America's Test Kitchen LogoCook's Country LogoCook's Illustrated Logo
Equipment

I test kitchen equipment for a living. Here’s what’s going on my wedding registry.

Take notes from two newly-engaged kitchen equipment experts.

Published Feb. 6, 2019.

 I test kitchen equipment for a living. Here’s what’s going on my wedding registry.

Amazon Prime Days are coming on October 13 and 14! It’s that time of year when Amazon puts all kinds of products on deep discount for its Amazon Prime members. To get ready, browse this list of registry-worthy kitchen ideas. 


 

Registering for your wedding can be both fun and stressful: there’s a seemingly infinite amount of things you can put on your registry and decision fatigue sets in quick. But what happens when you’re engaged and you also review kitchen equipment for a living? Is it any easier, or is the pressure even higher?

It just so happens that two of us on America's Test Kitchen's Tastings and Testings team are both engaged and in the process of creating our own registries. Here we share a peek at our wedding registries and offer insight into building a practical list of things you want and need. (We also included a couple non-kitchen-equipment-related ideas because we're so excited about them).

Lauren Savoie, Senior Tastings and Testings Editor

Lauren Savoie
Left: Lauren in the test kitchen, testing oven mitts for kids. Right: Lauren and her fiance, Rob.

Since I'm among the last of my family and friends to get married, I’ve perused my share of registries over the years.

Selecting an item off someone’s registry can be a small agony when your job is to review kitchen equipment. You want to buy the couple something that you know will perform well and hold up over time, while also respecting their wish list. Usually I just end up forgoing kitchen stuff altogether and selecting something on more neutral territory—bath towels, or maybe a throw pillow.

Fortunately, my mental rolodex of winning and best buy equipment came in handy when it was time to build my own registry with my fiance, Rob. Here are a few of my favorites from our registry.

Small Tools

After five years of reviewing kitchen equipment (and five years of equipment giveaways), I have most of the larger kitchen items I truly need. A good chunk of my registry consists of duplicates of my favorite small wares like this fish spatula (truly life changing), this lemon juicer, and these 12-Inch OXO tongs in both stainless steel and with silicone tips.

Mini Stand Mixer

We’re probably hugely breaking protocol telling you about this before our full review is published (shhh, don’t tell our editors), but Riddley and I are both so excited about adding this mini stand mixer to our registries. My fiance and I live in a small apartment with limited cabinet and counter space. This little guy can do just about anything you’d need a stand mixer to do, but weighs 10 pounds less and takes up 30 percent of the space.

Riddley loves it so much that she also added it to her registry, even though she already owns the cadillac KitchenAid Pro Line Series 7-Qt Bowl Lift Stand Mixer. Her reasoning: “It’s perfect for more daily stand mixer tasks (yep, I bake a lot), like making a batch of cookies.” Plus, it comes in all sorts of fun colors; I registered for “hot sauce” and Riddley registered for “guava glaze.” Look for our full review later this year. (Spoiler: in case you couldn’t tell, we love it.)

All Red Everything

In addition to the “hot sauce” colored mini stand mixer, we seem to have registered for everything in shades of red: a microplane zester, a salt box, and this suitcase. We weren’t going to add any servingware to our registry, but I coveted the beautiful collection of dansk buffet servers in Cook's Country test cook Alli Berkey’s kitchen so badly that I added some to our registry in, you guessed it, red. I’m also only slightly ashamed to admit that I registered for another Dutch oven even though we already have two that we love. But, hey, have you seen the new Le Creuset colors? That “fig” colored Dutch oven is just calling my name.

Pasta Supplies

We love making fresh pasta at home. Or, I should say, my fiance loves it when I make fresh pasta at home. We already have a great hand-crank pasta machine, so I’ve registered for some tools to level-up my pasta making. I’m most excited for this chittara, a guitar-shaped tool native to Abruzzo, where my family comes from. It’s used to make a special square-shaped spaghetti: you roll a sheet of pasta across the strings and then “strum” to release them into the box below. We also registered for a gnocchi roller and a set of pretty pasta bowls.

Knife Storage

If you buy your knives piecemeal (which you should—read more about why we don’t recommend knife sets) you’re going to need a way to store them. I’ve owned a number of knife blocks over the years and they always end up scuffed or the knives just don’t fit right in the oddly-sized slots. I registered for our favorite universal knife block, the Design Trifecta 360 Knife Block because it’s roomy, magnetic, solidly built, and easy to clean.

Plants

Like any good millennial, I have an apartment full of house plants. I’ve cherished every plant I’ve received throughout the years and I think they make great gifts that change and grow with you over time. We have five plants on our registry: a rubber tree, a Dracaena, a silver bay Aglaonema, a fern, and an aloe plant. I specifically chose plants that don’t need much attention and thrive in low light. If I were more adventurous or had a better green thumb, I’d probably add a fiddle-leaf fig, split leaf Philodendron, or calathea.

Wüsthof Gourmet 12″ Fish Spatula

This spatula's perfectly proportioned head supports foods of all shapes and sizes and maneuvers nimbly even in tight spaces.
Buy Now

Chef’n FreshForce Citrus Juicer

This juicer's large, rounded handles are easy to squeeze and its star-like arrangement of large draining slots direct the juice in a steady stream with no splattering or overflowing.
Buy Now

OXO Good Grips 12-Inch Tongs

The scalloped pincers on these comfortable tongs are very precise in both the uncoated and silicone-coated (for nonstick cookware) models.
Buy Now

Microplane Premium Classic Zester/Grater

This Microplane shreds ingredients with ease and has a soft, grippy rubber handle that's comfortable and secure.
Buy Now

Bee House Salt Box

This sturdy flip-top salt box holds plenty of salt and provides easy access to it. It's also great at shielding salt from messes and is a breeze to fill and clean.
Buy Now

Marcato Atlas Pasta Machine

The Ferrari of the pasta machine world, this pasta maker is a real pleasure to handle and produces perfect pasta every time.
Buy Now

Design Trifecta 360 Knife Block

This handsome block is admittedly expensive, but it also lives up to its billing as “the last knife block you ever have to buy.”
Buy Now

Riddley Gemperlein-Schirm, Assistant Tastings and Testings Editor

Riddley Gemperlein-Schirm
Left: Riddley in the test kitchen, testing small stand mixers. Right: Riddley with her fiance, Alex.

My fiance and I are among the first of our friends to get married, so registering for a wedding felt exciting and new.

Thankfully, I have consistently received cooking equipment as holiday and birthday gifts, so our kitchen is pretty well-stocked. Being that I’m 25 and my fiance, Alex, is 24, our chief kitchen-focus for our registry is upgrading some of our cheaper pieces of kitchen equipment or things we received secondhand, bought off Craigslist (college budgets, people!), or in the clearance section at Target. Our second focus is to make sure we get some good investment pieces that’ll last forever, like a great Dutch oven and really high-quality knives.

Here are a few of our favorites from our registry—from a rather gorgeous ladle to the vacuum cleaners (yes, plural) we hope to get.

Kitchen Upgrades

I’m using my wedding registry as an opportunity to upgrade all of my so-so kitchen tools and appliances to America’s Test Kitchen recommended products. This includes this gorgeous teak cutting board, sleek-looking ladle, colander, fine-mesh strainer, dish rack, and Cuisinart Custom 14 Cup Food Processor. (We already have a food processor, but we registered for the copper version because, to be honest, it’s very pretty).

Carbon Steel Everything

Testing 10-inch carbon-steel skillets made me realize I was lacking carbon steel in my life (and kitchen!). We registered for these 12-inch and 10-inch carbon steel skillets, this paella pan, and this Bob Kramer 8" Carbon Steel Chef’s Knife by Zwilling J.A. Henckels that is almost too stunning to use.

Cream of the Crop Dutch Oven and Yeti Cooler

This Le Creuset 7¼ Quart Round Dutch Oven—in the provence color, specifically—and Yeti Tundra 45 are in their own league, as I just really want them.

Pet Supplies and Vacuums (Yes, Plural)

We have two dogs, whom, if you ask my fiance, are the real loves of my life. (They're represented on my registry with these rather expensive car harnesses, these GPS pet trackers and this dog camera for when they’re stuck at home.) In this category, I’m also going to mention my dream vacuums. You see, one of our dogs is a German Shepherd whom I (fondly?) call the German Shedder, so our registry includes a robot vacuum, cordless vacuum, and a flex vac for the car. It might sound like a lot, but considering how much dog hair manages to get on our furniture, this is not overkill.

Proteak Edge Grain Teak Cutting Board

Roomy, knife-friendly, and exceptionally durable, this teak slab is worth every penny.
Buy Now

RSVP International Endurance Precision Pierced 5 Qt. Colander

With all-over tiny perforations that don’t allow small foods to escape, this well-designed colander has a draining performance that remains unmatched.
Buy Now

Simple Human Steel Frame Dishrack

Whether your dish drying needs are large or small, this roomy, well-designed dish rack offers smart solutions (and looks good on your counter).
Buy Now

Cuisinart DFP-14BCNY 14-Cup Food Processor

This food processor is the gold standard. It aces every test and surprises us time and again by outshining pricier, more feature-filled competitors.
Buy Now

Matfer Bourgeat Black Steel Round Frying Pan

This affordable pan has everything you want in a carbon-steel skillet, and it's available in 8-inch, 10-inch, and 12-inch sizes.
Buy Now

Bob Kramer 8" Carbon Steel Chef’s Knife by Zwilling J.A. Henckels

This gorgeous knife has a precise tip and ultrathin blade that minces herbs and slices meat like butter. It also maintains its eadge and has an ultracomfortable handle.
Buy Now

Yeti Tundra 45

With its cooling and durability, this cooler lives up to the hype.
Buy Now

Looking for more help choosing the very best equipment to stock in your kitchen? Check out all of our reviews and these articles:

This is a members' feature.