Kicking off 2017 with a quick gear rundown. Over the years I have definitely trimmed down  the amount of gear I carry with me to my clients’ homes on cookdates, but there are still some items that I consider essential.  Some are very useful; others are just a real pain to work around if you can’t find one in the client’s kitchen (I’m looking at you, potato masher). The short list:

• My knives
• My favorite wood & silicone spatulas
• Vegetable peeler and brush (everyone has a peeler; they are usually very dull/worthless)
• Corkscrew (digging the cork out of a bottle of wine for a great beef bourguignon without one is a giant pain)
• The aforementioned potato masher (lately considering swapping it out for my ricer, but that is much heavier…)
• Half a dozen sheet pans, for roasting and cooling
• Small fan for cooling food
• Grease spatter guard – minimizes mess when searing and frying
• My Squish collapsible bowl

The Squish bowl is a great addition to a personal chef’s kit because it collapses down to fit much more easily among your gear. Here’s my 5 quart Squish bowl, unSquished:

It’s big enough for mixing up all sorts of things – meatloaf, meatballs, crab cakes, all manner of doughs and batters…

And here it is, squished:

It collapses down to about 2 1/2″, and slides neatly into the bag where I carry my sheet pans and spatter guard.

I got mine here at Amazon; definitely worth checking out for a very portable option!

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