I'm not sure if this counts as professional cookware, unless perhaps you are Leon the Professional.

http://www.viceversa.com/Dynamic/Products,...temID,1447.html

That's the funniest thing that I've seen all day.

I covet that thing, even though it is a little sick. I just did some searching and apprently it is not for sale yet, according to some random website chatter.

..... and if you liked the knife set, there's the Mad Max pizza cutters.

http://www.art.uiuc.edu/grads/mfa_04/flood.html

If anybody is in the market for an egg separator, try this site.

http://www.stupid.com/stat/EGSP.html

And finally it goes on sale...

Voodoo knife holder

I just saw this, a Thermo Balloon Whisk, in the new catalog from King Arthur Flour catalog.

ahem. I actually got one as a gift. I haven't had a chance to use it yet because the battery seems to have gone dead (it might have been left on) and I need to get a new battery.

I think that every food magazine has gone over this whisk. Everyone has said that it is useful when making a sauce, base or batter when temperature is important.

The more kitchen gadgets I buy the less I use.

The more I buy, the less space I have to put them

There are only a handful of innovative gadgets that I've really come to appreciate and would encourage anyone to check out that already hasn't.

Silicone Basting Brushes ISI or MIU
oxo angled measuring cups
Digital Instant Read Thermometers
Microplane Graters

The one gadget that I've been waiting for since Christmas that seems to be gone everwhere is the Trudeau Pot Clip.

I like the idea of these, but they crack way too easily due to heat/cold.

I LOVE my silicone basting brush! Instant-read thermometers and microplane graters are also indispensible in my kitchen.

I tried the Oxo angled measuring cups. The concept is good, but they really don't last. They aren't dishwasher-safe--the markings wear off after a while. And mine fell out of the cabinet and landed on the counter, cracked. I've gone back to standard Pyrex, for a lot less money.

Funny, my oxo cup has been through the dishwasher many times with no problems.

While I thought my original post was going to bring out a list of items that seemed rather odd, I guess I will add to the list of useful items.

I really like the push up measuring cups that Alton Brown touts for thick liquids and such.

This isn't SO innovative... but does anyone have experience with ceramic knives? That and the microplane grater are the two things I think my kitchen is missing. (Besides the 7.5-quart Calphalon pot I ordered last week.)

The plunger cups are also available from the man himself.

On the subject of measuring devices, I also get a ton of use out of the Emsa Perfect Beaker.

As for recent device acquisitions, the Zyliss Rotary Grater has been very well-behaved. There's a second drum available for softer cheeses - in the event that your shop doesn't sell the package with both drums, you can send Zyliss a check for $7 and they'll send you the soft-cheese drum.

I seriously think for 95% of my cooking all I use is a good pairing knife, cutting board, bowls for holding chopped stuff, and a 10 inch All-Clad fry pan. Add to the list a couple sizzle plates, tongs, and a spoon and a fork and I'm probably up to 99%.

I have been coveting my sister's sizzle plates (left over from when she had a restaurant)! I've looked around to try to find them or something similar, with no success. Where could a mere home cook like me get my hands on a couple of sizzle plates?

Sizzle plates are excellent and I use them all the time at home.

Sizzle Plates

Thanks! I Googled like crazy and couldn't find them! These are perfect!

has anyone seen the doohickey that looks a little like a plastic bazooka and cooks pasta? You pour in boiling water, set it on the countertop, and however many minutes later you have a cylinder full of cooked pasta (or vegetables or whatever).

here's the link: pastaexpress.tv.

i swore i saw one roll out of the kitchen at notti bianche the other day. i assume they're tired of "breaking the pasta to make it fit" in the pot.

After years living in a New York City apartment with storage space at a premium, my unbreakable ironclad rule is No Single-Use Gadgets. (And 2 uses may not be enough, either!)

Current winners include a silpat knockoff from Sur La Table (the first thing I've ever found that was actually CHEAPER there) -- great for minimizing the clean-up burden after kneading bread dough, as well as the usual applications. But the list of doodads I couldn't live without is pretty short.

How about a thread about hardware-type tools we use in the kitchen (recognizing the Microplane as grandaddy of them all)? I'm very fond of the needle-nose pliers I use to pull bones out of salmon fillets...

