10 Must-Have Professional Kitchen Tools I Rely on in My Home Kitchen

I first encountered the high-heat spatula during culinary school, and we've been inseparable ever since. Rubber or silicone spatulas are kitchen essentials – their flexibility allows them to mold to the contours of bowls, pots, and even oddly shaped containers, while their firmness ensures you can scrape everything from cookie dough to the last bit of soup. A high-heat silicone spatula is like a Power-Up-Mario upgrade. You won’t fully appreciate the need for a heat-resistant spatula until one melts under high temperatures. Even if you’re not constantly cooking with high heat, this tool can come in handy for mixing other hot substances like artisan soaps or candle wax. Use this spatula to flip eggs, stir soups, scoop out peanut butter, or cleanly scrape every bit of cake batter into the pan in just six smooth swipes.

Here’s a blade specifically designed to be scraped across surfaces without causing your knife sharpener to panic. Depending on your purchase choice and intended use, some come with a blunt edge, while others feature a beveled knife edge. The beveled type is perfect for cutting through items that need a solid chop, though it’s not as sharp as the blade of your chef’s knife. This tool is excellent for dividing bread dough and cleaning your workspace of excess flour, but it can also assist in tasks like ingredient prep, cake icing, or crushing garlic in bulk. Click here for more details.

This is another scraper I can’t do without. The bowl scraper is a flexible plastic tool designed for, well, scraping bowls. It might not sound exciting, but you’ll appreciate grabbing this $1 item. While you can find soft silicone versions, I don’t recommend them unless you’re already fond of that texture. I personally find the plastic version works best for scraping every last bit of sticky or stubborn material out of a bowl. It’s perfect for turning bread dough during proofing, or for scraping and kneading biscuit dough, scones, pie crusts, or pasta dough. Consider it a non-stick extension of your hand, giving you full control without the dough sticking to your fingers.

At first glance, a piping bag may appear to be a tool reserved for pastry work. However, it’s actually one of the best ways to precisely dispense large amounts of soft ingredients. I use large, reusable, lined pastry bags to fill deviled eggs, prepare mini quiches, load cupcake tins, and pipe everything from choux paste to cookie dough. For smaller tasks, like melting chocolate or making delicate icing decorations (or even writing sweet notes for your valentine), small disposable piping bags are perfect.

The food industry has its fair share of waste, but one thing it gets right is towels. Instead of relying on paper towels in your home kitchen, opt for dedicated kitchen cloths. In the professional kitchens I've worked in, we used cotton towels with classic red or blue stripes, though any dish towels will work just fine. I recommend 100% cotton because they’re absorbent and free of any delicate embroidery or embellishments that might melt. Don’t use towels that you’re worried about ruining, as you’ll likely need them for cleaning up major messes, like a spill of oil or a big batch of red wine sauce. You can even fold dry towels to serve as makeshift oven mitts to handle hot pans or handles. When they’re dirty, simply toss them in a designated hamper, wash, and reuse them.

The immersion blender is my top pick when it comes to motorized blades. While a food processor and regular blender have their places, I find the immersion blender handles nearly all my needs for whipping, crushing, and liquefying. Also known as a stick blender, this compact tool is designed to be submerged directly into the container holding your ingredients, rather than the other way around. What I love most is the flexibility: you can blend two gallons of soup directly in the pot or mix eight ounces of salad dressing in a cup. No need to deal with transferring soup to a regular blender and risking an explosion from the steam. Use this versatile gadget for making mayonnaise or whipping heavy cream.

Weighing your ingredients can make a world of difference in achieving consistent results. With so many factors affecting your environment, like elevation or humidity, it’s worth eliminating one variable by using a kitchen scale. This handy tool ensures that your go-to bread recipe turns out perfectly every time, helps you portion meals, and makes it much easier to divide large recipes evenly between multiple bowls. The best part? You don’t need to break the bank on a heavy-duty industrial scale. Many reliable, accurate table models cost between $10 and $25 and can last for years.

The stand mixer is the one kitchen tool I’d call an ‘investment’—and I absolutely couldn’t live without it after using one professionally. While it’s not cheap, if you maintain it well, it could be the only one you ever need. A quality stand mixer is a powerhouse, capable of mixing, whipping, or kneading any task that might strain your hands, all at lightning speed and without the need for a muscle recovery session. Knead pizza dough, whip egg whites in under a minute, or mix your child’s favorite veggie cream cheese while you juggle a dozen other tasks. Some mixers come with attachments if you’re interested in making your own sausage or crafting homemade pasta. If you’re concerned about the cost, you can always explore the thriving resale and refurbished market for great stand mixers that are just as functional, even if they're not factory fresh or have a damaged box.

You’ve likely seen these humble containers before—whether from soup takeout or in shows like The Bear—and perhaps you've already realized just how versatile they are. The quart container is deceptively simple but incredibly handy for a wide range of tasks, from holding utensils upright to serving as an emergency water glass. What makes quart containers stand out among other reusable options is their shape. Unlike traditional containers that expand horizontally to hold more, these are tall and narrow. This design allows you to store everything from leftover ribs, gravies, frostings, to tofu in water, all without worrying about spills and making the most of your fridge's vertical space. They're especially great for freezing homemade stocks, sauces, or broths.

The pastry brush is a small, inexpensive tool that provides countless uses in the kitchen. Essentially, it's just a tiny paintbrush, typically 1 to 3 inches wide, and costs just a couple of dollars. It’s perfect for applying a glossy egg wash to your pie crust, brushing egg wash onto ravioli edges, or sealing dumpling dough with water. You can also use it to gently remove excess flour from pizza dough, grease a pan quickly with butter or oil, or coat grilling meats with mustard, marinade, or barbecue sauce.