Blue Jean Chef

I moved homes recently. I didn’t move far. In fact, only moving two blocks from my old apartment, I didn’t even leave the zip code. Still, whether moving two blocks or across the world, I had to pack up all my belongings nonetheless. Moving is hard, and packing is an ordeal. [...]

I moved homes recently. I didn’t move far. In fact, only moving two blocks from my old apartment, I didn’t even leave the zip code. Still, whether moving two blocks or across the world, I had to pack up all my belongings nonetheless. Moving is hard, and packing is an ordeal. Despite the number of times I have relocated across the country, I still feel inexperienced in the art of packing. The good thing about this relocation, was that I had the luxury of time – an overlapping month in both places. This month was a luxury for which I paid, but it came with the dilemma of living in two places at one time. Where to sleep? Where to eat? When do I move my office? When should I carry over my bathroom supplies? There are challenges to bi-dwelling living and there were many decisions to make.

One of the most interesting decisions forced upon me involved my kitchen. I realize that there is a high probability that I have more kitchen equipment than most people, being in my current occupation as a cookware representative. That doesn’t mean, however, that I have extraneous kitchen supplies. I’m just very well equipped. There came a time last month when I had to decide what, in my kitchen was going into a box, and what items would be left out for daily use. What basic equipment did I need to get me through a couple of weeks? Here’s what I chose.

One 7 quart hard anodized aluminum stockpot with a stainless steel lid. I kept this pot out of the boxes because I felt the need for the security of a large pot. I think the last time I had more than two people over for dinner was some time in 2000, but you never know… maybe I’d suddenly be descended upon by swarms of guests and have to cook large quantities of food. (right.) Still, I might need to cook pasta or something else requiring lots of room, and well … I just needed the security, so the 7 quart stockpot escaped “the box”.

One 3 quart hard anodized aluminum saucepan with steamer insert. I don’t really steam foods often enough to warrant keeping this pan with me, but I like a 3 quart saucepan. It’s a useful size – in between large and small. I decided this pan would be my do-it-all pan (when I wasn’t entertaining crowds that is!).

One 9 inch hard anodized aluminum crêpe pan. Ok. This one was sort of a mistake. I had been holding a 10” skillet out of the box to use as my primary cooking piece, but I ended up giving it away to a friend. The 9” crêpe pan was left in its place. The crêpe pan wasn’t that effective at tossing foods around, unless I was actually aiming for the back of the stove and wall, but it did serve its purpose as a sautéing or frying surface. It worked more like a griddle than a skillet, but it got me by.

One wooden reamer. I love my wooden reamer. In the course of my career, I’ve been given most of my kitchenware, but this is one item that I actually bought. It could very well be the least expensive item in my kitchen (I can’t say I’m a big spender), but I would chose nothing over my reamer when juicing a lemon, lime, or orange. Did I use it during the two weeks of my relocation? Probably not, but I would take it with me to a desert island if need be, so it remained out of “the box”.

One metal wire whisk. I once visited my best friend long before she was married, and was shocked to discover in her kitchen the absence of not only a whisk, but a cutting board too. I felt a little restricted chopping garlic on the cardboard of a box of anchovies and not being able to whisk together a mayonnaise (why I felt the need to make a mayonnaise at that time is lost in memory), so I went out immediately and bought her both. I wasn’t going to be trapped in the same situation again, so during my move, my whisk was saved from being packed.

One plastic cutting board. Many people have multiple cutting boards. I am amongst them. I have three cutting boards (one is really a pizza peel), but the one that I kept out of the packing boxes was my bright orange plastic board with little rubber semicircles on the bottom which make it stable on any counter surface. At about 13 inches by 10 inches, it is the perfect size for daily jobs. The big cutting board and the pizza peel were packed.

One wooden spoon. There is no replacement for a wooden spoon, no matter what anyone says.

One can opener. This was another slip up on my part. I packed all my canned foods, but I kept my can opener. Now that’s thinking!

One pair of metal locking tongs with silicone handles. I can’t live in the kitchen without my tongs. In saying this, I apologize to Chef Michel, my chef mentor who hated tongs and wouldn’t let any of us use them in his presence. He maintained that if you start using tongs to grab food, you start using them for everything and they become a fixed extension of your hand. I have to admit, this is somewhat true. I haven’t yet brushed my teeth with tongs in my hand, but I have seen line cooks become so attached to their tongs that they keep them in their back pocket. I’d have to ban tongs from my kitchen too if I started acting like that, but so far I have too much respect for my clothing to fall prey to such behaviour.

One aluminum half sheet pan. I used to have many half sheet pans. I don’t know if I thought that one day I would go into catering and need a surplus of these pans, but I’ve collected them over the years. With this move, I downsized and got rid of most of my half sheet pans, keeping a total of two. One was packed. One stayed out to help me through the move.

One perfectly round stainless steel bowl. Of all the kitchen items I have sold and stumbled across in my career, this, believe it or not, is the item I use more than any other. I love this bowl. It is perfectly round and consequently sits on a ring stand so it doesn’t wobble all over the counter. It has a handle made out of part of the lip of the bowl and holds about 3 quarts. It is simple, but so useful. I toss salads in it. I mix batters in it. I mix everything in it. It will never leave my kitchen, but will forever sit on my counter like a trophy, ready for use at any moment. My mother says that leaving kitchen equipment out on the counter is the only way to really use it. She has a point, and that is probably a large part of the reason why this simple, perfectly round bowl is the most used item I own.

There you have it. My list of items I chose to keep on hand during my two block relocation – my kitchen security blanket, so to speak. I actually made the decision of what not to pack away very quickly when a friend came over to help me on the spur of the moment. Had I given the idea more thought, perhaps a few more items might have stayed out of boxes. Maybe a few items might have been packed away from the light of day until I reached my new home (like the can opener). Sometimes, however, the outcome of less thought is more telling. What I ended up with was a kitchen that could handle whatever was thrown at it. I did have a house guest during this time period – my cousin stayed with me for a week – and we ate quite well, and seemed to want for nothing. Maybe the crêpe pan wasn’t always the perfect pan for the job, but at least it got the job done. The one thing that all the items that made up my kitchen security blanket had in common was that they were all of high quality. They were all well-made, high performance cookware products, and they helped me through the stress of moving. I guess I chose them the same way I choose my friends – quality over quantity – and all you need are a few quality friends to get through a move.