SiseFromm

Santuko knife and a massive cutting board by Boos Boards. They love each other so much. Other than that, the basics really. Lots of mesh sieves and strainers. A variety of them because I rarely pass liquid from one place to another without putting it through a strainer of some sort. Thanks Thomas Keller. R. Jason Coulston

I think that keeping the water temperature up is only part of this equation. His big-pot blanching method using plenty of heavily salted water, so it tastes like the ocean, also helps to give blanched vegetables plenty of amazing color. Peel asparagus and blanch them quickly in water salted at a ratio of 1 cup to 1 gallon of water. Shock them in ice water to stop the process, and you'll have wildly green vegetables. You'll wonder why you didn't employ this method earlier. R. Jason Coulston

Frying it up and making a pig of yourself sounds pretty good to me. Tim Goodell, chef of Aubergine among others, serves crispy pork belly on a bed of barbecue white beans with smoky onion rings. It's my favorite appetizer at The Lodge in Costa Mesa. I haven't tried recreating it at home, mostly because I need a good excuse to go to dinner there and if I could pull it off myself, that would be one less for me to fall back on. R. Jason Coulston