Know a recent college grad who's finally starting life on their own, maybe in their first real apartment? Or a transplant from a far-off land who needs to stock up a new kitchen from scratch? Or, perhaps, a friend who's only recently taken an interest in cooking, but doesn't have the gear to do it up right?
The items on this list are perfect for cooks who are just starting out in one way or another. We've divided it in two sections: The first lists our picks for the absolute most essential gear—no frills, no extras, and nothing that won't get used over and over and over again for years to come. The second offers a few items that, while not quite mandatory, will definitely make your cooking life a heck of a lot easier. (We can also help you with organizational tips and handy storage suggestions, too.)
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The Must-Haves
A Chef's Knife
A good chef's knife is a lifelong friend in the kitchen, good for nearly every task you'll face, from boning a chicken to chopping carrots or mincing parsley. You want a sturdy, forged-steel chef's knife that'll last a long time, with a balanced handle; a full tang (meaning the knife is constructed from a single piece of metal that runs straight through the handle); and solid riveted construction.
While we strongly advocate saving up for "the one"—the high-quality knife that feels absolutely perfect in your hand—if you're just starting out, we recommend looking to the mid-priced picks in our review of the best chef’s knives; the Mercer Culinary Genesis at Amazon and Japanese-style Misono Molybdenum Gyutou at Amazon fit all the above criteria at a reasonable price. A good chef’s knife may still be one of the more expensive items you purchase when you're outfitting a kitchen from scratch, but trust us—it'll be worth it.
Mercer Culinary 8-Inch Genesis Chef's Knife Buy on Amazon
Misono 8.2-Inch Molybdenum Gyutou Buy on Amazon
A Serrated Knife
Though a chef's knife is more essential and more versatile, a good serrated knife, a.k.a. bread knife, is hard to substitute: Nothing does a better job of slicing through the soft crumb of fresh bread, or the skin of a ripe tomato, than its saw-toothed blade.
Because of that serrated edge, your bread knife will be nearly impossible to sharpen, meaning it'll require replacement every five years or so. Translation: There's no reason to spend a lot of money on one. In our review of the best serrated knife, we found that the Tojiro Bread Slicer 235mm F-737 at Amazon has a slightly flexible blade that helps with more delicate tasks, like skinning tough winter squash, and sharp teeth that'll slice cleanly through anything you throw at it.
Tojiro Bread Slicer 235MM Buy on Amazon
A Cutting Board
There’s nothing wrong with buying a pretty and fancy wooden cutting board. if you have the cash to spare. It’s a good investment: Wood harbors less bacteria than other materials, and a wooden board is gentler on your knives. But it also requires maintenance, and if a better price is what you're after, a heavy-duty plastic board, preferably one with rubberized grips, is A-OK.
For everyday use, forget about the dinky little foot-wide cutting boards: They make cooking for more than one person a pain in the butt, and, if you're buying this as a gift for someone else, you should be encouraging them to cook for others (namely you), right? This spacious 15- by 21-inch cutting board from OXO at Amazon won our review of the best plastic cutting boards.
The BoardSmith Maple End-Grain Cutting Board Buy on
OXO 2-Piece Cutting Board Set Buy on Amazon
A 12-Inch Cast Iron Skillet (and a Stainless Steel One, if You Can Swing It)
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Whether you're searing a steak, sautéing vegetables, cooking up a frittata, baking Southern-style cornbread, or even making no-knead pan pizza, a heavy-duty, well-seasoned cast iron skillet is the pan to reach for. Its significant weight helps it retain heat better, and its rugged construction means it will probably outlive you (and, most likely, your children and grandchildren)—not bad for a piece of cookware that costs about $40. A 12-inch pan will be big enough for just about any recipe.
You might have heard that caring for your cast iron requires a great deal of effort. Not so! Cast iron is actually a lot more forgiving than people think, and it takes all of about 30 seconds to wipe it dry, rub some oil into it, and reheat it with each use. Heck, you can even wash it with soap and water! For more details, check out our guide to seasoning and maintaining cast iron.
