12 Kitchen Gadgets Endorsed by Gordon Ramsay Available on Amazon

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Kitchen gadgets can be a divisive topic, with high profile food-world figures like Alton Brown and Mark Bittman famously railing against single-purpose “unitaskers” in particular. But lots of equally-loved figures in the industry, from Julia Child to Ina Garten, all have tools and gadgets they swear by. So, speaking of swearing, what kinds of kitchen gadgets have earned the approval of famously hard-nosed (and creatively foul-mouthed) celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay?

We’ll skip the standard kitchen tools in this roundup, because his preferences in those areas (Boos block cutting boards, Henckel knives, Scanpan and HexClad pans) are already pretty well known. Instead, we’ll focus on some lesser-known and (often) more affordable gadgets that have earned his approval, as demonstrated by their presence in his cooking videos or things he’s said in interviews. In each case, we’ve provided a link to Amazon so you can build out your own MasterChef-worthy set of useful gadgets.

When you’re a chef with the profile of Gordon Ramsay, you get asked about your favorite tools a lot. Ramsay’s widely professed list of kitchen essentials makes it hard to quibble with any of his choices.

One item from his list that might raise a few eyebrows is a Microplane grater (Microplane being the brand, rather than the tool’s name). Just about everyone already has a grater or two, and a grater is a grater, right? Well, no. Seriously, a Microplane is as different from a regular grater as a surgeon’s scalpel is from a butter knife; Microplane graters are laser-etched from surgical-grade steel to have an exceptionally sharp, durable edge. The company is a great American success story, bouncing from printer parts to woodworking tools before hitting it big in kitchenware.

Ramsay doesn’t regularly specify which Microplane he owns — he may have several for all we know — but the one he’s likeliest to have is the zester. That’s the company’s original success story, the one that became a must-have for chefs and foodies alike. It’s a great tool for yielding the best flavor from garlic, for example, and nothing beats it for light, fluffy citrus zest or snow-like Parmesan. And if you’re more of a “drinkie” than a foodie, Microplanes are a great tool for cocktail-making as well.

Purchase the Microplane zester at Amazon for $15.50

If you’ve watched Ramsay on his cooking shows, you’ll almost certainly have seen a big brute of a Vitamix blender somewhere in the kitchen. He doesn’t use it in every show or video, but it’s usually there in the background. That makes perfect sense, because Vitamix has an outsized presence in commercial kitchens. You can’t go wrong buying one, if it’s in your budget.

That said, even Michelin-starred chefs don’t necessarily reach for an industrial-strength gadget every single time. In an interview with website Refinery 29, Ramsay explained that an ordinary bullet-style blender gets a lot of work in his house, especially on weekday mornings, because “the kids are always bloody late.” Yup, that’s right: Even the great chef himself starts his days by cranking out a round of smoothies as the family hustles out the door.

The interview doesn’t specify which bullet-style blender Ramsay owns, but you can’t go wrong with NutriBullet, the brand that defined the style. The inexpensive Magic Bullet is a good choice for one or two people, but for a larger household (or just a more powerful, versatile option) you can’t go wrong with the 900 watt Special Edition.

Buy the Magic Bullet at Amazon for $39.88

We’ve established that Ramsay uses both a Vitamix (in his videos) and a bullet blender (at home), but — fun fact — those aren’t the two kinds of blender he recommends for home cooks. The second kind, also mentioned in that Refinery 29 interview, is an immersion blender.

That’s not entirely surprising. Regular blenders are much more powerful, so for smoothies (or anything else with ice, or hard ingredients) they’re your pick. But for convenience and ease of use, nothing beats an immersion or “stick” blender for pureeing soups, getting the lumps out of gravy when you’ve been careless, and so on (there are lots of other great uses for an immersion blender besides those).

It’s hard to find a verifiable source to say which brand of immersion mixer Ramsay himself uses. In general Bamix is the chef’s choice for immersion blenders, in the same way that Vitamix is for countertop blenders, and they’re beasts. Most of us, though, don’t need to spend that kind of money for a serviceable unit. There are plenty of good models from other European brands like Braun and the usual American brands as well (check out our roundup of the best immersion blenders for some details).

Buy the Braun Multiquick MQ 5025 at Amazon $55.96

If you’re digging in to Ramsay’s list of kitchen essentials, you’ll see different pasta rollers used throughout the years. In an episode of “The F Word,” Ramsay clearly teaches how to make pasta on an Imperia pasta roller. But that show premiered in 2005, and tastes change.

