Mostly Practical 2011 Holiday Gift List, part 2 

What other toys are in the bag of tricks employed by professionals'? The number one, most indispensable object in most chefs' bags — is the simple plastic squeeze bottle. Most chefs on TV have been making everything from Mexican food to Chinese look like haute cuisine for years with these things. Maybe it's just ancho pepper mayonnaise he's squirting all over that tacos, but it looks abstract.

It’s no problem at all acquiring these things, they're essentially the same ones you see loaded with ketchup and mustard at any hot-dog stand in the country. Pastry chefs use them to prepare desserts too.

Mask a bottom of a plate with whipped cream, then run a couple of concentric rings of chocolate or raspberry sauce around the plate, and drag a toothpick through the rings or lines. That’s all there is to it.

A mandolin, is a vertically held slicer with various blade settings allow you to make those slick-looking, perfectly uniform julienned vegetables. All right, so the mandolin won't cut meat or make paper-thin slices of prosciutto. You need a professional rotary cold-cut slicer for that, like they have at the deli. The home versions really suck.

I highly recommend, if you can’t get your butcher to do it, going on ebay, craigs list and the classifieds your local paper to buy a used one.

With a failure rate of over 65% in the restaurant industry, it’s not hard to find a deal.

You can buy all sorts of professional quality stuff this way. I'd recommend pots and pans for sure when scavenging this way. Most of the ones sold for home use are too flimsy, and the heavyweight ones sold for serious home cooks is almost always overpriced.

Stockpots, saucepans, and thick-bottomed sauté pans are nice things to have, even necessary things to have, and there's no reason to buy new.

A set of non-stick pans is a thing of beauty. Crepes, omelets or a delicately browned fillet of fish? You need a nice thick non-stick pan, and not one with a thin veneer of material that will peel off after a few weeks of use. And when you buy a non-stick, never wash it. Simply wipe it clean with a rag after each use, and don't use metal in it, use a wooden spoon or non-metallic spatula to flip whatever you're cooking in it. You don't want to scratch the surface whatever you do.

I don't want to oversimplify here, but all you need are a few stainless steel and non-stick pots and pans with lids to cook with.  They’ll last for years. 

If you just gotta have new, go to cooking.com or The Stocked Pot If you just gotta have new, go to cooking.com or The Stocked Pot for your purchases.