What Should I Have in My Kitchen Before Hiring a Chef?

One of the first questions our clients will ask us is, What do I need to have in my kitchen?

Here is a list to get you started. As personal chefs, we are skilled at working with what we have. This means you don't need to go out and buy top-of-the-line cookware or remodel your kitchen. We are flexible and can work in most environments. There are however a few required items and tools that are nice to have.

We bring our own knives, so do not worry about having a full knife block or sharpening your knives.

Required in your kitchen:

• Working stove with at least 4 burners

• Working oven

• 1 large saute pan

• 1 medium/small saute pan

• 1 large stock pot

• 1 medium sauce pan

• A fridge and freezer that keep food at proper temps

• Whisk, tongs, mixing spoons, spatulas

• Measuring spoons, measuring cups

• Can opener

• Blender, food processor, or stick blender (immersion blender)

We can get by without a blender, but it does limit the type of meals we can prepare
(think sauces, soups, pureed veggies, etc.)

• At least 4 mixing bowls of varying sizes

• At least 2 full-size baking sheets

• 1 9x12 glass/aluminum baking dish

• 1 bread loaf pan

• Muffin tin (if desiring muffins at any point)

• 8"-9" Round pie dish

• 2 Cutting boards

• Strainer

• Parchment paper, aluminum foil

• Saran wrap

• Paper towels

• 4 Clean dish towels

• Dish soap

• Sponge/dish scrubber

Nice to have:

• Kitchen shears

• Multiples of tongs, whisks, bowls, cutting boards, pans etc.

• Pizza stone

• Stand mixer (if you like fresh bread/pizza dough then a stand mixer is required)

• Pasta roller if you desire fresh pastas

• Microplane/Zester

• Cheese grater

• Citrus juicer

• Dutch oven

• Fine mesh strainer

Another common question is:

What kind of storage containers/tupperware do I need?

Here are my favorite containers for meal prep.

Your storage containers do not need to be uniform or high end. As long as we have something to store meals in that can be stacked in the fridge that is enough. Please discard the previous weeks meals and wash containers so that we have clean containers to put your meals in.

We recommend having:

• 4-6 - 4qt. size glass or plastic containers with locking lids for main entree items like soups, curries, large grain salads, cooked meat, etc.

• 2-4 - 1 cup size containers for sauces and side ingredients

• 4-6 - 2qt size containers for side items like salads, cooked grains and roasted vegetables

• Ziplock bags or reusable bags for leftover ingredients (half an onion, extra herbs, etc.)