The most important equipment for dessert

chefs

STAINLESS STEEL BOWLS

Many bowls are made of plastic, which discolors over time, especially if you do a lot with
chocolate and saffron. Find a hardwearing, stable, attractive bowl that looks like new
every time you take it out to create a new dessert

ELECTRIC SCALES
If you work with desserts long enough, you’ll understand why pastry chefs always weigh
their ingredients. It’s right more often, basically. And easier.
DIGITAL THERMOMETER
You need a quick and sensitive thermometer even when cooking desserts. It’s important
that the sensor is thin, so you don’t leave big holes in fluffy cakes.
BLOW TORCH
A small chef’s blow torch is a must if you want to be able to create the perfect, crisp
topping on your crème brûlée or beautifully brown your Italian meringue.

SPATULA
Most kitchens will already have a spatula to get the last bit of cake mix out of the bowl. If
not, it’s a minor and sensible investment.
SPATULA
Most kitchens will already have a spatula to get the last bit of cake mix out of the bowl. If
not, it’s a minor and sensible investment.
CHINOISE
The mesh of an ordinary sieve sometimes just isn’t fine enough. A chinois is a fine-
mesh metal sieve that enables you to strain out very tiny bits that you don’t want in the
finished dish, such as when you’ve boiled cream with coffee or lime zest to make panna
cotta.
ZESTER
It’s always the outermost part of the citrus peel you want, not the white, bitter pith
underneath. To make sure you just get the thin flakes of peel with the flavor, you need a
zester.
BALLOON WHISK
When you’re dealing with slightly larger amounts of mixture, you need a balloon whisk
to add air.
NOZZLES
Small improvements in presentation make a huge difference in terms of the impression
on your guests, especially when you produce the dessert course. Nozzles are the
stainless steel ends that you put at the end of the piping bag. You probably want three
or four different ones for variation. One for mousse, one for meringue and one for
writing on birthday cakes.

PIPING BAGS
“You can just use an ordinary plastic bag”, people say. Well they’re wrong. Piping bags
are more stable and make it easier to get the mixture you’re piping to land where you
want it to when you want it to
PALETTE KNIFE
A palette knife is a rectangular spatula, either flat or angled, which makes it easier to
level off the top of your cheesecake. Essential for an ambitious dessert chef.
CUTTERS
Yes, you can always use a glass out of the kitchen cupboard. But to cut out perfect
rounds, it’s useful to have some cutters. These are rings in stainless steel with edges a
few centimeters high in different sizes. Useful for cutting out tartlets and biscuits, etc.