How about the $10-$15 simple blow-torch for making creme brulee? Sure beats those fancy shmancy gormet ones. PVC tubing is good for some dessert work too.

They also work well for blistering and peeling the skin off of red peppers and chiles.

Here's another doozy: Pizza Fork.

Oh, and even better, it comes in a set of two, so you can make sure you and your +1 look utterly ludicrous.

That is what I am talking about!

That looks dangerous.

And to think that I made fun of my wife for ordering Ice Cream Forks to match her silver.

Ding Ding Ding.......Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner!!

I agree with your list - my family lost everything in a house fire a few months ago and are living in a rental house with rental everything while we rebuild. Having had high quality kitchen gear before, then being exposed to the truly awful rental line which visually appears to be good quality but fails in use in every way, I no longer take for granted a good paring knife and chef's knife, as well as the All-Clad fry pan, an OXO peeler, a sturdy spatula, a real corkscrew, and a range of better quality wine glasses (Lord knows a bottle of wine is needed after watching your house burn down on April Fool's Day). I am spending a lot of time browsing the kitchen stores and catalogs - restocking the kitchen will be the one brighter spot in this whole experience.

I don't have this. I don't even know where I can buy it, but a "Thup" would sure solve a lot of cocktail party problems.

Although that particular cocktail party doesn't look like very much fun.

Growing up, we had a variation of the pizza fork - it was a spaghetti fork - there was a handle on the side that when turned, also turned the tines and wrapped the spaghetti around the fork so you did not have to actually turn the whole fork. My brothers and I fought over that one fork so many times, I think my mom threw it away. I have never seen another like it.

it's now motorized. http://www.shopatron.com/product/product_id=HGW10475/208.1

Admittedly, I used mine to touch up my chicken skin over on the Palena Chicken Project thread.

I can't believe that nobody mentioned the Octodog yet. Behold the Octodog!.

NOt to mention the motorized ice cream cone. It even comes in your choice of four colors. Is this a great country or what?

Mr. BLB took one look and started muttering about the work of Satan....

Personally for the Korean dinner, I'm going to order a bunch of these for people who can't use regular chop sticks.
Fish Sticks?

No need to order any for me - I have a similar item (called beginners chopsticks or some such). They were handed out at the end of a Shirley Fong-Torres Wokwiz "I can't believe I ate my way through Chinatown" tour in San Francisco

I've seen you use chopsticks...I'm ordering two pairs for you...

I want the Corn Zipper.

Your go now. Keep it real, though. No wine pods.

I actually own something like this. It's essentially an expandable round knife, on a handle with a spring. You place it on the end of the cob, and strip quickly down. The spring is just strong enough to keep the blades on the cob all the way around, cutting the kernels clean off the entire cob in one pass. You can literally do an ear in 3 seconds.

In the summer, one of my wife's favorite dishes to make is corn souffle, so this device comes in handy when she has a dozen or two ears of corn to deal with.

I just bought a Corn Zipper this weekend at La Cuisine in Old Town! (So now you know where to buy one locally ). It works, but I have to admit that I need a little more practice.

I just read about the corn zipper while eating dinner and found myself wondering what time Sur La Table closes because maybe I could run up the street right now and get one.

I'm curious about getting a yogurt maker. And definitely an ice cream maker - I just need more cabinet/counter space before all that!

I saw this today and immediately wanted one. I gave up eating corn-on-the-cob some years ago, due to the mess and the fact that I just HATED all that crap between my teeth. Plus, I make a lot of things which require taking the fresh kernels off the cob. The WaPo says they sell these at Home Rule on 14th Street--one of my favorite places in the city. These two guys bought this building that had been shuttered for almost 30 years and turned some of the detritus they found into an interesting mosaic for their cash register counter. I found myself explaining what had happened in 1968 to an entrepreneur who hadn't actually been born at the time.

Trying.To.Stifle.Joke.

What if the silk gets caught in the zipper?

I think a Vortex Genie would make a great addition to any bar. And maybe an Anti-Griddle to replace the frozen ice/slush/granita components with equivalents made on-the-spot from the cocktail itself.