Gifts from the Pros
Chefs offer advice on kitchen gadgets

By Ron Mikulak
The courier-Journal

Admit it, there are still those last-minute purchases you have to make, and you've been leafing through catalogs looking for neat stuff.

If any of those on your remaining gift lists use the kitchen in their homes, you have probably considered the array of gadgets, tools, appliances and cool-looking things that leap out of the catalogs. But what is actually useful in a kitchen? What will a cook really use, meal after meal, rather than stash in a drawer to await the next yard sale?

Here are some ideas from people who really work in their kitchens, making food good to eat, who know what people need to do that.

Laurent Geroli, executive chef of the English Grill at The Brown hotel, says, "The CIA (that's the Culinary Institute of America, not that other CIA) cookbooks, especially the Professional Chef books, are great for gifts because many people who love to cook will use them as tools, not just for recipes.

"I also like the series of books by Donna Hay. She has a neat, clean cuisine, simple recipes, using five or six ingredients, but very elegant."

Geroli advocates two gifts especially suitable for out-of-town recipients: a Louisville Stoneware Hot Brown dish, with the recipe glazed on, and handsome wooden cutting boards, made of Appalachian maple, available in the hotel gift shop and at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft.

If you really get a kick out of kitchen gadgets, Michael Paley, chef at Proof on Main, suggests some that are more likely to get used. "The most useful professional kitchen tools are fun to use at home," he says, citing microplane zesters, Kuhn peelers ("the best peeler out there"), Japanese knives ("most are affordable and last forever"), and Benriner Japanese mandolines ("lightweight, very sharp, and add sophistication to your work"). All such tools are widely available at kitchen supply stores such as Campbell's Cottage, or online.

And if you want to give some knives, don't buy them from TV infomercials -- "They are not worth it," Paley says.

Jay Denham, chef at Park Place on Main, offers some advice to anyone wanting to equip a new cook with kitchen essentials. "The most important items to have in your kitchen … are 12-quart stock pot with a lid, a 10- or 12-inch sauté pan and a 12-inch fry pan with lid." Denham advocates pots with thick-gauge aluminum or copper bottoms and stainless interiors, which heat evenly and do not react with acidic foods. Also "any self-respecting southern cook needs to have a well-seasoned cast-iron pan," he says.

Avoid large knife sets, Denham advises. A 10- or 12-inch good quality chef's knife and a good pairing knife are the implements a cook will use most often.

Denham cures his own bacon at the restaurant and is a fan of other "small batch" artisanal bacons. He suggested a membership in a "bacon of the month" club for the dedicated foodie on your list. Such subscriptions are available at zingermans.com and the gratefulpalate.com (click on the "clubs" link).

The kitchen tool that Volare Ristorante executive chef Joshua Moore thinks will get copious use is a good immersion blender, what chefs use to puree soups and sauces right in the pot. In the restaurant kitchen he uses a commercial model almost as big as an outboard motor, but a variety of home-sized models are available. (My experience is that models with detachable blade sections are easiest to clean.)

"A great stocking stuffer is a bottle of white truffle oil," Moore says. "It's the most economical way of adding truffle flavor. I use it to finish broiled fish, or I toss it with pasta." Several brands are available at specialty stores and at Creation Garden.

And high on Moore's personal gift wish-list is his favorite bourbon, George T. Stagg, a small batch bottled uncut from the barrel at well over 100 proof. It is in very limited supply, but would certainly please any bourbon aficionado.

If you want to splurge for someone who does a lot of baking, several chefs, including Moore and Paley, agree with Francis Schmitz from the Bristol Bar & Grille on Bardstown Road and Jim Gerhardt of Limestone, who pointed to a Kitchenaid stand mixer as a gift that will be constantly used. Gerhardt seconded the earlier suggestions for giving one or two good knives (he likes Wusthof), and the usefulness of microplane graters and mandolins.

Schmitz emphasizes that some appliances, often pitched as cool gifts during the holidays, are essentially useless. First among the pointless extravagances to avoid, he says, is a dedicated pasta cooker. All anyone needs to cook pasta is a large pot (ask any Italian grandmother).

Reporter Ron Mikulak can be reached at (502) 582-4618.