Your Favorite or Worst Equipment

[NhumiSD]

Iam making a list of equipment and wanted to know what has been your best highly used equipment in your job/bakery. Or if not so good, which you have regretted in buying? Which brands has lived up to its reputation?

-Nhumi

[chefpeon]

Are you talking about both major equipment and small stuff?

My number one necessity piece of equipment, besides a mixer and my offset spatula, is.....

A NICE COMMERCIAL ROBOCOUPE. No stupid Cuisinart Food Processors! Not even the "professional" model.....those stupid chintzy plastic workbowls break all the time.....argh! They're never big enough either. I worked in ONE place that owned a Robotcoupe and boy did it save me time. It was a piece of sh*t Robocoupe too........the housing was held together with duct tape, because it had been dropped. It still worked though, and we babied it, because we didn't want to lose it!

Other neat things to have:

A SHEETER! Another wonderful timesaver! If you're thinking about doing roll-in doughs, you really can't do it efficiently without one.

A STEAMKETTLE! Those are "oh so nice" if you have to boil a lot of things.

A BAKER'S SCALE. No explanation needed.

A LOT OF CAMBROS in various sizes for easy clean storage of prepared ingredients.

FLAT SHEET PANS.

RUBBER SPATULAS.

A HEAVY BOTTOMED STOCKPOT.

A HEAVY BOTTOMED SAUCEPAN.

A NICE SHARP CHEF'S KNIFE in whatever length you wish.

A LONG SERRATED KNIFE.

BENCH SCRAPERS and BOWL SCRAPERS

A GOOD PARING KNIFE

Man, I could go on and on I suppose......but the above are what's important to me.....

Man, I wish I had a ROBOTCOUPE!!!!!

[Patrick S]

This is probably too obvious, but . . . scales. Every serious baker should have a good digital scale.

EDIT: Oops, Chefpeon already mentioned scales.

Edited August 18, 2005 by Patrick S (log)

[tan319]

Immersion (stick) blender.

Will save scads of time in every way.

Have to have your own though ( dedicated).

Digi scale is a must, IMO.

Bakers scale too, if you can afford both.

I would make sure to have some stainless pots in addition to aluminum.

Those Groener(SP?) steamkettles have never really turned me on a bunch, for several reasons.

One reason is that the ones I've worked with, and maybe that means they're all this way, are all one piece, meaning you have to push it over to a sink, or get a hose, and somehow wash it all down, which is always a pain.

And they're always balanced on some structure with wheels and aren't very stable, both of the ones I worked on.

Personally, I would get a digi thermometer with a probe and an alert and use a pot, save some money or put it somewhere else, like a sheeter, as chefpeon threw out there.

Those things rule!!!

Is this for a bakery or a restaurant?

I would really think hard about an induction unit or two.

If I ever get a place, I'll have at least one induction 'burner'.

[phlawless]

I am also a fan of the immersion blender, and i grew to love my cherry pitter.

The 2 gallon taylor ice cream freezer was heaven sent...

[RETREVR]

A towel buy to clean up the kitchen at the end of the day is nice to have.

I used to have a killer immersion blender. I would kill to have one now.

I already have a robot coup. It is hard to believe that the french are the best builders of any type of sturdy electronics. Wait untill you have to repair one or get a part for it. When I was out of the business, I once traded a 12pk of beer for a robot coup from a recently un-paid cook. I should have not sold that.

A wood table is dammed necessary. I have a wood top to fit the bakers table that the previous chef would not allow in the kitchen. She is history.

One thing I wish I had was about three extra bowls for my stand mixers.

Silpats are needed although I still use parchment for much of the baking.

I just bought about a $1000 worth of odds and ends from a bakery that folded. I was the only buyer at the auction and bagged it for $102. We are talking about drawers full of ring cutter sets, a mandolin, vintage pudding molds, tarts and pans of all sizes, copper cutters, cambro containers of all sizes, messermiester knives,.....

One of the items not to go at the auction was a chrome plated hobart 20qt.

Oh, and another thing....

I picked up a "bar maid" electric glass washer at a garage sale for $5. It is the kind that they use in bar sinks. This baby really helps the towel boy get the ramekins clean.

[ChefDanBrown]

A nice oven (convection and moisture controlled) is important enough that I'm suprised no one has mentioned it already.

[Sethro]

Pastry-dedicated sifters and tamis.

The small sifter is NOT for daikon radish!!! Bad sushi chef--BAD!!!

[NhumiSD]

Hi all,

I was initially thinking of big equipments, but anything handy is a must. IT would be for a bakery. Regarding some of the bigger equipments, any particular brands you've used and love?

I cant live without the immersion blender, for all the ganaches that was on the verge of separating .

Another equipment I love is a juicer, the heavy duty ones. You can juice anything for sorbets.

I have to agree with silicone molds and silpats, and an induction burners.

A nice oven, what brands so far are your favorites? Ive only used Blodgetts, so I dont have alot to compare to. For value, what is a good brand but affordable ?

A sheeter, I will definitely have to buy. Any recommendations of what brand and

type? At the hotel, Ive never got to use one.

-Nhumi