Chef Holly Dalton.
Bobby’s Wine Bar & Cocu, Dublin
A kitchen gadget that I only bought a few months ago but now cant live without is a rice cooker. It makes the best sticky rice as well as pancakes and is great for steaming vegetables and dumplings too.
Even adding a few simple ingredients like spices and sesame oil to rice while it’s in the rice cooker can make a huge impact. Much more so than if it’s just cooked in a pot. It also saves on hob space which is always at a premium. I honestly use it as least four or five times a week. Total game changer.
Chef Takashi Miyazaki.
Ichigo Ichi and
Miyazaki, Cork
I couldn’t live without my shark-skin grater for Japanese wasabi – I only use it for wasabi. You can get wasabi grown in Ireland, but Japanese wasabi has an element of sweetness.
Chef Takashi's shark skin wasabi grater.
I don’t use a steel grater. If the grater is too sharp, the wasabi will be too rough. Shark skin adds more oxygen to the paste. Around 400 years ago Japanese carpenters used to use shark skin for timber, as sandpaper – that’s where we got the idea for wasabi.
Chef Jess Murphy.
Kai Restaurant, Galway
I’m going to say that my favourite kitchen appliance is the toasted sandwich maker. In New Zealand we call them Jaffles. You can really sexy-up your sandwiches with them; they’re the hottest thing since the panini. Using amazing farmhouse Irish cheese and real, full-fat butter – a sandwich maker makes the most delicious hot-pockets full of cheese. On a winters day, with a cup of tomato soup? You can’t go wrong.
Chef Eric Theze.
La Boheme,
Waterford
My mother gave us her potato ricer 30 years ago – before that, she must have used it for at least the same amount of time. It really does make the best mashed potatoes.
Chef Eric's favourite home kitchen tool: the potato ricer his mother used to use in France.
My mother, Josette’s, claim to fame was most definitely her pommes purée. Freshly dug organic potatoes, steamed and finished with as much butter as possible to make them creamy. The colour of daffodils, so much butter was added – that was most definitely where my love of food started.
Chef Wade Murphy.
Restaurant 1826
Limerick
My favourite kitchen gadget is definitely a microplane grater. I first came across microplanes properly when I worked in Chicago in 2005 and I use them all the time now. I couldn’t go about my day-to-day kitchen work without one. We use one regularly at home, too. They grate much more finely and consistently than your average box grater and take up very little space in your kitchen drawer. We use them in so many different ways; zesting fruit, grating garlic, ginger, other vegetables and spices, grating cheese and, every once in a while, finishing a dish with some finely grated truffle (that doesn’t happen too often though).
Chef Grainne O'Keefe.
Clanbrassil House, Dublin
My essential kitchen utensil for cooking at home is my chef’s knife. I find it difficult to cook at home if I don’t have a really sharp knife that I’m used to.
My knife was custom-made by Fingal Ferguson and is my favourite kitchen tool. It’s essential to have a really sharp knife, and if you’re a home cook, it’s something that can cut down your prep time and reduce your food waste.
I always advise home cooks to invest in a good quality knife and look after it properly. It can also be a good hobby – buy a wetstone (online) and learn how to keep your blade nice and sharp.
Chef Holly Dalton.
Bobby’s Wine Bar & Cocu, Dublin
A kitchen gadget that I only bought a few months ago but now cant live without is a rice cooker. It makes the best sticky rice as well as pancakes and is great for steaming vegetables and dumplings too.
Even adding a few simple ingredients like spices and sesame oil to rice while it’s in the rice cooker can make a huge impact. Much more so than if it’s just cooked in a pot. It also saves on hob space which is always at a premium. I honestly use it as least four or five times a week. Total game changer.
Chef Takashi Miyazaki.
Ichigo Ichi and
Miyazaki, Cork
I couldn’t live without my shark-skin grater for Japanese wasabi – I only use it for wasabi. You can get wasabi grown in Ireland, but Japanese wasabi has an element of sweetness.
Chef Takashi's shark skin wasabi grater.
I don’t use a steel grater. If the grater is too sharp, the wasabi will be too rough. Shark skin adds more oxygen to the paste. Around 400 years ago Japanese carpenters used to use shark skin for timber, as sandpaper – that’s where we got the idea for wasabi.
Chef Jess Murphy.
Kai Restaurant, Galway
I’m going to say that my favourite kitchen appliance is the toasted sandwich maker. In New Zealand we call them Jaffles. You can really sexy-up your sandwiches with them; they’re the hottest thing since the panini. Using amazing farmhouse Irish cheese and real, full-fat butter – a sandwich maker makes the most delicious hot-pockets full of cheese. On a winters day, with a cup of tomato soup? You can’t go wrong.
Chef Eric Theze.
La Boheme,
Waterford
My mother gave us her potato ricer 30 years ago – before that, she must have used it for at least the same amount of time. It really does make the best mashed potatoes.
Chef Eric's favourite home kitchen tool: the potato ricer his mother used to use in France.
My mother, Josette’s, claim to fame was most definitely her pommes purée. Freshly dug organic potatoes, steamed and finished with as much butter as possible to make them creamy. The colour of daffodils, so much butter was added – that was most definitely where my love of food started.
Chef Wade Murphy.
Restaurant 1826
Limerick
My favourite kitchen gadget is definitely a microplane grater. I first came across microplanes properly when I worked in Chicago in 2005 and I use them all the time now. I couldn’t go about my day-to-day kitchen work without one. We use one regularly at home, too. They grate much more finely and consistently than your average box grater and take up very little space in your kitchen drawer. We use them in so many different ways; zesting fruit, grating garlic, ginger, other vegetables and spices, grating cheese and, every once in a while, finishing a dish with some finely grated truffle (that doesn’t happen too often though).
Chef Grainne O'Keefe.
Clanbrassil House, Dublin
My essential kitchen utensil for cooking at home is my chef’s knife. I find it difficult to cook at home if I don’t have a really sharp knife that I’m used to.
My knife was custom-made by Fingal Ferguson and is my favourite kitchen tool. It’s essential to have a really sharp knife, and if you’re a home cook, it’s something that can cut down your prep time and reduce your food waste.
I always advise home cooks to invest in a good quality knife and look after it properly. It can also be a good hobby – buy a wetstone (online) and learn how to keep your blade nice and sharp.
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: