During college, I lived in a one-room studio apartment with a loft bed and a tiny bathroom. It was just about perfect – it met all of my needs at the time and allowed me to live on my own without having to worry about roommates. There was just one downside to that living situation, one that I stuck with for three years: the apartment didn’t have a kitchen. My landlady provided a toaster, microwave, and refrigerator, but that was it. No oven, no stove, no dishwasher.

When I finally moved into a new place with a full kitchen, I had a burning appreciation for the opportunities it presented. One of the tricky parts of getting started, though, was figuring out exactly what equipment I needed.

On one end of the spectrum the Food Network crowd is going to have you convinced that you can’t make a simple PB&J without a hand-crank butter churner with a mahogany handle. On the other, go too minimal and you won't be able to make much beyond the occasional pot of pasta. Your best bet is – much as you should do with your food when starting out – keep it simple, but strategic. There are, at the end of the day, only a few tools that are absolutely essential in any functional kitchen.

Disclaimer: This won’t touch on pantry essentials, but rather kitchenware. And what you keep in your refrigerator is up to you; these tools will work on anything. Similarly, this won’t touch on the, “Well duh” stuff. You should already know that things like utensils and paper towels are, you know, kind of important.

A Quality Chef's Knife

If there’s a single item on this list that could be considered the most important, the most absolutely indispensable, it’s this: a chef’s knife. 8” is the standard measurement and it should work for just about all of your needs.

Look, yes, technically it might help to also have a paring knife and a serrated knife (for slicing bread), but at the end of the day, a good chef’s knife is your bread and butter. It’ll get you through carving up chicken, slicing vegetables, and every other situation you might encounter in a kitchen. It’s also an item you shouldn’t pinch pennies on. If you get a good one made from decent steel with a full-tang blade and take good care of it, it’ll end up paying for itself. You will find use for it in almost every recipe you cook for the rest of your life. It’s vital. Get a chef’s knife and learn how to use it.

While you’re at it, get a wood cutting board. Don’t get a plastic one. Plastic isn’t great for the knife and it retains germs.

Versatile, No-Nonsense Cookware

A good chef’s knife is high-maintenance and a bit pricey. On the other end of the spectrum, you've got cast-iron pans. A good one of these is culinary simplicity incarnate. You can cook just about anything on it, be it steak, eggs, or grilled veggies, and it’ll turn out great. When you’re done, you don’t even have to wash it. There are ways to use and clean it properly, and you should learn them, but what you’re ultimately going for when you first get a cast-iron skillet is a high volume of usage. This builds up the seasoning and flavor retained by the skillet, and pretty soon it infuses anything you cook with that deep, rich taste. It’s just about the most low-maintenance kitchen tool you can get. They’re cheap, too.

While you’re at it, get yourself a decent pot. I think this one kind of explains itself. Pasta is an eternal standby, and you can’t cook it without a pot. Get one, get a set, get whatever you feel your needs require. Just don’t be without one, otherwise you’re gonna be stuck with the collegiate standby of dry ramen.

Inspiring Cookbooks

When you’re just starting out in the kitchen, you might find yourself lacking direction. There’s definitely beauty in culinary improvisation, and you’ll soon find that some of your best meals stem from that, but it still helps to have some sort of set path to follow when you’re finding yourself at a loss for inspiration. That's why I highly recommend that anybody stepping into a kitchen to cook for themselves have at least one good cookbook on hand. It doesn’t have to be full of recipes so complex they’d make Eric Ripert nervous. It just needs to include a handful of recipes that you’re capable of following, and maybe a couple that challenge you to go outside of your comfort zone.

And, yes, you can look up recipes on Google all you want and find a whole slew of Yahoo Asks in which half of the internet has chimed in on what they’re absolutely certain is the best way to cook a chicken breast, but trust me, get a book. The internet can be overwhelming with recipe options, and because so much of it is user-generated, half of the recipes and advice are going to be contradictory. So find one cookbook that interests you and start to make your way through it. You’d be surprised by how much it helps. Taking recipes from a book rather than a website or a magazine erases the distractions that come with those. It’s just you, your food, and a recipe crafted by someone who probably knows what they’re talking about. And when you’re just starting out with learning how to cook, that’s exactly what you need. Speaking of which…

Have your mom’s phone number on hand. Or a friend’s mom. Any mom you trust works. You will, when you begin cooking, run into a problem that you don’t know the answer to and that the internet can’t answer clearly. And in that moment, you’re going to be glad you heeded this advice. Because trust me, they will have the answer. Should this meat smell like this? How long should I cook this for? I’m in the middle of my first grease fire, what do I do? They’ll have the answer. Don’t be afraid to reach out to them for it. It might save your life. Or, at the very least, your meal.

The Kitchen Gear Every Beginner Needs

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