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Now that you have a good knife, you’d better learn how to use it. You could take some classes or watch a few hundred hours of Emeril (say what you will, that man can chop!), or you can just think about how to cut something beforehand instead of hacking away willy-nilly. Let the knife do the work—it wants to!

Besides the chef’s knife, we only really bother with a serrated-bladed bread knife and a little, sharp paring knife. The bread knife is great for slicing bread, of course, but it’s also a miracle worker for slicing very soft tomatoes and sushi nori rolls. The little paring knife can come in handy for reckoning with sprouting potatoes or making radish roses, if for some reason you go insane and need to make those. You can go with slightly lesser quality when it comes to purchasing these guys.

Cutting Board

We don’t want to hear about those of you out there chopping on dinner plates or directly on the countertop. Any official cutting board will do . . . oh, except those glass ones; no one wants to hear a knife “clink” on glass, what a bad idea. We prefer wood over plastic, ourselves, and particularly fancy those new bamboo cutting boards. They’re très chic, tougher than Thelma and Louise, and totally renewable (since that bamboo grows like a weed).

How to Get Knife Skills Lessons for Free

HIGH-END housewares stores usually have a well-educated staff working their way through cooking school. And the wonderful part is that they are usually bored out of their minds! When you are shopping around for your expensive chef ’s knife, employees will gladly take the time to demonstrate the proper way to hold the knife. In fact, when they see your wobbly and awkward grasp they may even feel compelled to help you, like Mother Teresas of the cooking world. Often they have a green pepper or an onion hanging around for this very purpose. So go ahead and hop from store to store, gathering knowledge as you go. It’s cheaper than a degree from the Culinary Institute.

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HOW TO STOP YOUR CUTTING BOARD FROM SLIDING

We’ve all been there. You’re blasting your Neil Diamond and getting into your cooking zone, but the damn onion keeps getting away from you because the cutting board is sliding across the counter like Brian Boitano. Veganomicon to the rescue! Lay out a damp kitchen towel and place your cutting board on top of it; this will give you the traction you need to keep your workstation is place. Wet paper towels work for this, too.

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Vegetable Peelers

The truly sadomasochistic chef (or Isa’s grandma) loves to peel vegetables with a paring knife. Even our copy editor says she does it with those two for one dollar knives she’s had for eons. For everyone else, there are a plethora of peelers to choose from. We’re partial to the Y-shaped rather than the old-fashioned straight variety, but do what makes you happy. Get the sharpest, sturdiest one you can, with a large, comfortable handle. If you are only going to purchase one, make it the serrated kind. If you skipped the opening paragraph we’ll say it again: it’s a good idea to spend just a little extra on these, since nothing sucks more than a dull vegetable peeler (with a teeny, miserable handle) when you’ve got eight pounds of apples to skin.

Food Processor

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles! Saver of time, conservator of energy! So easy! So convenient! How did I ever survive without you? Every well-equipped kitchen has a food processor in it. You can’t live without one, right? Sort of. You can do without, but when you are staring at the latkes recipe with a tear in your eye, wondering how in the world you will fit shredding five pounds of potatoes into your busy day of video games and knitting circles, you need to get yourself a food processor. If you can’t afford one right now, then get married simply so you can put this on your wedding registry.

Not only will the proper attachments shred and slice everything for you, but nothing can really replace a food processor in the kitchen when