Quick, what’s the one kitchen tool you couldn’t live without? Yes, yes, you need more than one tool to cook anything, of course. But sometimes you get attached to a whisk—or, heck, a spurtle—and you know: if there’s a kitchen fire, that’s the one tool you’re going to grab.
So I posed this question to my colleagues. Because they say you can tell a lot about a person by what weapon they would choose in a zombie apocalypse, but frankly, I think the stakes here are even higher.
RHODA BOONE, FOOD DIRECTOR: RIMMED BAKING SHEET
Quite simply, you can’t have a sheet pan dinner without a rimmed baking sheet. But rimmed baking sheets can also be used to roast whole chickens and turkeys or make a batch of Our Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies. For Rhoda, it has to a be a restaurant-quality half sheet, and it has to be well-seasoned.
TrueCraftware Aluminium Commercial Baker’s Half-Sheet Pan, $11 at Amazon.com.
MATT DUCKOR, SENIOR EDITOR: CHEF’S KNIFE
For Matt, it’s a western-style chef’s knife all the way. He noted that an 8-inch blade is the easiest to maneuver and the most versatile knife to have on hand. Especially for…a zombie apocalypse!
J.A. Henckels International Classic 8-inch Chef’s Knife, $49.95 at Amazon.com.
ANYA HOFFMAN, SENIOR EDITOR: TONGS
Salad server set? What’s that? For Anya, utilitarian tongs will do just fine. A good set of locking tongs can be used to flip meat in a pan or on a grill, toss vegetables while sautéing, and, notes Anya, “occasionally—dangerously—get something down from a high shelf.”
OXO Good Grips 12-Inch Stainless-Steel Locking Tongs, $12.95 at Amazon.com.
