Feeling comfortable in your kitchen produces amazing food. Having trustworthy and reliable cooking gadgets makes a big difference in how your food turns out. These are the 10 Must-Have Kitchen Gadgets You Didn’t Know You Needed Under $30.

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When I first started my blog, the main thing I wanted to accomplish with my readers was to help them gain the confidence to be able to execute the recipes I created. I also wanted to give readers all of the tips and tricks I’ve learned as a professional chef.
One thing that I have felt that I needed to address was useful kitchen gadgets. Cooking amazing food doesn’t necessarily mean spending a ton of money on the best appliances and tools. But it does mean using some must-have kitchen gadgets to get cooking done efficiently and as stress-free as possible.

What Are The Must-Have Kitchen Gadgets Every Kitchen Needs
There is a huge market out there for kitchen gadgets. Some of which I deem totally unnecessary and complete money wasters. I’m talking to you, one-purpose kitchen tools.
Of course, it makes your life a whole lot easier if you have a KitchenAid stand mixer or a food processor. I use those appliances almost daily. Properly equipping your kitchen with the right tools will not only save you money but valuable space in your kitchen as well!
The best part of this list is that all of these items are less than $30! So, in no particular order, here are my essential cooking tools!
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10 Must-Have Kitchen Gadgets
In culinary school, I loved using the silpats in the bakeshop to bake. The silicone mat is nonstick and reusable, making it almost unnecessary to use parchment paper (I still can’t give it up completely).
A traditional Silpat, made in France, is almost $70 a mat! Yikes!
However, a fantastic alternative product for a fraction of the price is MIU Silicone Mats. They do the same thing as Silpat. They’re nonstick, reusable and affordable! The same caution for Silpats should be exercised with MIU Silicone mats: ie, no cutting on them, only hand wash, and bake only up to 450 degrees. I love these things.
This comes in a pack of 3 with one being slightly smaller.
Check out my desserts to see how well these silicone mats work with my baked recipes
We all know of that devil veggie peeler from back in the 80’s that was all metal, super uncomfortable, and would cut you without thinking twice. Yeah, my family had one and I had one in college. I hated this thing, for the reasons mentioned above. Plus the blade would spin around halfway through peeling and it was just a huge mess.
Not anymore! The best peeler I’ve ever worked with is a Kuhn Rikon vegetable peeler. It’s sleek, comfortable, and the blade is fixated in place, so no random spinning around. For just a couple of bucks, this is the last peeler you’ll ever buy in your life.
This tool is especially helpful when you have a recipe that requires a lot of peeling like my Sweet Potato Bake or Italian Loaded Potato Casserole.
Undercooking an item can lead to disaster. Everyone should have a thermometer in their kitchen! It is a super handy tool. Especially if you’re just starting out with cooking.
I still use mine all the time for stuffed meats and rolled loaves of bread.
What I love about this swivel head is that sometimes life can be a little crazy and maybe you’re juggling a lot at the same time, you can just swivel this thermometer head to the angle that your head is at and you’ll be able to read it!
I love it and it comes with a sheath, so you don’t stab yourself with the thermometer. Safety first, kids.
This thermometer helped me make sure that my Lamb Burger Sliders turn out perfectly every time.
I can’t count how many times my spider strainer has saved my cooking! It really is an awesome little tool to have around. You can scoop items out of boiling water or hot oil without having to dump the liquid. I absolutely love this tool!
It comes in handy especially with fried foods like Deep Fried Cod, Fried Mac and Cheese Balls, Fried Risotto Balls, and Roasted Corn Fritters.
I will totally admit that box graters have their place in the kitchen, I use mine pretty often. But for a quick zest or what have you, a Microplane zester is the way to go!
I love that you can get this tool in different “ thicknesses” they have ones for citrus zest, chocolate, and even cheese. I love the citrus one because I use that the most but whatever gets the job done for you, a Microplane zester can do it. It’s also super compact, so you can store it away in an awesome utensil holder.
