Chefs and Their Favorite Kitchen Tools

You probably would not be surprised that some chefs prefer using expensive, high-end, rather esoteric kitchen tools. What you may not know is that an equal number are happy with inexpensive and ordinary utensils.

Recently, I asked chefs around the San Francisco Bay Area about their favorite gastronomical gadgets. Their answers might surprise you.

HOWARD BULKA
Chef, Marche, Menlo Park, Calif.

Bulka, who opened the renowned Marche in 2001, has a favorite kitchen tool that reflects his Polish roots: an F. Dick sausage stuffer. "It's kind of a Rube Goldberg-looking contraption," said Bulka, describing how the mechanism fills the casings. "We don't make sausage here very often, but when we do, we really get into it."

The other item he can't do without is a digital kitchen scale. His is from Williams-Sonoma and cost $60, a small price to pay, he said.

"We bought it for a visiting pastry chef who worked in grams," recalls Bulka, who notes that now the scale is used all the time for measuring spices and other ingredients. "It saves us so much time," and ensures precise renderings of Bulka's recipes.

As for the sausage stuffer, it's a bit pricier than the scale. F. Dick sausage stuffers start at $500 and go up into the several-thousand-dollar range.

MICHAEL DUNN
Chef/Partner, Yankee Pier, San Jose, Calif.

Dunn has two tools he couldn't do without - his 10-inch chef's knife and his zester.

At Santana Row's Yankee Pier, American-style seafood reigns supreme. A good knife is a must for slicing fish, and that's where Dunn's 10-inch chef's knife comes in handy.

Dunn likes the versatility of this particular knife, and butchers all his fish, meat and poultry with it. It's also his tool of preference for slicing and dicing vegetables.

He recommends either Henckels or Forschner knives. "The Forschner brand is less expensive and good because if you lose it or someone uses it you can replace it more easily," he said. "The Henckels is a heavier knife and I have always liked the feel of it." A Forschner chef's knife will run you about $25, while a Henckels is $150.