Under-$20 Budget Kitchen Tools and Gadgets Beloved by Pro Chefs

Most professional chefs working in hot, busy kitchens turn their noses up at cheap, gimmicky gadgetry — especially those that are one-trick ponies. If an inexpensive tool holds a place in a chef’s heart, you can be sure it’s either exceptionally useful or a total workhorse.

That sums up the collection of tools we have for you here. We asked professional chefs who spend more than 40 hours each week in sweltering fine dining kitchens to tell us about their favorite budget-friendly kitchen tools. Some of them have practical everyday applications, others arguably less so, but keep in mind that while outfitting a kitchen might include buying the finest knives or best-in-show appliances, most chefs think it means one thing: working smarter. 

Microplane Classic Zester Grater

Invented in the 1990s, Microplane’s rasp grater was initially designed for woodworking but quickly gained traction in professional kitchens. Today, the brand offers a wide range of products, but its classic handheld rasp grater is tough to beat, and no working kitchen is functional without one. While it is arguably most often used to zest citrus, Chef Joe Isidori uses it to grate Parmigiano, provolone, Asiago, and other Italian cheeses.

Isidori is the chef and owner of Arthur & Sons, which has three locations known for their old-school vibe and classic Italian-American fare. He has also helmed a range of successful kitchens, including Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beers, where he led the restaurant’s expansion to Dubai, Geneva, and Switzerland.

“I like that it gives the cheese a finer, fuller texture you can’t get from a box grater,” says Isidori. “I use it in all of my restaurants, and I always bring one along if I’m cooking at someone else’s house. It’s such a useful tool and a crowd-pleaser that I always leave it behind as a gift.”

Measuring 12 inches long and just over 1 inch wide, this tool easily fits in even the smallest kitchens. Made of surgical-grade steel, your new Micorplane is rust-resistant and has a cover.

Food Facial Beauty Cucumber Slicer

This tool, called a Facial Beauty Cucumber Slicer or Portable Beauty Knife, is a tiny pink, un-adjustable mandoline intended to slice cucumbers in spas for the benefits they offer to tired, puffy eyes. But chef and restauranteur Don Salamone considers it the ideal tool for slicing garlic wafer thin. Salamone — who owns Burger Stevens and collects vintage Italian American cookbooks — resurrected a small building in Beaverton, just outside Portland, Oregon, to launch Don’s Favorite Foods. There, he and his team serve an ever-changing prix fixe menu of Italian and French cuisine, a Jeffrey Morgenthaler-designed cocktail menu, and wines from a list curated by partner and sommelier Adam Galbraith.

“Remember that scene in Goodfellas where Paulie is slicing garlic super slow with a razor? Well, FUHGETABOUTIT!” Salamone jokes. “This little slicer is quick, consistent, and slices THIN! I use it for slicing garlic when making tomato sauce, caponata, peperonata, and the mushroom ragu that is currently on the menu at Don’s.”

Turning out garlic at a reliable 0.7mm is so useful that Salamone owns three of the handy slicers and often gives them as gifts to his cooks. He first learned about the “good enough for Goodfellas” slicer from pastry chef Lincoln Carson when they both worked for the Michael Mina Group over a decade ago. Salamone says the slicer also works for items like radishes and cucumbers but cautions that users watch their fingers, as you would with a mandoline of any size. 

Tefola Tofu Press

This dishwasher-safe tofu press has many uses for people who really love to cook at home. In addition to pressing tofu, it can make cheese or terrines. “We originally bought it for our house-made tofu, but then we started pressing anything we could. Foie gras, ricotta cheese, and now our octopus terrine,” says Chef Kevin Sippel. 

The life of a country club chef is rigorous and demanding on the best of days. Chef Sippel, who worked at Alto, L’Impero, and La Caravelle in New York and Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen in New Jersey (among others), relocated his family to be the executive chef at the Buffalo Club in 2017. While only club members have the opportunity to enjoy his food regularly, the wonders churned from that kitchen make you wish otherwise, his octopus terrine among them.

The adjustable press offers two pressure levels and comes with a large mold (approximately 6.5 x 2.5 inches) and a smaller mold (approximately 4 x 2.5 inches). The double-platen and adjustable pressure can squeeze the liquid from tofu in under 20 minutes. “We have three of them now and use them all the time,” Sippel says. “It’s a cheap and easy way to get results that otherwise would take much more time.”

Winco Fish Spatula

Fish spatulas, also known as “fish spats,” are thin, perfectly angled, flexible spatulas ideal for turning just about anything over, no matter how delicate or thin, including pancakes, fish filets, and a multitude of other items cooked on a griddle or stovetop.

“The fish spatulas I currently use are Winco,” says Chef Mike Andrzejewksi, a three-time James Beard semi-finalist, and the executive chef of Florida’s Roka Hula.

“The Winco fish spatula pretty much fits the bill, both at the restaurant and at home. It’s a good size with a short wooden handle that isn’t too flimsy or stiff. I use fish spatulas for any sauté work, gentle grill moves, and cooking any kind of protein,” says Andrzejewski.

Earlywood Wooden Cooking Utensil

More kinds of spatulas are on the market than we can count, and they all have their fans. This one, from Earlywood, is made of hardwood and is the preferred spatula of Chef Joseph Fenush, the co-owner and co-chef of Waxlight Bar á Vin, a two-time James Beard-nominated restaurant. The chef, who worked as a sous chef at Volt in Maryland and headed the restaurant inside the Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, loves this spatula’s unique, compact shape with flat sides. “It is super versatile and easy to clean,” he says. “I’ve used these for spatulas for 7 or 8 years now. I recall coming across them in an online article discussing culinary gift recommendations. I’ve purchased multiple sizes multiple times.”