A cast iron pan will see you through a tremendous variety of cooking tasks, but if there’s room in your starter-kitchen budget for a tri-ply stainless steel skillet, we heartily endorse adding it to your list as well. Stainless steel conducts heat better than cast iron, making it ideal for tasks like sautéing vegetables; it’s also lighter in weight, so it’s much easier to maneuver. Our favorite skillet from our review is by Made in.
Lodge 12-Inch Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet Buy on Amazon
Made In 12-Inch Stainless Steel Skillet Buy on
A Nonstick Skillet
You can get away with cooking just about anything in a well-seasoned, well-cared-for cast iron pan. But when it comes to cooking egg dishes like omelettes and scrambled eggs, as well as delicate items like crepes, you can't beat a modern nonstick surface.
Luckily, adding another skillet to your collection won't break the bank—no nonstick pan is durable enough to last more than a few years, so there's every reason to buy nonstick skillets cheap. The Farberware 10-inch nonstick skillet is our go-to, though any good restaurant supply store will stock something comparable.
Farberware 10-Inch Nonstick Skillet Buy on Amazon
A 3-Quart Saucepan or Saucier
For making most sauces, from béchamel to caramel, not to mention custard desserts like butterscotch pudding, a quality saucepan in a versatile size is essential for ensuring that the contents heat evenly and the finished product comes out velvety-smooth. Even better than a saucepan is a saucier, whose gently sloping sides make thorough whisking a breeze.
Look for one that combines the durability of stainless steel with the superior heating ability of aluminum, like this Calphalon three-quart chef’s pan at Amazon. It isn't the cheapest pot out there, but it's a steal compared with our top pick (the excellent but wedding-registry-pricey three-quart saucier from All-Clad at Amazon), and, as with your chef's knife, this is one piece of equipment you don't want to skimp on.
All-Clad 3-Quart Stainless Steel Saucier Buy on Amazon
Calphalon Stainless Steel 3-Quart Saucier Buy on Amazon
An Enameled Dutch Oven
An enamel-coated cast iron Dutch oven is the ideal vessel for slow braises (like these Chinese-spiced short ribs) and soups. In the oven, the pot's thick walls and heavy lid are ideal for low-and-slow heat transfer, meaning stews and pot roasts will come out juicier and more tender, with minimal evaporation during cooking.
On the stovetop, its tall, wide sides retain heat well and promise easy, splatter-free browning when you're cooking large amounts of meat and vegetables at once. Plus, it's great for deep-frying, boiling pasta, and—if you or your giftee is regularly burning the midnight oil at a new job and struggles to find time for home-cooked meals—it's big enough to make a batch of stew or soup on Sunday that'll last all through the week.
In our review of the best cast iron Dutch ovens, the classic Dutch oven from heritage brand Le Creuset at Amazon, a long-standing recommendation of ours, got top marks. But if you want something more affordable—especially for a starter kitchen—the slightly smaller Cuisinart at Amazon also did well in our tests and will still last you years and years.
Le Creuset 5.5-Quart Dutch Oven Buy on Amazon
Cuisinart 5-Quart Chef's Classic Enameled Dutch Oven Buy on Amazon
A Large Baking Dish
Like the Dutch oven, a good-sized casserole is a necessity for big-batch comfort-food dishes that you can eat throughout the week, or even freeze for hectic times to come—we're talking creamy spinach lasagna and shepherd's pie blanketed in rich, buttery mashed potatoes. These tempered glass and porcelain baking dishes aren’t fancy-looking, but our tests to find the best baking dishes found them to be sturdy, functional, and easy to clean, not to mention economical. Besides that, for baked goods like rhubarb crisp, Stella chooses tempered glass for its heat conductivity and nonreactive surface—read more about her preference for tempered-glass pie pans here.