This useful kitchen gadget comes in super handy when making this Roasted Garlic Quick Alfredo Sauce.
This little devil can be intimidating at first but this baby is a time saver in a kitchen. Why can’t I just use a knife???
One word my friend, consistency. With an adjustable blade, you can control the thickness of your cuts. It also comes with strip attachments so you can cut different thickness of strips of food.
I use this to make my own potato chips for my Deep Fried Cod and was a huge time saver for my Asian Ramen Noodle Cabbage Salad. It does come with a guard, for the faint of heart (I totally use it when I do the strip attachments, no worries). I love this tool and recommend it to everyone!
In most professional kitchens, there will always be some container that the cooks can store their salt in. It makes it super convenient for the salt to be right there where you need it.
I especially love the lid so that no creepy stuff gets into my salt. It’s lightweight and pretty compact with a magnet to keep the lid in a closed position. One of the coolest gifts my hubby has ever given me.
You can always see my raving about this awesome kitchen gadget in most of my Facebook Live videos.
Ok, I know you’re looking at me right now and saying what?! Hear me out though!
These are not for-real cutting surfaces, you can’t get all Gordon-Ramsay on these things and not have them slip around.
I use these as a barrier between meat and my cutting board. I want to keep as much weird and grimy stuff found in uncooked meat away from my cutting board. But sometimes I still need to trim or cut up meat. These plastic cutting sheets really help me out a ton to help keep my food safe to eat!
Be sure to watch this video about my recommendations for cutting boards.
Out of the kitchen wedding gifts we received, when we got married, I probably got the most excited about my melamine mixing bowl set! They’re a hardened plastic which helps to insulate heat, perfect for bread making. And they came with lids! Hello.
I love this set for the reasons mentioned above. They stack perfectly inside each other and the lids fit in a compact way.
They’re my go-to bowls for when I make my Soft Homemade Yeast Dinner Rolls.
The last restaurant I worked at gave me a list of a few things I was expected to come to work with every day. One was this awesome tool. I used this rubber bowl scraper every day for nearly 2 years.
It’s perfect for scraping things together and leaves very little on the cutting board. If you need to get minced herbs or garlic, for example, from your cutting board to your pan, this scraper will get it all together in a nice and neat manner. You can also use it to scrape out your mixing bowls, it leaves a bowl virtually clean!
This is a perfect tool that helped make this Moroccan Couscous Salad recipe super clean to put together.
So I know that this isn’t as ambiguous as the other items but baking on a pizza stone is really a game-changer! I have mentioned it before in my pizza making post, it crisps up your pizza crust like no other. I also like to bake my bread directly on this stone, as well as my cookies.
A pizza stone helps create an even bake for the items baked on it, so you don’t have random cookies that are underdone and those that are overdone. I love cooking with my pizza stone and you need to have one!
Here are my pizza recipes that you HAVE to try once you get a pizza stone:
How to Make Pizza Dough From Scratch

As you can see, none of these must-have gadgets are pricey at all but they will make a huge difference in how your kitchen runs and how your foods cook. Let me know of any other gadgets that I’ve missed, that you can’t live without!
For other items that I live by in my kitchen, be sure to visit my Affiliate Store with this link.
Happy cooking!
More awesome posts you might be interested in that’ll help you become a better home chef:
- 3 Tips to Start Cooking From Scratch and Have Time For It
- Know When to Use Fresh vs Preserved Ingredients
- How to Choose the Right Knife For Your Kitchen
- Stainless Steel vs Nonstick Pans
- How to Tell What Foods Are In Season
- How To Combine Flavors to Cook Regional Types of Cuisine
- 6 Essential Food Books That Every Home Cook Should Have
Such an awesome list Marlee! I’m looking to restock my kitchen now we’ve moved!
I’m so glad you found this list useful! Thank you, Betty!
Great List Marlee! Pretty similar to mine except for me – a handheld citrus juicer makes the list – I use it just about every day!
I do believe a juicer made it into my holiday gift guide! 😉 great minds think alike!