A good cook not only relies on his or her cooking skills, ingredient know-how, and experience with the cooking techniques and traditions of a cuisine.

1. Cooking
Equipments
A good cook not only
relies on his or her
cooking skills,
ingredient know-how,
and experience with
the cooking
techniques and
traditions of a cuisine.
Being familiar with
cooking equipment
helps a lot too. Having
the right cookware,
cutlery, utensil, and
appliance will help make you a better cook, aside from making cooking
faster, easier, and more enjoyable.
While it’s not necessary to have a complete range of cooking equipment, as
a home cook you should have at least the basic ones such as a pot and
ladle, knife and chopping board, frying pan, sauce pan, and gas or electric
range. If you bake, you should have a mixing bowl, spatula, baking pan and
sheet, measuring cups and spoons.
Invest on the other cooking equipments as you see a need for them.
Here are some of the cooking equipments of a complete kitchen:
Cookware
Cookware includes the pots and pans that will contain the food while you’re
cooking them over the stovetop or inside the oven. Have a basic pot along
wide your saucepans, stock pot, large sauté pan or frying pan. Expand the list
to a non-stick, cast iron skillet (for when you want to finish cooking in the oven
after pre-cooking over the stove top, these are usually oven-proof); casserole
dishes (glass, ceramic, non-stick), and a large wok (if you like stir-frying). Other
types of cookware you’ll want to stock your kitchen with include a Dutch
oven and a roasting pan especially if you plan to roast meats, whole fish and
poultry. As much as possible, buy good quality cookware that you can use for
a long time safely and with minimal maintenance.
Cutlery and Kitchen Utensils
For food preparation, the home cook should have a set of kitchen cutlery
such as a chef’s knife, paring knife, bread knife, cleaver, and kitchen shears.
A chef’s knife made of high-carbon steel that is about eight inches long will
most likely meet all of your slicing and dicing needs. To handle, stir, turn, flip
and scoop the food with, have a good set of tools such as a slotted spoon,
turner, spoon, masher, ladle and a pasta fork. Include also a strainer for pasta
noodles and one for other foods.

2. Baking Equipment
If you do a lot of baking, it pays to have the basic pans and
baking equipment since baking is an exact science. Measuring
cups and spoons are essential for the baker. Mixing bowls will
contain your cookie and bread dough, cake batter and
pastries. Get them as stainless steel mixing bowls of various sizes
or microwave-safe glass bowls. Have on hand a rolling pin, flour sifter, pastry
brush, pie and cake server, or cookie cutters. Finally, to cook delicious cakes,
cookies, brownies, and pies, you must have a flat baking sheet, round cake
pan, springform pan, muffin pan, or bundt cake pan.
Appliances
Must-have cooking appliances include basics like a toaster oven, blender,
hand mixer or stand mixer, microwave. Each has its own functions and
specific foods to handle. Add a rice cooker, deep fryer, coffee maker, slow
cooker, bread machine, coffee grinder, ice cream machine, waffle maker,
griller, or sandwich maker depending on how much your household
consumes the foods that these appliances can churn out or cook.