In more recent videos, you can see Ramsay working with a machine, but can’t see the machine’s etched steel top. It might be an Marcato Atlas. These pasta rollers, made by a pre-war Italian company, are available in a few different versions. Of course there are many imitators, but the authentic original is a stone classic. It’s simple, easy to use, and will last for generations if it’s taken care of. It does take a degree of coordination, because you need to crank it by hand while simultaneously feeding the dough into the machine and handling the sheet of emerging pasta, but that’s part of the fun.

Kids are always happy to help with that, but if you don’t have someone to lend a hand you can buy an electric-motor upgrade for a base-model Marcato. Alternatively, if you avoid single-purpose gadgets, you could opt instead for KitchenAid roller attachment for your stand mixer. With any of these machines, you’ll be able to crank out anything from basic homemade noodles to impressive, restaurant-worthy pasta dishes, and have a lot of fun doing it.

Buy the Marcato Atlas 150 at Amazon for $84.95

Another gadget that got a shout-out from Ramsay in his Refinery 29 interview was his air fryer, and in this case he did name-drop an actual brand. His personal unit was made by Phillips, the European consumer-appliance giants.

He told Refinery 29 that he likes it for a lot of reasons, one being that — even for a stellar chef — frying at home is messy and a lot of fuss. With an air fryer he can turn out “fried” food much more easily, and without it requiring his hands-on attention (and when you’re as busy as he is, that counts for a lot). He also mentioned that his kids could cook things in the air fryer without supervision, though presumably that becomes less of an issue as they grow up.

It’s not hard to come up with your own list of uses for your air fryer, once you’ve got one. Of course, if you’re building a Ramsay-inspired kitchen, you may want to stretch your imagination a little by imagining what he does with his. Crispy pork belly burnt ends, perhaps, or one of these other unusual air fryer foods? There’s no way to know for sure without asking him, but you’ll have fun experimenting anyway.

Buy the Phillips Premium Airfryer XXL at Amazon for $99.95

Another kitchen gadget that Gordon Ramsay mentions often and specifically is a mandoline slicer. These are the flat slicing machines you see advertised frequently on informercials, with a blade (or multiple interchangeable blades) set into a flat deck with a handle.

Here again, Ramsay doesn’t specify which kind he uses. In general there are two styles, one that stands up on its own, with legs or a full-scale frame, and one style that’s hand-held. The classic French-made stainless steel mandoline is the first kind, but those are heavy and expensive. More likely the kind Ramsay uses at home is a lighter, inexpensive hand-held model.

Now let’s address a big question here. Why does a guy like Ramsay, with good knives and serious skills, use a mandoline? The same reason everybody else does: they’re fast and convenient for slicing, shredding, and all kinds of uses. Again, it’s hard to find a reliable source to say which mandoline Ramsay uses at home, but lightweight Japanese-made Benriners are popular with most chefs. You might also invest in inexpensive cut-proof safety gloves, because mandolines can be a bit scary and you’ll be more confident about using one if you’re protected.

Buy the Benriner #64 Mandoline slicer at Amazon for $38.39

A mandoline slicer is a great tool to have in your kitchen, but sometimes you can get useful results with even simpler tools. If you watch your way through Ramsay’s online cooking-lesson videos, in one of them you’ll see him choosing an unusual little gadget to make shoestring fries.

Instead of a full-bore mandoline, it was a vegetable peeler with added blades, so that it juliennes the vegetables instead of simply removing a strip of peel. In the video he brandishes the peeler and says it cost him “…around two-fifty,” which presumably was in UK pounds rather than dollars (maybe $4 or $5 on this side of the Atlantic), but that’s still dirt cheap, even if you splurge on a decent band name.

If you’re ambivalent about taking up space in the kitchen with single-purpose “unitasker” gadgets, this is one you don’t need to feel guilty about. It’s impossible to know which specific brand (or non-brand) Ramsay keeps in his drawer, but they’re all inexpensive enough and small enough that you can indulge yourself even if you don’t use it very often. Try it on this shoestring garlic parmesan fries recipe, because if that doesn’t motivate you to pull it out periodically nothing will.

Buy the OXO Good Grips Julienne Y-Peeler at Amazon for $9.36

Okay, this is something that a lot of us already have, but you might want to think seriously about upgrading to something that works a little better. A good one pays off in both durability and versatility, and they’re a lot more enjoyable to use. Models with a grinding mechanism made by Peugeot (yes, the car company) are reliably excellent, for example.