HIC Harold Import Co. Porcelain Baking Dish Buy on Amazon
Anchor Hocking 3-Quart Glass Baking Dish Buy on Amazon
Measuring Cups and Spoons
As much as we appreciate—celebrate, even—the precision offered by a scale, there are times when it's either impractical or just plain unnecessary to weigh out your ingredients. To get accurate quantities by volume, you've gotta have measuring cups: both dry measuring cups at Amazon and liquid measuring cups, plus a set of spoons. These rectangular measuring spoons at Amazon are not only the most accurate set we tested; they’re also thin enough to get right into your narrowest spice jars.
Norpro Stainless Steel Measuring Cups (Set of 5) Buy on Amazon
RSVP International 6-Piece Rectangular Measuring Spoon Set Buy on Amazon
Anchor Hocking 3-Piece Glass Measuring Cup Set Buy on Williams-Sonoma
Rimmed Baking Sheets and Wire Racks
Rimmed aluminum baking sheets are not just for baking. Also called "sheet pans" in the restaurant industry, they're used for a huge number of oven tasks: baking a batch of cookies, crisping up a tray of broccoli, even roasting a whole turkey or chicken. Beyond those functions, sheet pans are endlessly useful—say, for spreading out vegetables or tofu to dry before frying, or for providing a steady, easily grabbable surface on which to place a pie for baking, cooling, or chilling.
Quarter-sheet trays at Amazon and half-sheet trays at Amazon are the most versatile sizes for a home kitchen. They're lightweight, durable, and inexpensive enough that you may want to spring for a couple in each size. In fact, if you can, you'll want to keep one set for high-temperature roasting and one for baking, as the pans you use for meats and vegetables will tend to get a bit beaten up.
You'll also want to pair your half-sheet pan with a simple wire rack at Amazon to ensure that your resting meats or cooling cookies get the air circulation they need.
Nordic Ware Rimmed Half Sheet With Nonstick Grid Buy on Amazon
CIA Wire Cooling Rack Buy on Amazon
A Box Grater
A Microplane is a terrific tool, and highly recommended for creating a fine shower of Parmesan, lemon zest, or fresh nutmeg. But if you need to shred two whole pounds of cheese to make Daniel's Classic Baked Mac and Cheese, a box grater is a far better bet. In our review of the best box graters on the market, the Cuisipro took home the gold for its super-sharp etched holes, the larger of which will make short work of the block of cheddar.
Cuisipro 4-Sided Boxed Grater Buy on Amazon
An Instant-Read Thermometer
If all you're doing in the kitchen is making simple, forgiving, largely vegetable-based dishes—things like stews, sautés, and casseroles—you can get away without a thermometer for testing your food's internal temperature. But if you want to cook any kind of meat and cook it well, a good thermometer is a necessity. We've long recommended the ThermoPop as a good budget alternative to the pricier Thermapen. It read temperatures in under three seconds in Kenji's testing, and it comes with a good long probe for poking into the center of a roast, plus an easy-to-read rotating display.
ThermoWorks Thermapen Mk4 Buy on
ThermoWorks ThermoPop Buy on
An Oven Thermometer
Theoretically, setting an oven to your desired temperature should be as simple as pressing a few buttons and waiting for the beep. But many, many home ovens out there don't run true to temperature. A cheap oven thermometer at Amazon hooked to the rack allows you to understand whether your own appliance runs hot or cold, so you don't have to constantly monitor your food or fret over uncertain timing. Armed with this knowledge, you can even try recalibrating the oven according to the manufacturer's instructions, if you're feeling handy.
Rubbermaid Oven Thermometer Buy on Amazon
Metal Mixing Bowls
Wanna know why television cooks use glass mixing bowls? It's not because they're better than the cheaper metal versions. It's for one reason only: Metal bowls are too reflective, and they make life difficult for the camera operators. On the flip side, they're also lighter than glass, take up less space, and last longer (and yes, modern microwaves can handle metal bowls!). Go into any restaurant kitchen, and you'll find that the mixing bowls being used are exclusively metal.
