Friday Five with Fanny Singer: Kitchen Essentials

If Fanny says you need it in your kitchen, you probably do.

Welcome to my latest series: Friday Five! Once a month, I’ll be sharing five essentials from another Substack-er that I admire. Our inaugural post is with the Fanny Singer, co-author of The Green Spoon Substack, founder of artisanal homeware brand Permanent Collection, and author of Always Home: A Daughter's Recipes & Stories. I absolutely adore her substack where she talks cooking and motherhood with so much authenticity (and deliciousness).

If Fanny says you need it in your kitchen, you probably do. Thanks to her, I’m entering my garlic press era. I almost can’t believe I’ve been chopping garlic all this time. Thank you, Fanny!

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1. Benriner Mandoline Slicer
I use this tool daily: to sliver a shallot for a vinaigrette, to slice cabbage for a salad, to make carrot ribbons for my daughter, to shave fennel and radishes, and so on. No amount of experience in a kitchen enables you to cut vegetables as finely as this tool can do in one flick of the wrist. The diversity of texture that it has brought into my repertoire is incalculable. Just, please, be very careful when using one; it's supremely easy to cut the tip of a finger (I'd even suggest this glove for anyone new to the tool).

2. Permanent Collection 'Alice's Mortar & Pestle'
Even though I love my fancy garlic press (see below) I rely heavily on this beautiful handmade tool to do the work of smashing a clove of garlic for a vinaigrette, grinding spices for a sprinkle over a salad or a meat rub, or making pestos and other pounded herby sauces. The wonderful potter Colleen Hennessey in Mendocino makes this ridged, hand-thrown mortar for my homeware company, Permanent Collection, and it's one of our bestselling products for a reason. Plus, it's named for my mama, Alice Waters.

3. Cuisinart cordless mini rechargeable food processor
When you have a baby who's beginning on solid food, you realize the virtue of having a tool that can make ingredients like nuts small, fast. Plus, thanks to the cordless feature I can just wander into my backyard and process something al fresco if my baby is napping. I use this food processor daily to do things like blend spinach into an egg for a green omelet, or grind walnuts and almonds to add to an overnight oats recipe, or to make a quick salsa verde for roasted vegetables (all of those recipes are in my new Substack, The Green Spoon, which is devoted to helping exhausted parents cook simple, delicious food for themselves and their families.)

4. Victorinox paring knife
I have loved these knives for upwards of 25 years and they have featured in every kitchen of every home I've lived in from London to New York to Los Angeles. They are cheap, they are durable, they are sharp, they can be dishwashed, and they are indispensable for most quick culinary tasks.

5. Dreamfarm Garject garlic press
I never thought I would be someone who'd prosthelytize about a garlic press — pressing garlic through small holes does make it taste different and slightly less "pure," than smashing it in a mortar or mincing it with a sharp knife. That said, the demands of cooking as a parent have convinced me of the merits of the occasional convenience. And, boy, does this silly-named garlic press deliver! Not only can you pop cloves in it WITH their skins still on, but it has a little ejection lever that scrapes the remaining skin and fibrous membrane out of the press afterward so that you don't have to. Genius. I use it 2-3 times a day. (I will implore you, however, to still choose your garlic carefully. When you aren't peeling it, it's much harder to discern its freshness and there is nothing worse than the taste of rancid, musty, moldy, sprouted, wrinkly or otherwise diminished garlic. Garlic should smell good and feel very firm to the touch when it's fresh.)

Fanny is the co-author of The Green Spoon Substack, the founder of artisanal homeware brand Permanent Collection, and the author of Always Home: A Daughter's Recipes & Stories. Her next book, devoted to salad, will be published by Knopf. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband Matt, and 18-month-old daughter, Cecily, where she cooks constantly and reports on arts & culture for a range of publications.