The legendary chef explains in one of his online videos that the knob on the top of classic-style grinders has a purpose beyond holding your grinder together. By tightening or loosening it you can create a fine, medium or coarse grind, so you can season each dish perfectly depending on its needs. Some pepper grinders don’t have that classic design with a knob on the top, but good ones usually offer some other method for adjusting the grind (some offer multiple turn-and-click settings, which can help you be more consistent).

If you do upgrade, don’t discard your old pepper grinder. You can repurpose your old one(s) for other spices, like fennel seed and allspice, and there are lots of other unexpected ingredients you can use in a pepper grinder. Fresh-ground always tastes better (that’s just how it is), and this is a great way to get some use from a grinder that maybe wasn’t good enough to be your daily driver.

Buy the Peugeot Paris manual u’Select pepper grinder at Amazon for $36.13

Electric kettles are a standard kitchen gizmo in the UK, with its well-known attachment to tea, and in many other cultures as well. Gordon Ramsay is no exception to this rule, and you’ll see a tall, brushed-steel kettle visible on the counter behind him in many of his teaching videos.

They’re a really useful thing to have, even if you don’t drink tea. First and foremost, they’re a really fast and efficient way to boil water. When you’re trying to put dinner on the table in a hurry you can speed things by using the kettle to boil your water, then decanting it into your pots to start cooking. We can suggest plenty of other ways to get the most out of your electric kettle, if that one doesn’t do it for you.

We’ve previously done a roundup of the best electric kettles, and that’s worth a read before you make your decision. Some are bigger than their rivals, some are faster, and some are more decorative, so it helps to figure out your priorities before you make your choice. A model with multiple temperature settings makes sense, if you’re a coffee or tea aficionado, so you can get the water just right for each type of beverage. Similarly, while gooseneck pouring spouts are stylish, their main purpose is giving you the best possible pour-over coffee.

Buy the Cuisinart 6-Temperature Stainless Steel Electric Kettle at Amazon for $99.95

It seems that Gordon Ramsay’s original Masterclass was successful, because he came back to do a second course. If you watch the trailer video for that second session, you’ll see him using a potato ricer.

If you’re not familiar with this old-fashioned kitchen gadget, it’s basically a perforated cup with a pair of handles and a plunger. You fill the hopper with potatoes, then squeeze the handles together, and the plunger forces long, spaghetti-like strings of potato through the perforations. Those strings break up into shorter pieces on their way to your plate or mixing bowl, hence the “ricer” description.

It’s well worth having a ricer in your arsenal. Ricing your potatoes first makes the best and smoothest mashed potatoes, or the starting point for homemade gnocchi. There are any number of other uses for a potato ricer once you have it, from squishing excess water from frozen spinach to pressing fresh tomatoes for passata. It’s usually best to buy one with a generous-sized hopper, but longer handles are a trade-off; you get more leverage but they take up more space in storage.

Buy the Priority Chef 15 Ounce Potato Ricer at Amazon for $22.99

Some of you might question whether a mortar and pestle really qualifies as a “gadget,” or whether it might more accurately be described as a tool (or even a doorstop, if you’re a cynic). Realistically it’s not a question at all, because a mortar and pestle is in fact the OG “food processor.”

Want to make the best-ever pesto? Using a mortar and pestle is our very first tip. Authentic Thai curry pastes? You betcha, they’re one of the very best uses for your mortar and pestle. In fact, any time you want to grind some spices or process fresh ingredients into a spice paste, a mortar and pestle is a great way to bring out their fullest flavors. That’s also, if you’re wondering, where the Ramsay connection comes in. In at least one of his teaching videos, you’ll see Ramsay using his to create a deeply flavorful spice paste to rub on some mullet.

There’s a lot to know about mortar and pestle sets, from their history and cultural background to the materials used to make them. You’ll probably find a mid-sized mortar and pestle, like the one Ramsay uses in that video, is the most versatile (about 1 ½ to 2 cups is about right. Good options include ceramics (textured rather than smooth, for most purposes) and stone, with marble, granite and soapstone all having their fans. Consider a granite mortar and pestle over marble, because it won’t stain or retain flavors the way pretty-but-porous marble will.

Buy a ChefSofi Granite Mortar and Pestle at Amazon for $24.99