Moral of the story: Leave the glass bowls for the TV chefs, and grab yourself a metal set. If you've got access to a restaurant supply store, you'll find that the metal bowls are cheaper there than anywhere else. If not, this set of nesting stainless steel mixing bowls at Amazon will furnish all the sizes you need.
FineDine Stainless Steel Mixing Bowls (Set of 6) Buy on Amazon
A Wooden Spoon
A good wooden spoon is any cook's best friend, whether it's used for stirring a sauce, tasting a soup, or making the creamiest possible risotto. For the true aficionados among us, it's not unusual to end up with half a dozen wooden utensils in various shapes and sizes. But to start out, grab this one from Le Creuset at Amazon (Kenji's favorite wooden spoon). It’s perfect for stirring and tasting, but also for scraping up fond and getting into the corners of pots.
Le Creuset Wooden Scraping Spoon Buy on Amazon
Sturdy Tongs
A well-made set of tongs is like a heatproof extension of your own fingers, which is why we did a deep dive into the best tongs out there. With solid construction, slip-resistant grips (ever try to grab onto a pair of stainless-steel-only tongs with greasy fingers?), and scalloped edges perfect for picking up the most tender stalks of spring asparagus or the biggest bone-in pork roast, these OXO stainless steel locking tongs at Amazon set the bar for quality.
OXO 12-Inch Silicone Tongs Buy on Amazon
A Slotted Fish Spatula
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
Flexible enough to flip delicate pieces of fish without breaking them, yet sturdy enough to scrape a smashed burger off the bottom of your pan without missing a morsel, a fish spatula is something you'll find in the knife kit of every professional chef, and it's one of the most indispensable (and, luckily, inexpensive) tools in the kitchen. It's also ideal for blotting excess grease off of cooked steaks and chops: Just pick up the meat from the skillet, pat it with a paper towel (no need to remove it from the spatula first), and transfer it directly to the serving plate. The wide slots in the spatula allow grease to drain off easily.
We reviewed some of the best-rated inexpensive fish spatulas on the market and found the Victorinox Chef's Slotted Fish Turner at Amazon lightweight and easy to maneuver, slipping gently under fragile foods without disturbing other items in the pan. For a dishwasher-safe alternative, try the Wüsthof Pro Slotted Fish Spatula at Amazon.
Wusthof Dishwasher-Safe Flexible Slotted Spatula (Fish Turner) Buy on Amazon
Victorinox Flexible Slotted Spatula (Fish Turner) Buy on Amazon
Heat-Resistant Flexible Spatulas
This is a very different beast from a fish spatula, or from the wider turner you might use with your nonstick skillet. Rather than turning and flipping with it, it's what you'll grab for scraping out every drop of custard, batter, or sauce from the inside of a pot or bowl. The silicone heads on these Good Cook spatulas at Amazon are especially light and flexible, and the bamboo handles are easier to grip than silicone ones, which can get slippery over a steamy pot.
Nordic Ware Silicone Spatulas (Set of 4) Buy on Amazon
A Pepper Mill
Pre-ground pepper simply doesn’t measure up to the freshly cracked stuff. For that warm, fruity flavor, you’ll need to grind your own, so why not do it in style with our favorite pepper mill from Fletchers’ Mill at Amazon? We found it to be the most efficient mill we tested for our review of the best pepper grinders, quickly crushing peppercorns to a fine powder. Plus, it looks damn good on the table.
