When it comes to my kitchen, I am a culinary snob, and I make no apologies for that. Since I discovered my love for cooking, I have gone high end with my kitchenware. Though if I am being honest, it has been at the expense of others. High end kitchenware is just about the only thing you’ll find on my Christmas list, which makes shopping for me easy, but expensive.
It all started with the Lodge cast iron skillet my sister-in-law and her husband so thoughtfully gifted me a few years back…thank you! I love it and I use it almost daily. The quality of Lodge products means it will outlive me, by many years, and it set the standard for all my subsequent Christmas wish list kitchen items.
In the past few years, Janet has gifted me All-Clad sauté and saucier pans, and I am gradually replacing the rest of my everyday pots, pans and knives through my Christmas wish list. I’m about halfway there, and the gear I acquire will never need to be replaced. Because I am that picky.
How picky am I? Well…when we visited Rob and Rachel in Japan during Christmas two years ago, they asked what sites we wanted to see. I had been to Japan several times previously and my only request was that we go to the Kappabashi district in Asakusa. Kappabashi is Tokyo’s restaurant supply district, where you can get everything from rubber chickens (for display purposes) to the finest knives on the planet. I wanted the latter, and Kamata Hakensha is the go-to knife shop in Asakusa. I went in search of one of their Chef’s knives.
It was a memorable trip, and of course we did much more than visit Kappabashi, but I did come home with my knife…a gift to myself. It is a 10-inch (actually 260mm) Sakai Takyuki Chef’s knife, meticulously crafted from VG10 Damascus steel, laminated with cobalt. And best of all…crafted for left-handed chefs! It doesn’t get any better than that, and I love that knife. Though I have to say, it is not my everyday Chef’s knife. I have a Misen Chef’s knife (also a Christmas gift…thank you!) that I use for everyday kitchen tasks.
The Kamata Hakensha knife is my Billy Baroo (Caddyshack reference) and yes, I reverently kiss it every time I take it out of its box.
My Christmas list this year included a Japanese Santoku knife that Chris and Kelly gave me, thank you, and a high-tech molecular gastronomy spherificator that Rob and Rachel gave me…thank you. But the thing I most wanted was a 6.5 quart Le Creuset Dutch oven. I didn’t ask my kids for that…too pricey. But I was bold enough to put it on the list I sent Janet, and she came through.
I will say Janet was smart, and not just because she married me. Le Creuset offers many color, size, and shape options for their Dutch ovens, and Janet knows how picky I am in the kitchen. So…rather than ordering a Dutch oven that may or may not be what I wanted, she gave me a permission slip to buy the exact Dutch oven I did want. And since I waited for an after-Christmas sale, I got it for half price.
Even with the discount it is the most expensive thing I’ve ever purchased for my kitchen. Well…almost. The Kamata Hakensha Chef’s knife still holds that record. Janet either loves me very much, or she loves what I cook for her. Either one works for me!
I have included my most precious kitchen tools in my will, with specific bequeathals to my sons. Why? Because when you walk into a kitchen, the aromas instantly transport you back to some of your favorite memories. While I do most of the cooking in our house these days, every now and then Janet will kick me out of the kitchen to work her culinary magic. And for the record, she is a much better cook than I’ll ever be.
I love it when Janet cooks for me. Not because it takes me off the hook for making dinner, but because the aromas from her cooking take me back to the beginnings of our courtship…when she cooked for me as a form of seduction. She won my stomach for sure, but she also won my heart…forever. Because when she cooked for me, it was an act of love. And it still is.
Those are the memories I want my sons to capture, and to pass along to their children. Because that’s what cooking does. Sure…it nourishes the body, but it also nourishes the heart, and the soul. I want my sons to have their own version of those memories, and to build on them through their own culinary efforts. And hopefully to pass them along to their children.
My most precious kitchen gear retains the flavors and memories of everything I’ve ever cooked with them, the successes and the failures. And they then impart the history of my efforts, along with the memories made when creating them, to any dish they are used to prepare in the future. That is an inheritance far more precious than money. That is my culinary love story.
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