I Test Meal Kits for a Living. These Are My Kitchen Gear Essentials

John Boos cutting boards make great gifts for the home chef, and in this instance, perhaps the home chef in question is you. The board is made in the United States from sustainably harvested wood. John Boos has been in business since 1887, and many restaurant chefs swear by its products. You can choose from maple, walnut, or cherry constructions in a few different sizes. I find 20 inches to be nice and large without taking up my entire counter. It’s also designed to fit in standard cupboards.

Similar to the Great Jones board mentioned above, this is handy for meal kits because there’s so much room. You can prep ingredients and push those you’ve already cut to the side. It makes for a good battle station when you start cooking. The surface requires some conditioning from time to time—the manufacturer recommends using its pricey Mystery Oil and Board Cream, but you can DIY it with food-grade mineral oil. The board is hand-wash only, but it is excellent for intensive chopping without damaging your knife. It’s also great for presenting charcuterie boards.

Be aware that the wood may stain—mine has a cute purple splotch from some blueberry goat cheese. I think it adds to the character. Largely, whether you go for a plastic cutting board or a wooden one comes down to personal preference. Wood can stain, it can retain smells, and it requires more upkeep, but it’s also gentle on knives, it can last for years, and it doesn’t release microplastics. If you’re a wood person, John Boos has the best wooden boards I’ve found. There are many cheap wooden cutting boards available, but this investment will last for decades with proper care, unlike some others (like the one I purchased at Walmart in my twenties, which cracked and splintered despite my diligent conditioning of it).

We’re currently revamping our guide to the Best Chef’s Knives, and this is going to be my submission for the whole guide. (Just kidding.) But really, Kiwi knives have a cult following for a reason. They’re so darn affordable, and they’re so darn good. This design is great for smashing garlic cloves, mincing onions, or cutting carrot matchsticks. And the wide body is great for scraping everything up and off your cutting board. When cooking meal kits, you’ll run into a wide array of ingredients. This knife will be able to handle prepping all of them. It’s easy to clean and maintain. Simply oil the handle every once in a while and make sure to hone the edges from time to time.

The steel is soft, which is a benefit (in my opinion), since the knife is easy to sharpen without dropping a ton of money on a sharpener. You can literally hone this thing on the back of a plate. (Or just use the honer that’s in the knife block you got as a gift years ago.) I reach for this cleaver over and over again, for basically every task except for when I need a serrated edge.

Meal kits require you to provide your own cooking oil, salt, and pepper. (More on those last two later.) Chefs Life oil blends are awesome in general, and I especially like having the cooking blend around when making meal kits. It’s a combination of avocado, olive, sunflower, and grapeseed oils. That means it passes along good flavor while also maintaining a high smoke point, so you can heat it up to 550 degrees Fahrenheit. I also like the variety pack (which includes finishing oil and blending oil), but the cooking oil is the most versatile for meal kit purposes. No matter whether you’re searing meats or just cooking up some veggies, this oil will be useful. And the packaging is nice!

Meal kits require you to bring your own salt and pepper. I don’t have strong feelings about pepper, but I absolutely have strong feelings about salt. This is a big ol’ tub of sea salt flakes that have absolutely excellent flavor and a good texture that can be used for finishing (like on top of breads) or basic tasks like salting pasta water. The flakes are both crunchy and soft, and they’re easy to crush between your fingers to sprinkle on top of a dish or toss over your left shoulder. A little goes a long way, and you won’t have to fiddle with a silly plastic grinder trying to decipher how salty you’re making your food.

TV chefs got one thing right with the sheer amount of tiny bowls they use. These 4-ounce porcelain ramekins have come in handy many, many times during my meal kit adventures. Sometimes when making meal kits, I need to set an ingredient aside—into the tiny bowls it goes. Sometimes I have to inexplicably juice a lime, whip up a finishing sauce, or separate carrots for use in two different steps. Tiny bowls! Having these around has saved me a lot of counter and dishwasher space.

Meal kits offer tons of different proteins to the meat eaters among us. You might be cooking seafood, chicken, steak, or burgers. The ThermoWorks Thermapen One makes it really easy to tell whether your food is safe to serve (or approaching the realm of “overcooked”). You’ll be able to reach your ideal doneness on steaks, or ensure that your chicken is fully cooked without needing to cut into the meat and let all those juices escape. It’s an excellent gift for the home chef, and it comes in handy any time I’m cooking meat for a meal kit. I’ve had one for many years, as has WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson, and it’s darn handy. Pop the probe in and it’ll instantly spit out a reading of the internal temperature. It folds up neatly and won’t take up too much space in your utensil drawer. For more options, check out our guide to the Best Wireless Meat Thermometers.