June 11, 2014 Chengdu, China
As I have written before (see April 8, 2010), many (if not most) of my kitchen equipment belonged to my mother, who was a very good – and adventurous – cook. Shortly after turning 60, she developed a particularly virulent form of leukemia, for which there was no cure. My father became the cook in the family, and, long after she had died and he had remarried, he continued to do the cooking in his home. I was surprised when he allowed me to take so many of my mother’s tools. Not all of the ones pictured here belonged to her. She did have a wooden balloon whisk such as the one on the left, but it long ago fell apart. When I had my culinary bookstore, I was able to find them again and offered them for sale. They’re great for the grits pot, as are the two spoons with holes in them, which were also Mama’s. Three more of these tools belonged to her: the two tasting spoons (the one, second from the top, doesn’t look as though it’s been used much, but, believe me, it has been; the other, the smallest of the lot, I use much more frequently since I most often am cooking for just the two of us.
All of the other wooden tools pictured have come to me in various ways. I have others, but these are the ones I chose to bring with me to Bulgaria and China. The big monster spoon at the top of the image was a gift, from Poland, from my dear friend Alice Marks, also a cancer victim no longer with us. She was one of Charleston’s great home cooks. After her husband died, she was always traveling and bringing home things that she thought she could make money selling – llama wool sweaters from Peru, “Panama” hats (from Colombia), and these wooden spoons. I no longer recall where or how I got the big spoon with the burn marks, but I think it may have been a gift to me from friends in Liguria. I was cooking in the shop with it one day and a woodworker I knew who lived on her boat came in and marveled over it; she borrowed it and copied it in walnut for her own galley.
The three thin-handled ones in the center I’m pretty sure I bought when I was very young. You can see how well-worn they are. The spoon in the bottom left is relatively clean but it does get used, but only for delicately flavored foods and sauces. I use it for chocolate; it has never touched garlic. The citrus reamer I use often, but today I received in the mail an electric citrus juicer that I ordered (I do so love margaritas, really the only cocktail I drink!); that’s really what prompted this post. To the right of the reamer is a tool designed to push or pull racks in or out of a hot oven. It’s quite handy. I also use it to reach up and grab the ring on the side of bowl I otherwise cannot reach.
That leaves two of my wooden spatulas. Each is used almost daily. The one on the right has a ragged edge from being pounded on the edge of pots as I try to dislodge whatever is stuck to it after I’ve run it through the gumbo pot. Like my silver flatware, the one on the left does not lie idle, but it has more of a sentimental value to me than anything else in my kitchen: it was the last tool that Karen Hess, the great culinary historian, who was my mentor, used. Her son told me I could have anything from her kitchen. I just wanted this wooden “spoon.”
Years and years ago in Charleston a journalist wrote about favored kitchen tools. She interviewed chefs, food writers, and home cooks all over town and the choices were all over the place: immersion blenders, cast iron skillets, a particular knife, a mandolin. My sister Sue was running my shop at the time. I was working on my second book and spent the mornings writing. I would cook us lunch and join her in the shop (which was in the same building as my apartment). The writer asked Sue what her favorite tool was and she said, “John.” Several regular customers came by Hoppin’ John’s and asked if they could borrow me! I’ve never lived that one down, or let Sue forget it!