Civil Eats

So if you could choose only one, which would it be? A spatula, flatula, flipula, rubbula or shovula? Read More

It’s become something of a cliché: Don’t bring home a kitchen tool that does only one thing. A spoon for shagging olives which — alas!– cannot hold liquids because it has a hole in its bowl; a sharp-bladed wheel suitable only for slicing pizza; a pot that makes only fondue. Clear out these special-interest items, they say, so you’ll have more room for your one all-purpose knife. Read More

One thing that separates the Slow Food Gadgeteer from other, more sensible cooks is not being able to leave a simple ingredient well enough alone. Consider, for example, the egg, which as you know is nature’s perfect food, comes in its own container and generally requires only heating with salt and pepper. Read More

This post kicks off our series by Deborah Baldwin on the wide world of kitchen gadgets—the necessary, the extraneous, and the utterly ridiculous. Even though slow food is about simple flavors and handmade dishes, every home cook enjoys a gentle assist sometimes. Some of the slow-tech tools we’ll explore in this series can deliver magnificent results.

I can’t think of a better place to launch the Slow Food Gadgeteer than here at Zabar’s, the New York food emporium, where I am standing among the vegetable peelers. Did you know that Zyliss makes one with a battery? Read More