Since I've become interested in cooking I've had a fascination for cooking gadgets. whenever I happen to be in a nice cookware shop the temptation to increase my collection becomes almost overwhelming. Don't I need that olive stoner? And what about that panini grill... it looks neat. I try to control my shopping sprees and actually manage quite well IMO but not in that of my sweetest half. Yes, every now and then some new little gadget will find its way in our kitchen drawer/shelves. Since our kitchen space has reached its limit, this now means only small utensils. There are a few of these tools which will eventually become accepted , since their usefulness has proofed itself: my nice zester and the digital kitchen thermometer have finally made it into Daniela's "good gadgets" list :-). But there's one or two of them which remain a talking point or actually an arm in our little game of poking fun at each other. Of all my gadgets the no.1 bad-guy is no doubt my truffle slicer, which you see above, followed closely by the gnocchi board.
The main difference in deciding which is no.1 is the way I and Daniela judge the "uselessness" of a kitchen gadget. For me the price comes inevitably into account. My guilt feeling is inevitably directly proportional to the amount of money I spent. I don't have a problem with my 3 euro gnocchi board, but the 30 spent for the truffle slicer still bring waves of guilt feelings. On the other hand it's not as if I had bought a duck press... although... just kidding!
Daniela instead judges my gadgets from how useful they are. In this case I can't deny,the gnocchi board is the clear loser. Nothing much I can do with it except, as the name says, gnocchi. The truffle slicer has proven a lot more handy than I at first thought. It's great to make dish decorations: very thin fruit slices for dessert, chocolate curls, paper-thin cheese slices and so on. Apart slicing truffles, which up to now happened the grand total of one time. Maybe if I keep using it I'll eventually turn this into a "good gadget". Sure, if I had a real mandoline I could probably do the same things with that. And wafer chips. And slice potatoes for the perfect gratin dauphinoise. And... Ok I guess I know what I would like next ;-).
And what about you? Any skeletons in your kitchen drawer?
I would love to have even a vague reason to own a truffle slicer.
Posted by: emily b. hunt | April 13, 2004 at 06:21 PM
Hi Alberto-
Oh the skeletans in my kitchen are frightening! Actually I've become a lot better at curbing the shopping sprees due to space limitations in our kitchen too, but now I've been spending a lot of my disposable income on cookbooks, which have now reached a frightening, bordering on insane number! I could kick myself for giving away my v-slicer which is the poor mans mandoline, a tool which I never used, gave away and now suddenly find myself wanting again. oi!
Posted by: Deb | April 13, 2004 at 06:37 PM
emily: having a reason to have a truffle slicer is probably easier than one thinks, especially for those living in Italy: Apart the two really expensive black (from Norcia) and white (from Alba) truffles there are at least three other "poor man's truffles" :). Summer truffles are easier to find in shops and cheaper. Sure they are not as aromatic as the "real deal" but can be quite delicious all the same.
Deb: don't even get me started on books :-)))))!
Posted by: Alberto | April 14, 2004 at 10:45 AM
It's not that I have too many gadgets, just insufficient storage space. Aiyaya!
Posted by: umami | April 14, 2004 at 04:11 PM
Alberto, this one certainly rings a bell for me - the bottom drawer in my kitchen is full of these things. My problem is that some of them were given to me by my mother-in-law and I hate to throw them away in case she asks...and then I hate to throw ANYTHING away if it might still be useful somewhere to someone. Anyone want a sandwich grill machine (for normal bread, not panini) with an English plug?? A big shaker for (I assume) powdered cocoa?? At least I gave away the deep fat fryer the last time we moved! ;)
Posted by: Meg in Paris | April 22, 2004 at 04:08 PM
Meg, your kitchen sounds like that at my parents place... I'm still far from reaching these peaks of cooking tool-owning perfection ;-))). But I too have a "mother in law" presents problem, although not which kitchen tools!
Posted by: Alberto | April 23, 2004 at 11:30 AM
Funny, this post. I was thinking about a friend who has a wacky extended family. Whenever they get together, they have some kind of contest that entails bringing things with them. A few thanksgivings ago, the competition was to bring the weirdest kitchen gadget you could find and see how many people could tell you what it was for! It quickly deteriorated into a game that was more like name the funniest non-kitchen job for a funny kitchen tool. The pastry crimper has quite a few disturbing choices, evidentally.
Posted by: Debz | April 28, 2004 at 11:14 AM
Debz, that sounds like a family meeting I'd really enjoy attending! What were the choices for the pastry crimper ,-)?
Posted by: Alberto | April 29, 2004 at 11:43 AM