I might count chopsticks as a ‘free’ item, unless you’re also counting other basic utensils. Also if a set of bowls can be one item, a set of utensils should be.

1. Knife

2. Cutting board

3. Bowls

4. Chop sticks (they can whisk too)

5. Wok/Cast Iron

They rest is not needed if you know how to cook and use the above tools.

Disturbing lack of meat thermometers. I cant cook meat without one.

1. Chef’s knife, preferably Western style over Japanese personally
2. Cast iron skillet. I used to enjoy using a wok but moved to a place with an electric stove and I can’t get the wok to get as hot as I used to with gas. Used to have nonstick as well but honestly a well maintained cast iron skillet doesn’t have too much sticking to it, even eggs. If that’s not your jam a tri-ply works great too.
3. Sauce pan
4. Salt cellar. Don’t know why it took me so long to get one, but it’s a vast improvement over clumsily pouring out of a box into your hand.
5. Wooden spoon
6. Teak cutting board
7. Grill. While the flavor of charcoal is great it’s a pain so gas is my preference
8. Instant read thermometer. If the number of allowed items were higher also a wireless meat thermometer for grilling.
9. Steel bowls for proper mise en place
10. Immersion blender (ideal for sauce/dressing, and soup ain’t bad)
11. Stand mixer (with attachments like a grinder if allowed)
12. Can opener, not because I use it a lot, but how else are you going to open a can?

Can Opener

Cast Iron Skillet with Vented Lid

Kershaw Pocket Knife

Flat Short Spatula (Metal)

Rice Cooker

Single Burner -> Wall Outlet

I was homeless for a few years, found a roach motel that would take me, thats the list of what fed me for about 1.5 years at said roach motel while I recovered from all the injuries incurred from homelessness.

The Wok is nice, but a flat skillet has more flat surface area, you can fry up a larger cut of meat, an omellete, a pancake, or a grilled sandwich, etc.

Rice Cooker will boil rice or pasta or heat up a sauce or soup… and of course will just boil water, which ia better than nothing if your water quality sucks and you ain’t got filters.

I found that goddamned pocket knife in a parking lot, around 2 years ago now, cleaned it up, and I still havent needed to get an actual chef knife yet, I just cleaned the knife after any and every food prep, its still pretty sharp.

Luxury post-homeless living:

Throw on a Teapot with an infuser and you can make loose leaf tea or instant coffee in it.

If you want better coffee, French Press + Grinder.

My lucky pot, a 9-year old pan, and grandma’s marital aid

• Cast iron pan
• Stainless pot
• Spatula
• Silicone Spoon
• Knife
• Cutting board

I can’t remember using much else for cooking in a while.

Alcohol.

My must haves:

1. Some sort of wok/pan (carbon steel works).
2. Cooking chop sticks.
3. Spatula
4. Chef knife
5. Cutting board
6. Some sort of bowl.
7. Lids
8. Measuring cup
9. Measuring spoon
10. Scale

Nice to haves:

11. Knife sharpening set (I’d choose a diamond sharpening stone + leather strop)
12. Pot
13. Sauce pan.
14. Can opener.
15. Peeler.
16. Scraper.
17. Tongs
18. Rice cooker.

Explanation: A wok/pan (which ever is more comfortable to you) is most important tool because you can make plenty of things without a knife (eg. Instant meals) so it’s probably a no brainer. You don’t even need anything to toss things in the wok.

Next you really want cooking chopsticks to use with it or a spatula. I think the chopsticks is just a hair more versatile so I put it ahead.

I think 1 to 5 should be obvious.

Next you need a bowl to either hold the finished food or for intermediate ingredients or even marinading so it’s pretty important.

Lids are actually something I forgot about. These things are pretty critical to a good portion of dishes. The most important things they let you do is to simmer and steam foods. A lot of recipes are basically impossible or much much harder if you cannot steam things. The most obvious recipe they enable is rice.

