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In the News
Tools of the trade
Local chefs share what kitchen gadgets inspire them
Monterey County Herald, April 7, 2004
By BRENDA MOORE
bmoore@montereyherlad.com
Burn-preventing oven guards.
"I was at the International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago (last month) and discovered a must-have for anyone who is in and out of the oven regularly," Brodie said. The item: Cool Touch Oven Rack Guard from a company called JAZ Innovations. The guards snap on to the front of an oven's wire racks and protect against burns. They're made from a fabric developed to protect firefighters. The maker says they can be purchased through some kitchen-specialty catalogs catalogs and online stores including Williams Sonoma, The Bakers Catalogue, Improvements, and Taylor Gifts.
"Chefs usually wear their oven-burn scars as badges of honor, however, anything that would prevent the painful reminders would be fantastic," Brodie said.
Cost: About $15.
Mortar and pestle.
While Brodie went for new, Julio Ramirez, co-owner and executive chef of the Fishwife Seafood Restaurants and Turtle Bay Taquerias, opted for the tried and true.
"The mortar and pestle are my favorite kitchen tools," Ramirez said. "While they not the most used of my chef's tools, they're definitely my favorite. Grinding rocks have been around for millennia; for thousands of years cooks from many cultures have used stones to blend spices and herbs. I find that the crushing and grinding action of the mortar and pestle allow me to extract full flavors from the smaller seeds, such as anise, peppercorns, annatto, and juniper berries, at a level I can't achieve when using kitchen appliances such as a food processor or a blender.
"Crushing and grinding the seeds... opens them up so their flavor mixes with the citrus juices and herbs as I combine them in the mortar. Then you have this wonderful paste that can be rubbed on chicken or fish before you grill it. The mortar and pestle are also great for making sauces: dried chiles, nuts, cloves and other spices, and pumpkin or sesame seeds, when ground together, are the basis of some great moles."
Cost: Varies widely, depending on the materials and the maker.
Peeler/shredder
"I really love a little tool called a peeler/shredded," said Mary Pagan, head of the Culinary Center in Monterey, a cooking school. "It's great for doing fine-julienne of hard vegetables like carrots. It's great for shredding vegetables for garnishing and presentation as well as for preparing them for cooking. It's extremely quick and easy to use. And (it's) a very inexpensive item that can be found with items such as peelers, bottle openers and zesters. A fun addition to any toolbox or kitchen drawer."
Clementine's sells a version that looks a little like an oversized stainless steel razor, with a peeling blade on one side and a shredder on the other.
Cost: About $12
Egg topper and gourmet dessertt whip
Mark Ayers, executive chef at the Highlands Inn, caters to an upscale audience, so naturally he likes some fancy-food tools.
First on his list: an egg topper. This scissor-type tool cuts off the top of an eggshell. Why would you want to do that? To use the shell as a holder for delectables like custard. At the recent Masters of Food & Wine culinary extravaganza, guests were treated to egg shells filled with a delicious hors d'oeuvre and stamped with the event's logo.
Cost: About $15
Ayers also likes the iSi Gourmet Whip, a sort of fill-it-yourself whipped cream can.
"Heavy cream or sauce is poured into the canister and nitrous oxide is injected" to pressurize it, Ayers said. "This is then dispensed onto the dish as a light and fluffy foam."
Cost: About $55.
Knife steel and french-fry cuttter
Jason Wright, executive chef at Bahama Billy's in Carmel, had several favorites, but we're paring his list to two.
"The first sounds mundane, but it actually isn't: a diamond knife steel" for sharpening blades, Wright said. "Not your Grandpa's old rusty steel, a diamond steel is embedded with diamond dust. When you run your knife over it, the steel really sharpens your knife and allows you to keep cutting without taking time out to use a sharpening stone."
Cost: $27
Also on the list, a french-fry cutter.
"In order to make our Cashew Coconut Crusted Sweet Potato Fries -- often copied, never duplicated -- I mounted a hand-operated French Fry Cutter vertically on a sturdy post in the kitchen. My cooks have become noticeably stronger over the last couple of years as they have pressed thousands of pounds of giant yams through the square blades of this machine."
Cost: Varies, but Clementine's sells a version for $23
Microplaner
Babcock, naturally, has many favorites. It's an occupational hazard. But at the top of his list is a microplaner. It resembles -- and was based on -- a woodworking tool called a rasp. It's essentially a metal file with a handle and can be used to grate hard cheeses, vegetables and chocolate, to get the zest from citrus fruit, even for sculpting crystallized sugar.
"We sell these by the hundreds," said Babcock, who uses his regularly. "It's versatile, good quality, it stays very sharp."
Cost: About $15
What else?
Ingrid Rohrer, chef at Earthbound Farm in Carmel Valley, favors a gadget she calls "the striper."
"It looks and acts like a vegetable peeler but is ridged at the blade, creating a 'striped' effect on cucumbers, carrots, etc.," Rohrer said. "It is excellent for shaving long strands or daikon into spaghetti-like strands, which is how I learned of its existence while rolling sushi."
She uses one made by a company called Kom-Kom in Thailand.
"It is bright yellow-orange, luckily, for it is invaluable in my kitchen and highly visible," she said. "They are hard to find, but may be found in some Asian markets."
Lorie Parsons of Le Coq D'or, a French-German restaurant in Carmel, likes a handheld mixer "because it is so versatile."
Brodie, who has been thinking of doing a gadget episode on the cooking show she hosts on Comcast Cable's Channel 2, said in addition to the oven guards, she's a fan of Mexican-style citrus squeezers; stainless steel soap bars that get rid of the smell of fish, garlic, onions, etc.; and clip-on wine-glass holders for plates, "freeing a hand for grazing."
After the microplaner, Babcock would put a mandoline on his list. His "must have" list also includes a meat tenderizer by a company called Jaccard, that's sort of a multi-hole puncher. Its small metal blades pierce the meat, breaking up the fiber.
At the latest industry trade show, he spied something he thinks will be popular this year: silicone and fiberglass bags for making grilled cheese sandwiches in a toaster. You build the sandwich the traditional way -- sliced cheese between buttered slices of bread. Then put it in the bag and toast it.
"It's pure kitchen gadgetry but it works."
Gadgets pictured supplied by Clementine's Kitchen, Del Rey Oaks. Prices are from items sold there.
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