5 KITCHEN ITEMS THAT ARE A WASTE OF SPACE AND MONEY
During the pandemic it seemed like every other week there was a new kitchen trend that went viral. Sour dough, Dalgona Coffee, Banana Bread, you name it, it had its 15 minutes. Many new and exotic kitchen appliances also became trendy and most were overpriced, space-guzzling items that, in my opinion, no one should have in their kitchen.
In a society constantly looking for hacks and shortcuts, it is no surprise that kitchenwares are one of the most profitable markets out there. With a variety of products ranging from ingenious tools to large countertop appliances, it can be hard to tell which are worth the cash and which you should leave at the store.
Here are the products I think we can all live without.
The Air Fryer $80-$500
One of the first products to go viral during the pandemic, the Air Fryer took the internet by storm.
It doesn’t even use “new” technology, it used to be one of those Shopping Network infomercial products, and now it’s back cosplaying as an innovative new kitchen tool
What even is an Air Fryer?
Blue Jean Chef (Youtube) says it’s a “small compact cylindrical countertop convection oven”. It’s a small countertop oven. If you already have an oven you don’t need this. Anything you can do in an Air Fryer you can do in an oven. It is marketed towards the busy young professional and the busy mom. Though an Air Fryer is “small”, most young professionals live in closet sized apartments that don’t have enough storage for the stuff they already have let alone this appliance. Any illusion of time saved is wasted for a mother of 2 (or more) due to the small basket/tray size.
I watched my dad make chicken wings for five people with an Air Fryer. He had to portion the wings into 6 servings to make sure there was no crowding, so that we got those promised crispy edges. Each portion took 20-30 minutes to cook, for just over two and a half hours of total cooking time. When he could have done them all in one go on the BBQ in 20 minutes and they would have been just as delicious. Maybe moreso.
Verdict: if you live alone and have a massive kitchen with lots of counter and storage space then this product is for you. If not, use your oven. It’s a powerful tool and can do amazing things.
Instant Pot $80-250
Another pandemic trend to take up valuable space on your counter. Most people bought an Instant Pot thinking it was like the beloved Crockpot slowcooker. It isn’t. You can use it like a slow cooker, but by design the Instant Pot is a pressure cooker. It cooks food quickly under pressure created by steam. My grandmother has the pot style pressure cooker and uses it for steaming vegetables.
There have been reports of people using the Instant Pot, forgetting to select the slow cooker function, then BANG. It explodes. If you want to make a throw-everything-in-one-pot-set-it-and-forget-it-dinner-is-ready-when-you-come-home get yourself a crockpot and leave the Instant Pot on the shelf.
Knife Block Kits $60-$2,000
Knives are an essential part of every kitchen. They are an extension of yourself. Knives are so personal that when you work in a commercial kitchen you have to bring your own set.
There are dozens of knife types out there, from the ubiquitous chef’s knife, to the cleaver, to paring knives and everything in between. It's easy to be seduced by the different styles and want to buy the whole lot, which makes knife block kits so enticing. On the low end, for a couple hundred dollars you can get a 6-8 piece knife kit with a place to store them. What a deal! Not always. These kits are often a perfect example of quantity over quality.
Yes you are getting six knives for the price of one chef’s knife, but those six knives are of lower quality than the one knife, unless you are splurging on the $2,000.00 kits. These kits also include knives the everyday home cook has no business using, like the boning knife, and multiple sizes of the same chef’s knife. Unless you are a chef, you really only need 3-4 knives:
8 inch chef’s knife
6 inch utility knife
A paring knife
Serrated bread knife (optional)
The best part of buying your knives individually is you can customize your kit. Maybe you want your paring knife in one style and your chef’s knife in a different one. Buying individually gives you full control over your collection. I use the Zwilling Pro collection. I love the curved bolster, it saves me from blisters when spending a weekend meal prepping.
Now, how to store your knives. I personally don’t have extra counter space so a block just doesn't work for me, and I only have 3 drawers in my kitchen that are full with other stuff. So I keep my knives in a leather roll. I have been told by my friend Katy that my choice in knife storage isn’t the most practical, but I like it. If, like her, you disagree with my storage method there are two alternatives to the knife roll that I think work great. First, there’s the magnetic strip, which is exactly as it says it is. You install it on a wall and your knives stick to it since they are steel. Secondly, there’s the universal knife holder, a cylinder filled with knife safe filler that you just plunge your knives into.
At the end of the day if you're looking for something budget friendly then go for the knife block kits, but if you want something that lasts and is exactly what you need, no more, no less, buy your knives individually.
Sous Vide $29-$1,000
The first time I ever saw a sous vide was when I worked at the Cluny Bistro in Toronto’s Distillery District. There were only two dishes that used it when I worked there, the poached eggs for brunch, and the foie gras. I could never get my head around it, they kept calling it a water bath but it just never made sense to me. They would put meat in this plastic bag, vacuum seal it then put it in this water tub and leave it for hours. I grew up in a very granola home so cooking food in plastic was a big NO, and this just weirded me out.
In my opinion, it's the stupidest thing ever created. Put food in a condom and slowly cook it. The sous vide has been used for decades in restaurants of all calibers, and it should stay there. No home cook should be using this in their kitchen. The consumer models are inconsistent and I find the food slimy. Just save your money and go to a Michelin star restaurant instead.
Egg Yolk Separator $5-$250
Lots of dessert recipes require separated eggs. Custards, meringue, sponge, mouse, everyone at some point will need to separate an egg. Raw eggs are gross. They're slimy, wet, sticky, not to mention the fear our mothers instilled in us from ingesting raw eggs and getting salmonella (FYI salmonella is found on egg shells, not in eggs). You find yourself wanting to make a rich creme pâtissière for a french strawberry tart for tonight’s potluck and now you need to separate some eggs. Tik Tok and the craft hack channels will convince you to buy a super cute silicone fish contraption or an empty water bottle to suck the yolk out of the whites. Or if you’re really fancy, you can splurge on a gravity egg separator from Design & Realization. You don’t need any of these, you have two hands. The simplest method is to crack the egg into your hand and then the whites slip through your fingers, pinch the little white cord off the yolk, and drop the yolk where you need it. If you don’t want to “play” with the egg in your bare hands, you can crack the egg and toggle it between the two shells until you have a separated egg.
Simple as that.