9 Chef-Recommended Lunar New Year Cooking Essentials

With Lunar New Year just around the corner, we spoke to eight pro chefs who celebrate the holiday to hear about their beloved food traditions and the cooking tools they use to create these cherished dishes. From crispy dumplings to smoky stir-fries, these Lunar New Year specialties (and year-round favorites) wouldn’t be possible without go-to tools like a mini rolling pin, electric hot pot, bamboo steamer, carbon steel wok, and more, starting at just $7.

Chef-Recommended Lunar New Year Essentials

• Imarku 7-Inch Cleaver Knife, $33, originally $62
• Craft Wok Traditional Hand-Hammered Carbon Steel Wok, $58, originally $66
• Benriner Super Slicer Japanese Mandoline, $62, originally $80
• Joyce Chen 2-Tier Bamboo Steamer Baskets, $22, originally $26
• Food Party Hot Pot Electric Hotpot with Divider, $70, originally $80
• Rösle Stainless Steel Fine Tongs, $46, originally $52 
• Aroma Housewares 1-Quart Rice Cooker, $20, originally $25
• Walfos Mini Rolling Pin, $7, originally $8
• ElinCube Clay Pot, $33, originally $35 

Imarku 7-Inch Cleaver Knife

Chef Lijun Han of Z&Y Restaurant in San Francisco, California, highly recommends the cleaver knife. It’s “Perfect for precise chopping, slicing, and even crushing aromatics like garlic and ginger.” A cleaver like this Imarku one, that’s on sale for $33, can quickly work through all the ingredients of a Lunar New Year feast but is a year-round workhorse in the kitchen for weeknight dinners or speedy lunches.

Craft Wok Traditional Hand-Hammered Carbon Steel Wok

Mary Nguyen, chef at Olive & Finch Collective in Denver, Colorado, swears by this hand-hammered carbon steel wok for all her stir-fries, whether they’re being made for a Lunar New Year feast or a casual meal. “It heats up super quickly and evenly, and the slightly textured surface helps give food that smoky wok hei flavor you can’t replicate with anything else.”

Benriner Super Slicer Japanese Mandoline

Nguyen also relies on her Benriner mandoline slicer, which she calls her “secret weapon for perfect slices.” It can be used to quickly prep vegetables for stir-fries and saves time while keeping everything uniform.

Joyce Chen 2-Tier Bamboo Steamer Baskets

Chef Justin Lee of Fat Choy in Englewood, New Jersey, is always reaching for his bamboo steamers. “I use them to steam dumplings, fish, and vegetables,” Lee shares. “They can be stacked and used over a single heat source, so it helps in spatially challenged settings like my tiny apartment kitchen. I put these bad boys to use throughout the year because they’re wonderful tools, so please don’t relegate them solely to Lunar New Year cooking.”

Food Party Hot Pot Electric Hotpot with Divider

Every Lunar New Year, “it was the steamboat dinner, now often called hot pot, that truly captured the essence of our family traditions,” shares Isabel Chung, executive chef at Fairmont Empress in Victoria, British Columbia. Chung’s family used an electric hot pot cooker similar to this one that comes with a built-in divider for heating two different kinds of broths. “Cooking together at the table with close friends symbolized unity and the exchange of good fortune.”

Rösle Stainless Steel Fine Tongs

Anthony Nguyen, chef and co-owner at Sap Sua in Denver, Colorado, makes braised pork belly every Lunar New Year. One of his all-time favorite kitchen tools, the Rösle stainless steel kitchen tongs, helps him make perfect braised pork belly every time. “They’re sturdy yet delicate, and I love to use them when I make some of my favorite dishes.” Similar to kitchen tweezers, they have fine, pointed tips instead of the usual claws and are able to deftly grab at pieces of food to flip and turn them with precision.

Aroma Housewares 1-Quart Rice Cooker

For Maricel Gentile, chef and owner of Maricel’s Kitchen in East Brunswick, New Jersey, a rice cooker is a must-have for “perfectly cooked rice or sticky rice desserts like biko or tikoy,” two Filipino desserts that are similar to Chinese nian gao. “You don’t need to spend a lot,” Gentile adds, “Get a basic rice cooker — the one with one button.”

Walfos Mini Rolling Pin

Dumplings are a beloved staple year-round in many households, but Lunar New Year is the time to churn out hundreds for friends and family to enjoy. Brandon Jew, executive chef and owner of Mister Jiu’s in San Francisco, California, always has a mini rolling pin on hand for this kind of occasion. “They are smaller and thinner and allow you to move the dumpling skin with one hand and roll with the other.”

ElinCube Clay Pot

“Clay pots are widely used for hearty, one-pot meals,” says Jonathan Lam and Cynthia Aung-Lam, the husband-and-wife team behind Pegasus Bakery in Sacramento, California. For Lunar New Year, these clay pots are used to cook rice with lap cheong (Chinese sausage), mushrooms, and cured pork belly. “The gentle heat retention makes them ideal for year-round use in slow-cooked stews and braises.”