# ‘Hands down my favourite bit of kit’: 13 kitchen gadgets top chefs can’t live without

We asked some of the UK’s finest cooks and restaurateurs about the tools that make all the difference, from tomato knives to stick blenders.

So which gadgets and tools will make your kitchen life complete (and perhaps more enjoyable)? We asked some of the UK’s top chefs about the things they couldn’t live without.

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## The best kitchen gadgets – chosen by chefs

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## Meera Sodha, Feast columnist and author of *Dinner*



**Ikea Koncis garlic press**

  
  
  


“My tomato knife, which a friend gifted to me from Greece. It’s a very fine, small, serrated, curved knife; nothing expensive, but it’s a gamechanger. Being Greek-Cypriot I eat a lot of tomatoes, and if you cut them with a normal chef’s knife, you’re going to squish them. It’s one of my favourite things in my kitchen.”

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## Rukmini Iyer, Feast columnist, pastry chef, and judge on TV’s Junior Bake Off



**Sage the Barista Express**



“I love grinding spices in my mortar and pestle for Thai sauces. I love the movement, I love the look of them, and they’re just a really good tool to have. I have a medium-sized one and then a small rough one that someone gave me.”

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## Paul Ainsworth, chef-owner of Paul Ainsworth at No 6, Padstow and author of *For the Love of Food*



**Japanese handheld mandolin slicer**



“I’m not sure you can call it a gadget, but my absolute favourite item in the kitchen is a substantial wooden chopping board. There’s something so satisfying about working on a well-made one.”

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## Mitch Tonks, founder of the Corrigan Collection



**Japanese handheld mandolin slicer**

  


“I would hate to live without my Japanese mandolin, with all its different sliced attachments. It’s such a quick and tidy way of slicing veg and fruit, and just about halves the prep time – just watch those fingers!”

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## Rachel Roddy, Feast columnist, pastry chef, and judge on TV’s Junior Bake Off



**Magimix Juice Expert 3 in 1 juicer**

  


“My Sage bean to cup coffee machine. It adds a significant amount of happiness to my kitchen; there’s no good coffee where I live and I really don’t like drinking burnt, scalding, poorly made coffee. The ritual of putting it on in the morning always makes me smile – sad, but true.”

### For more, see our expert’s 

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## Richa
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