Fletchers' Mill Pepper Mill Buy on Amazon
A Salad Spinner
It may look suspiciously like a unitasker, but a salad spinner, much like Liam Neeson, brings a very particular set of skills to the table. A good-quality one, like the Zyliss Swift Dry Salad Spinner at Amazon—the top pick from our best salad spinner review—makes quick work of drying out herbs and leafy vegetables, without which process your salad greens are destined to be a mess every time: wet, limp, unappealing, and sadly resistant to harmonious interaction with their dressing. (Yes, you can spread out your greens to dry on a baking sheet or clean kitchen towel instead, but that's a far more time-consuming method.) The real reason this item is a must: Despite its unitasker feel, its interior basket can double as a colander—for cold foods only!—until you decide to pony up for the latter.
Zyliss E940005 Swift Dry Salad Spinner Buy on Amazon
A Fine-Mesh Strainer
When making stocks, sauces, and creamy, smooth soups, you need a tool that can remove all those bits and pieces of aromatics without fuss. That tool is the simple, humble strainer, which should be rust-resistant, fit snugly over your bowls and pots (check for hooks on the rim that will allow it to do just that), and relatively inexpensive—this set of three at Amazon will do the job.
There's so much you can do with a strainer. Squeeze out seed- and flesh-free citrus juice, poach perfect eggs, sift flour, steam vegetables, and more. And, of course, your strainer can also serve as a colander for draining pasta and the like, a nice hot-foods counterpart to your salad spinner.
Culina Fine-Mesh Strainer Set Buy on Amazon
A Vegetable Peeler
Every kitchen needs at least one vegetable peeler, and, if you're a regular reader of this site, you'll know by now that our peeler of choice is a Y-peeler. Each of these Kuhn Rikon Y-peelers at Amazon is outfitted with a carbon steel blade, which stays sharper longer than a stainless steel one. The broad handle is more comfortable than the slender one on many swivel-blade models. The peelers are so cheap ($10 for a set of three), you can easily swap them out when they finally start to get dull or rusty. They're even colorful. What more convincing do you need?
Kuhn Rikon Original Swiss Peeler, 3-Piece Set Buy on Amazon
A Whisk
It's true that beating egg whites and whipping cream are made much easier with the help of a stand mixer at Amazon (or a handheld electric mixer), but if you're still saving up for one, a good old-fashioned whisk-and-bowl combination works, too.
For pastry applications, look for an all-stainless construction, which won't impart off flavors to highly acidic recipes, like jam, Key lime pie filling, or lemon curd. For more general use, a balloon design, in which the tines form a fairly open cage, will minimize clumping of sauces and batters in the whisk's crevices. This set of whisks at Amazon offers both features at a low price.
For more information on what types of whisks to use and when, read about how to choose the right whisk here.
ONME Stainless Steel Balloon Whisks (Set of 3) Buy on Amazon
A Paring Knife
A paring knife can't do too much that a chef's knife can't, but, after your chef's knife, it's the chopping tool you'll likely reach for most often. For small tasks, like halving lemons or mincing shallots, or tasks that require closer attention to detail, its size and light weight make it a more convenient choice. (You'll also inevitably find yourself using it for some other, more offbeat purposes—it makes a fine cake tester in a pinch.) As with a bread knife, it's not necessary to invest too much cash in a paring knife. In our review of the best paring knives, the Victorinox 3.25-Inch Forschner at Amazon came out on top. It's affordable, plenty sharp, and comfortable to hold.
Victorinox 3.25-Inch Paring Knife Buy on Amazon
A Kitchen Scale
Yes, it’s technically possible to get by without a reliable scale, but your kitchen life will improve immeasurably (heh) once you have one. And if you bake regularly, whether you're making your own pizza dough or a special-occasion coconut cake, there's no question that you need one.
We don't always recommend measuring by mass or weight, but using volume alone doesn't take into account varying density among ingredients, and baking demands a higher level of precision. In some important ways, it also makes measuring easier, since you don't need to juggle a whole set of spoons and cups in different sizes—just set a single large vessel on the scale, tare it, add flour until you hit the right number, dump it out into your mixing bowl, and repeat with the next ingredient. Plus, scaling a recipe up or down is way simpler when you have grams to work with, as opposed to figuring out the ratio between a third of a cup and two teaspoons.
