
needs to have a complete kitchen arsensal to bethere are electric roasting pans as well that will do
totally prepared to cook for your family andthe job to the same quality specs as a roasting
friends in the manner that you would like to?pan that you put in your oven. It is a matter of
Then take a look at this simple list of seven basicchoice for you.
tools that every gourmet home chef should have.4. You will surely need a large pot or stock pot
1. Kitchen knives. I know this sounds like a give inwith a strainer or for making soups and boiling
but you would be surprised just how manywater for pasta dishes and it is excellent for
kitchens in home all across America are being runmaking stews and chili. A good stock pot will also
on poor quality knives that will not give you thelet you simmer meats and vegetables for a wide
service or presentation that you are looking for. Ifarray of recipes. I prefer an 8 to 12 quart pot for
you have knives that are of poor quality or youmy daily chores and recommend those sizes for
have an incomplete set of knives then it is timemost kitchens. Stock pots will be stainless steel in
to replace the poor quality knives with your bestmost cases with various core options, but there
kitchen knives possible. Quality kitchen knives thatare other forms of stock pots like cast iron with
will last a lifetime of service for you.enamel coating and aluminum stock pots. Once
2. A saute pan that is either 10 or 12 inches is aagain this is a matter of choice.
necessary part of any home gourmet chef's5. Along with everything else you should have in
kitchen arsenal. The saute pan is probably theyour kitchen is a good quality kitchen cutting
most widely used pan in your kitchen. By the wayboard like a John Boos cutting board because you
the word saute in French mean "to jump." Itnever want to cut food on surfaces that are not
means that you are cooking at a high heat anddesigned to cut food on. If you are cutting and
moving the food around quickly with a spatula,chopping food on surfaces that are not designed
tongs or tossing the food like the cooks do onfor food preparation you are running the risk of
TV.(just a little quick info for you) It is great panfood cross contamination and the proliferation of
for fast frying, searing and making rous as well asgerms and bacteria in your kitchen. A good quality
making killer grilled cheese sandwiches and makingJohn Boos cutting board will be made of northern
omelettes and frittatas. The bigger the saute panhard rock maple wood and will last a lifetime. The
the better.best part about this type of cutting board is that
3. Do you like to cook roasts of different kinds?they have been found to be more sanitary than
Do you like to cook large birds? If you do thenmost synthetic boards on the market today by
you will need to have a roasting pan in yourthe National Sanitary Foundations or NSF. I have
kitchen as they are top notch for roastinghad my John Boos cutting board for over 10
anything from chickens and turkeys to largeyears now and they are built to last a lifetime.