Nice thread topic!
(I recall a vaguely similar one that I’ll find later just bec it’s a fun read too)
For me I think it’s my immersion blender (including its accessories — it’s one of very few things that merits counter space!
Stick blender itself - everything from eggs to soup, small chopper attachment to chop/mince for most meals, and occasionally the beater for instant chocolate mousse 
I love my stick blender as well!
I have three. If I had to pick one??
It has to be my Garlic Twister, i use it every time I cook. After struggling to chop and crush and mince, after trying all the garlic gadgets, i have settled on the twist, and I love it. I also started shaking my garlic in two small bowls to peel, shockingly it works.
The other favorite is from tovolo, a flat colander that sits in the sink. I put it in whenever i wash fruits, salad, veggies… a life changer.
And i just got a mini kitchenaid food processor and we can now have fresh caesar dressing every week.
These are the three things that make cooking more pleasurable than ever before.
A Pampered Chef double (thin & thinner) cheese slicer for almost daily cheese toast, an instant thermometer, stainless steel tongs, and a glass fat separator for gravies/broths.
My Thermapen is a fav for sure. My gyuto although not a gadget is by far my favorite kitchen tool
My various microplanes, especially the professional, fine-openings one bought 18 years ago on an impulse in a cookware store in Aspen, instead of the $100+ cotton t-shirts I couldn’t afford. It’s still going strong, as are the more recent acquisitions of other varieties.
Going big, my Vitamix 5200. What can it not blend, except for my …
Breville toaster oven (with air fryer mode) … what can it not roast/toast, except for my Vitamix 5200 …
Oh that is a tough one. The first thing that came to mind was my bench scraper.
I’ve seen peeler, potato masher, and tongs and I’d agree with those as well.
It’s always nice to have gadget/ tools that put a smile on your face in the kitchen.
I feel that very same way about some of my tools in the kitchen. In particular my knives.
@LauraJ
I laughed at your first statement. I had the same reaction about my favourite kitchen tools on CH.
I know it’s off topic because it is about knives just wanted to share my knife post with you that like minds think alike:
olunia11/08/21 4:27PM re: kaleokahu
Kaleo - You are absolutely right everyone has a different definition of the word favourite. For me, it definitely is the history/purchase behind the knife yet your definition of which one ‘brings a smile’ is what resonated with me.
My problem is how do I choose just one knife? That’s like asking me to choose just one pair of shoes, purse or piece of jewellery! It is just not possible because there are different shoes and accessories for different occaissions.
I have 2 favorite cheese knives 1 to cut through softer cheeses then another for firmer cheeses. I have a tomato knife, chef knife, beak paring knife, sausage knife (my most recent purchase) which brings the biggest smile because so easy to cut baguettes, buns and bagels. It is lightweight and much more comfortable than my bread knife which I also love when slicing crusty breads.
All serve a different function. I enjoy my German knives (all of them - the feel in my hands) when performing the task at hand.
My least favorite are my boning and filleting knives. I don’t think that is the knife’s fault but rather because those are my least favourite tasks to execute.
Favorites because they came down to me from a great great aunt who was the renowned baker of the family. Her petit four rack, the wavy slicer and the oven puller. Wavy slicer used often for salads, it has deeper waves than ones I’ve seen commercially. The oven drawer puller lives with the toaster oven.
I loved your share. Thanks for providing the background information on it. Hope your aunt shared some of her baking recipes with you.
My favorite kitchen gadget is a coffee grinder.
My Swing-A-Way jar opener. It hasn’t met a jar it couldn’t open yet.
I have a bunch of them I use with regularity, but the little one I always appreciate is the little Swiss made STAR peeler.
Thank you everyone you have all either contributed to my new favorite kitchen gadget to use while cooking or confirmed the ones that I already love so much.
My husband and 7-year old Spring Onion have gone through 25+ champagne mangoes in the past 2-3 weeks. He’s become quite expert at slicing them by hand but this might be a fun “stocking stuffer.” When mango season rolls around, it looks like a mango shop in here! Thanks for the tip @chienrouge.
How do you perfectly align the fruit and pitter, so that the pit passes cleanly through the opening?
I think you’re right about the answer(s) depending on the definition of ‘gadget’.
I tend to think of cookware gadgets as small, manual, unitasking tools intended to replace or supplant another more general-application tool or appliance. For example, a sheet rubber “garlic peeler”, to replace the flat of a knife, or multi-bladed “herb scissors”, to replace cutting with the knife.
I think ‘favorite’ also needs definition. Is it favorite because nothing else works as fast or well? Or is it because its use simply brings you pleasure and/or you have sentimental attachment? For example, even though I have–and usually use–electrified coffee mills, I really like my manual mill because it’s quiet and I end up feeling like I earned my cuppa.
I confess a fascination with, for lack of a better word, contraptions, especially vintage ones. Two of my own examples are a manual crank apple corer/peeler (does 7/minute!), and a continuous crank cherry stoner.
Good point.
