As someone who is, ahem, a bit opinionated, and who also likes to talk about food, I have become my friends’ first port of call for cooking questions.
Though I’ve fielded everything from “Why does my chicken/steak/fish always stick to the pan?” (answer: use higher heat and don’t try to move it until it lifts easily from the pan) to “Do I need to buy a Le Creuset-brand Dutch oven?” (answer: absolutely not), the question I get asked most frequently is: “What tools I actually need to cook at home?”
I get it: there are a ton of gadgets out there promising to up your kitchen game. (Looking at you, Instant Pot craze.) It can be overwhelming.
But here’s the thing: nothing–I mean nothing–matters more than a sharp knife and a good cutting board. A top-of-the-line chef’s knife won’t do you a lick of good if the knife is dull; conversely, a very sharp 12-dollar Ikea knife works amazingly well.
Can you take your knives to a professional knife sharpener? Absolutely. But wouldn’t you rather spend that money on good cheese or wine? And truly, why bother with anything else when this five-dollar sharpener works so extraordinarily well? Just run your knife a few times through the coarse slot, then through the fine slot, and voilà: a sharp knife that makes every single recipe you cook so much easier.
Plus: this guy is only a few inches long and fits easily in a knife or silverware drawer, so no excuses about having a tiny apartment kitchen.
So here you go: the Kitchen IQ 50009 Edge Grip Stage 2 Knife Sharpener.
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