The version featured here is listed as size medium (approximately 11 inches long) and comes in jatoba, bloodwood, hardwood, and maple. Additional sizes include small and large and a set of three, one in each size.

“It makes scraping and deglazing fond far more efficient,” says Fenush. “The flat edges allow it to accomplish tasks where you would use a bench scraper — and it’s great for opening pop tops on beers and sodas.”

Kamenoko Tawashi Vegetable Scrub Brush

Fenush also swears by tawashi brushes, a multi-purpose scrub brush invented over a century ago. Tawashi are made from natural palm fibers and are known for their versatility and durability.

“A tawashi is delicate enough to safely use on nonstick cookware yet abrasive enough to do the job on porous wooden cutting boards,” he says. “It will get into tough corners, like those on baking trays, and is perfect for scrubbing the outside of oysters and other shellfish as well as carrots, radishes, and other root vegetables you might prefer not to peel.”

The variety Fenush prefers, from Fable, is 100% biodegradable and measures approximately 3.5 x 4 inches. “It was a random internet discovery,” he recalls. “The tawashi has been an essential tool in my restaurant and home kitchen for at least five years. They are easily run through a dishwasher and can last for months if not years.”

Legerm Cake Icing Spatulas

We’ve talked a lot about spatulas, which, besides a knife, might be the most essential tool in a pro kitchen. Ivy Knight spent ten years on the line before becoming a food writer. She also runs @allezceline, the world’s only restaurant parody account fronted by a certain French Canadian superstar diva.

The account has over 57k followers, including many well-respected industry pros. Spend any time swiping through Knight’s multitude of insider memes, and you’ll notice a theme: an obsession with offset spatulas.

“I was never a pastry chef,” says Knight. “But I’m really speaking as a tournant because I worked on most of the stations, and as such, I found that the skinniest offset is the most useful offset. You want it skinny and 4 to 6 inches in length. If you’re working a flat top and flipping burgers or dealing with a lot of chopped meat or hash, you might want the largest offset — it’s perfect for scooping, sweeping, and chopping.”

“Now that I’m no longer in the kitchen, the offset is ideal for sliding around muffins or cupcakes to get them out of the pan without crushing them. The same goes for any loaves or cakes. And if you’re messing around with whipped cream or meringue — a pie, pavlovas, a dish of Jello, an ice cream sandwich cake — the offset will turn your sloppy swirls into works of art.”

Nordic WareNonstick Baking & Cooling Grid

“I’ve been using these since I started cooking professionally about 28 years ago,” says Chef Jennifer Boye. “They last a long time if you treat them right. I like to have two or three on hand if I’m cooking for a large group.”

Boye knows a thing or two about cooking for large groups after years of managing the food service operations for a top-of-the-line boutique hotel. Today, she’s running a much smaller kitchen, one attached to Moriarty Meats, a European-style butcher shop and cafe. Boye is a savory chef by trade but a pastry chef at heart. 

“I like to roast chickens and other meats on it because it allows for a crispy skin and more even roasting because your meat isn’t sitting in its juices as it cooks. I also use it to cool all my breads, rolls, and cookies after baking. Doing so ensures that the bottoms of your baked goods don’t get soggy because of steam buildup, and also prevents your items from becoming overdone due to carryover cooking from your hot pan.”

Two other uses for which Boye relies on these non-stick grid-style cooling racks? 

Boye learned from a dishwasher/prep cook tasked with producing a large quantity of guacamole that you can press the halved, pitted, and skinned avocados through the rack placed over a large bowl. This results in perfectly diced avocado in a fraction of the time a knife could wield.

It’ll also make a large batch of spaetzle a breeze by applying a similar approach: Set the rack over boiling water and press the dough through it. 

Framendino Bamboo Fan

It seems obvious that a fan could help control heat by introducing additional oxygen to any cooking fire. At Waxlight Bar á Vin, co-chef and co-owner Edward Forster and his team embrace using Japanese binchotan charcoal, using an uchiwa to fan the flames. Uchiwa is a traditional Japanese paddle fan, often made of paper, sometimes of hand-woven bamboo. 

“Charcoal is expensive,” he notes. “It’s an accelerator when you need it. It’s great to get wood chips smoking for barbeque or smoked veggies. Heat control is one of the most important things in professional cooking. When you need high heat at a moment’s notice, in comes the uchiwa. We have used an uchiwa in the kitchen since we opened the restaurant almost five years ago,” he recollects.

Williams Sonoma Egg Peeler

Peeling eggs shouldn’t be as hard as it is. There are dozens of hacks and tricks out there: using room-temperature eggs, starting with hot water, starting with cold water, steaming the eggs, adding vinegar, etc. And that doesn’t even touch the hundreds of truly bizarre gadgets designed to ease the task (go ahead and google if you don’t believe us).

Chef Edward Forster swears by an inexpensive tool to peel eggs with little to no frustration. “I first learned of it from the team at Tipico, my local cafe. They use it to crack and peel eggs all day, every day. I have one at work and one at home,” he admits. “ It makes the task fantastically clean, fast, and efficient.”