Ina Garten’s favorite kitchenware (including the one she kept for almost 60 years)

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Experienced home cooks know that the kitchen is nothing without a set of reliable tools and proven gadgets. The most basic equipment will keep the plates spinning before each meal, but the real time saver comes when you cut them close. Your everyday accessories don’t have to be anything fancy to get the job done – just look at celebrity chef Ina Garten. The Barefoot Contessa kitchen is filled with handy appliances and utensils that have stood the test of time.

In Garten’s new memoir, “Be Ready When Good Luck Happens,” the Food Network star turns back the clock to the late 1960s – the beginning of her marriage – and talks about the tool she clung to for decades. “I was fascinated by everything Scandinavian – Marimekko, Dansk,” she writes. “I actually still have the spatula from our first kitchen.”

Of course, Garten’s kitchen in East Hampton, New York, is currently equipped with a spatula that’s more than a half-century old. Many of her favorite gadgets are available online with just a few clicks, from oven thermometers to must-have Dutch ovens.

Read more: 10 weekly meals to make with rotisserie chicken

Weigh yourself with a reliable kitchen scale

In the 2020 New York Times Cooking video, Ina Garten takes us on a tour of her barn kitchen where she works, and assures viewers who might be intimidated by her gorgeous tools: “I don’t have a lot of fancy equipment; have in your kitchen exactly what anyone else would have in their kitchen.” And it’s true: the real workhorses in the Garten kitchen are easily accessible gadgets like the OXO Good Grips scale.

Garten shows off the OXO scale in the video, which also appears on Contessa’s other Barefoot favorites lists, so we’re sure this is the real deal. This stainless steel scale can hold up to 11 pounds and even has a retractable display so you don’t have to crane your neck trying to see the reading under bowls and plates. Reviewers say the backlit screen and zeroing feature (which allows for easier weighing of items in containers) are nice features.

A microplane grater is a must

In 2017, Ina Garten told Bon Appétit that she swears by a good rasp. They’re great for zesting citrus fruits and adding everything from salad dressings to smoothies. Of course, you can also use a rasp to grate the cheese, which will melt the fresh mixture on your homemade nachos even better. Garten says he even uses it to grate garlic because the resulting shavings are so fine.

Ironically, this niche kitchen tool was not initially intended for cooking, but for woodworking. To combat slow sales, it was launched as a culinary gadget and it took off from there. Created by Microplane, which has now become synonymous with the tool, this family-owned business still produces the most popular graters on Amazon. The extremely useful Classic Zester is available in a variety of colors, is made of surgical stainless steel and is dishwasher safe.

The barefoot countess loves her Le Creuset

Le Creuset is a magic word in many kitchens, and for good reason. The French-Belgian cast iron cookware manufacturer produces highly sought-after enameled pots and pans in seemingly endless color options, ensuring your kitchen doesn’t lose its style in a sea of ​​chrome and black.

Naturally, like Julia Child before her, the Barefoot Contessa loves Le Creuset pots, especially the company’s Dutch ovens. This 5.5-quart Dutch oven on Amazon in classic red is definitely pricey, but with overwhelmingly positive reviews and a pedigree for lifelong durability, it certainly seems worth the plunge.

If you think you don’t need it, let’s face it. You can prepare all sorts of things in a Dutch oven, from the obvious ones like soups and stews to fluffy homemade bread, roasted chicken and juicy beef for spicy birria. It is one of the basic elements of good home cooking because you can prepare almost anything from it.

Stay sharp with a good set of knives

Another brand that Ina Garten has included in her kitchen is Wüsthof. The German knife maker has been sharpening steel for over two centuries, and the high price for a full set of its famous knives seems to reflect that heritage. But if you want just one thing from Wüsthof, Garten touts its 8-inch chef’s knife as an essential kitchen tool. She has repeatedly vouched for the brand, which appears on many online lists of the chef’s favorite dishes.

So why buy just one knife? Well, a chef’s knife is its own unique type of blade with a wide range of uses. It’s probably a star chef who can handle almost any task, from slicing and shredding to chopping and pounding. This is your faithful steed, your magic wand. But please, do not put it in the dishwasher.

Get yourself a solid oven thermometer

One last thing Ina Garten specifically recommends in her video for The New York Times: a Taylor oven thermometer. For the Barefoot Countess, you can never be sure what the temperature of the oven is. “No matter what it says on the dial,” he warns viewers, “the oven itself may be completely different.” There are plenty of options available on Amazon, but this large 3.25-inch Taylor thermometer with dial looks like a fun and sturdy one to keep in the kitchen.

It certainly makes sense why Garten would want to be especially sure about the temperature when using the oven. Baking can be an exact science and a delicate art at the same time, and experts told The Takeout that an oven thermometer is absolutely essential, especially if you’re making a cake that keeps falling when you take it out.

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