After testing a lot of kitchen scales (and even before, TBH), our top choice is the OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Food Scale at Amazon, which has a backlit pull-out display, fine accuracy and precision, and a removable stainless steel weighing surface. If that price is a bit above your budget, this minimalist scale from Escali at Amazon will suit you just fine.
Escali P115C Precision Kitchen Food Scale Buy on Amazon
The Nice-to-Haves
Kitchen Shears
A knife can handle most of your kitchen cutting work, but you're going to hate opening packages with it, especially while there's a pot of water boiling over or a pan of oil getting too hot on the stove. While a pair of standard scissors will solve that problem, it won't cut it, literally, when you're trying to break down a chicken. These heavy-duty kitchen shears from Shun at Sur La Table can do that. You can read more about them in our review of the best shears. The quick takeaway: They're perfect for cutting and snipping, and the built-in flathead screwdriver, nutcracker, and bottle opener don't hurt either.
Shun Multi-Purpose Kitchen Shears Buy on Amazon
A Bench Scraper
They’re often erroneously thought of as a baking-only accessory for tasks like portioning dough, but once you have one of these, you'll find a million different reasons to keep it nearby. If you're like us, you'll be using your bench scraper to move piles of chopped vegetables from board to bowl, or board to skillet. Or to scrape your board clean of scraps and residue before you start another round of chopping. Or to cut a lasagna into neat squares. The more food you prepare with it, the less you'll be able to get along without it.
OXO Bench Scraper Buy on Amazon
A Tempered-Glass Pie Plate
What's true for rectangular baking dishes is true here, too: It may not be worthy of a Martha Stewart photo shoot, but a simple tempered glass pie plate will conduct heat more quickly to your crust, producing more beautifully golden, crisp, and flaky results than any fancy-pants ceramic model. It's also nonreactive, making it safe to use with citrusy pies like this creamy lime pie.
Pyrex 9-Inch Glass Pie Plate Buy on Amazon
A Loaf Pan
Quick breads are a great way for novices to try their hand at baking, but a loaf pan is also handy for making meatloaf, pound cake, or simple yeasted loaves. The below loaf pan is made from aluminized steel, which is long-lasting, rust-resistant, and helpfully nonstick.
Chicago Metallic Commercial II 1-Pound Loaf Pan Buy on Amazon
A Thermometer for Pastry Projects
For sweet projects, Stella is passionate about her Polder digital thermometer at Amazon, which offers a whole slew of features: ultra-fast reading times, ideal for candy recipes that require exceptionally precise timing; a clip-on attachment, so you can test temperature hands-free; and temp alert settings, letting you keep track of your custards if you happen to walk out of the kitchen. The probe allows you to use it on roasts and for deep-fry oil, too.
Polder Digital In-Oven Thermometer Buy on Amazon
A Rolling Pin
Sure, a wine bottle can work in a pinch, but to get perfectly flaky pie crust and other baked goods, we highly recommend an actual rolling pin, like this French pin from Ateco at Amazon. Need more rolling pin–related guidance? Here's Stella's guide to choosing the best rolling pin for your baking needs.
Ateco 20-Inch Maple French Rolling Pin Buy on Amazon
An Immersion Blender
A good starter kitchen doesn’t necessarily need a pricey high-powered blender or even a food processor, but some kind of blending capability is nice if you want to make a creamy blended soup, whipped cream, or your own mayo. And for that, there’s an immersion blender.
Our tests for the best immersion blender revealed that the undisputed winner is this All-Clad hand blender at Amazon, which comes in at just under $100. If that price is a little too steep, our budget pick, by Hamilton Beach at Amazon, keeps up pretty well with the All-Clad, and can even crush its way through ice.
All-Clad Immersion Blender Buy on Amazon
Hamilton Beach Immersion Hand Blender Buy on Amazon
