When you want to get really serious about cooking, there’s certain equipment and standard ingredients in which you should definitely be willing to invest a bit more money. Some items will increase your food budget, but others are one-off purchases that if you choose well, you’ll likely never have to replace them, or at least not for many, many years.
1. Kosher Salt
You should always keep at least one premium form of salt on hand in your kitchen. When looking at the huge range of salt available, Kosher salt really comes out on top. Kosher salt is an exquisite gourmet salt, but generally more widely available and affordable than rarer types such as Himalayan pink salt.
You should always remain open to other special salts when you’re cooking certain regional or international cuisine, but as a luxury “go-to” seasoning, it’s really hard to beat Kosher salt.
2. Professional-Quality Knife Set and Sharpener
Knives help chefs of every kind, but if you’re also a serious eater of meat and fish, then you really need the right kind of knives to help prepare those foods right. Top-quality knives don’t come cheap, but when you have that kind of quality at your fingertips, it’s like Gordon Ramsay says: “let the knife do the work.” When you have inferior knives, you’re doing all the work and you actually increase your chances of slipping and other things going wrong.
3. Top-End Pots and Pans
Cookware is more advanced than you know, with incredible cutting-edge non-stick pans, air-gapped technology to increase the evenness of a cook, and much more. Some of these pans can run into the hundreds of dollars for a set, and easily break the $100 when bought alone, but they are typically built not just with great features, but superior durability and will likely be a one-off purchase. Cheaping out on pots and pans is a false economy, especially if the handle breaks, unleashing scalding-hot food, stock, or water all over your kitchen and you!
4. Premium Vanilla
As ingredients go, vanilla is just superb. The best vanilla may come in fresh pods, or in powder form, or even as an extract, but investing in real quality delivers results. There’s barely any form of sweet food or dessert that can’t be elevated to the stratosphere by a good helping of the best vanilla.
Though there are several leading vanilla-producing nations, it is commonly thought that Madagascar is the best, and indeed is the world’s leading vanilla exporter. Other worthy candidates include Mexico, Indonesia, Uganda, and Tahiti.
5. High-Quality Olive Oil
Some people believe that expensive oil is really just a big con, but they’re wrong. In some ways, olive oil is like wine or malt whisky. When it’s blended, it’s cheaper, but when it’s made from olives from a single grove, it’s pure and considered higher-end, which pushes up the price. The fact is that high-quality olive oil is better because it is more effective at drawing out the natural savoury flavours of the foods, especially vegetables. It also tends to have a richer flavour profile itself, adding greater depth to your cooking.
6. A High-End Blender
Finally, blenders are for much more than making smoothies. Nowadays, blenders are incredibly smart and can actually be like having your own sous-chef in the kitchen, at one blending and cooking up soups, purees, sauces, and more. Usually when you buy a more expensive blender, the difference is in the quality and strength of the blades. Stronger, more durable blades get the job done better, and can handle a wider range of ingredients.