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Gear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

Mandoline slicer

A fixed blade in a frame that you run food across for even slices

Adjustable blade set into a flat frame. Food goes across it in one stroke, so every slice matches, which is what lets a gratin cook through at a single rate or a batch of chips fry without half of them burning. The cheap Japanese benriner models are very sharp and are what most cooks settle on. Their guard is slow and awkward to use, and skipping it is how people end up in the emergency room, so a cut-resistant glove is the usual compromise.

Who backs it

Sorted by strength of stance

  • Chef and food writer · The Food Lab

    Names a Benriner among his kitchen essentials, the cheap Japanese mandoline that turns up on most professional prep tables. It sits on the same list as the spider strainer and the bamboo steamer, in the plain-tools half rather than among the collaborations.

    Source: kenjilopezalt.com: Shop

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    A private training space at home, from a garage rack to a fully equipped room

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    Apple's laptop, used as the one machine that runs the talk and the studio

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    Apple's tablet, used here as the device the reading app runs on

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    Paper notebook

    A bound notebook for thinking on paper away from a screen

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Gear entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.