8, 9 and 10 are actually kind of “very nice to have” cooking items. None of them are needed if you have a lot of experience and can just eye ball everything but they do make everything so much easier and makes your meals a lot more reproducible.

I put measuring cup first because those quantities are probably the hardest to eyeball. I can probably eye ball a tablespoon but I doubt I can eye ball a cup.

Measuring spoons are just plain useful. Not just as measuring tools but to get stuff out of containers.

The scale is probably the least used for me of the three.

I think with 1 to 10 you can probably make most things, although some things might be annoying to make.

The next thing you probably want is some way to sharpen your knife. Unless you are just going to buy a new knife every year I find a knife sharpener pretty crucial, probably more than the average person.

Sauce pan and pot are interchangeable. I put pot first because I like soups. Woks are also not great at replacing a pot.

Beyond 12. These are the “nice to have” items. You basically don’t even need these at all.

Can opener is first of the nice to haves. I put it this low because I thought about what I even use them for and these days almost everything that comes in a can can be found in other form factors or the can has an opener integrated which is why this tool is so low. However, having one does unlock certain foods, the most obvious to me are canned mexican foods and campbell things.

Next, peeler, scraper and tongs are all very interchangeable for me. Of the three I definitely use the scraper the most, even more than a lot of things higher in the list. The reason why it’s so low on the list is because no one needs a scraper. It just makes transporting things like minced garlic so much easier.

Peeler and tongs are very useful but I wouldnt consider either of them necessary. You can peel with a knife and you can use chop sticks instead of tongs although tongs are a lot safer if the thing is big.

Next is the rice cooker. So if we were to go by price to utility ratio, the rice cooker would probably shoot up to a spot in the top 10. However I’m ranking based on necessity of the item and no one really needs a rice cooker. You just need a container (eg. A wok or sauce pan) to hold rice and water and a lid to steam it. Realistically though, it would be one of the first things I buy because rice cookers are ridiculously cheap and they save so much time.

Cast iron. Second most essential piece?

Second cast iron.

I need absolutely everything in the kitchen and totally need even more random devices!

It’s funny that my top 10 (or 12) list would have stuff on it that I don’t actually use all that often, because when I’m not limited I use more specialized tools. For example, I’d pick an enameled cast iron dutch oven, but I more often use a Crock Pot or Instant Pot.

Anyway, my list:

1. chef’s knife
2. wooden cutting board
3. enameled cast iron dutch oven
4. silicone spoon with edge soft enough for scraping batters from the sides of a bowl
5. metal spatula (maybe the regular kind or maybe a fish-turner)
6. mixing bowl (isn’t “bowls” plural cheating, BTW? Actually, if I could only have one then I might pick a saucier for both mixing and cooking)
7. kitchen towel (or oven mitts)
8. whisk
9. shredder/grater
10. colander/strainer/sieve

If I could have the extra two items, they’d be:

11. tri-ply stainless steel saute pan or a cast-iron skillet, not sure which
12. food scale

My list doesn’t include a can opener. Rather than abusing my knife, I just wouldn’t use any canned ingredients, and I’m okay with that. (If this were a disaster scenario where ingredients were limited that answer would change, though.)

The mortar and pestle or blender didn’t make the list because if I really need to crush something, I can whack it with a heavy pan.

Essential? Chefs knife, cutting board, tongs, spoon, pot, pan, bowls. Stuff like a can opener or mortar and pestle are convenient but not essential, and stuff like scales and thermometers can be substituted with experience.

I dont think I’ve ever seen a can opener that looks like your photo, and can’t really imagine how that is supposed to work.

I feel like the choice of can opener is rage bait lol

Here is mine:

• wooden cutting board
• pairing knife
• chef knife
• immersion blender
• kitchen towels (to handle hot things)
• spatula
• slotted spoon
• deep oven dish
• deep pot with lid
• metal mesh strainer
• tongs
• can opener with bottle opener

If I could have another it would be a peeler. I hate using a knife to peel.