Andrew Zimmern's Favorite Multi-Use Kitchen Tool Is One You Might Not Own

Though professional chefs have made a living off their food, some like Andrew Zimmern have set out to help out the aspiring cooks among us who are trying to whip up recipes at home. Zimmern spoke to our Tasting Table team to offer tips for home chefs and emphasized some of the must-have tools that should be placed into any respectable kitchen. Among them, Zimmer lists a mortar and pestle as a worthy kitchen essential. "I love mine and use it every day for grinding spices, making sauces, mayo, and more," he told us.

Zimmer takes out a mortar and pestle when preparing spices to make hog vinadloo, New England clam chowder, or when crushing peanuts into a coarse powder, but the handy tool has many other uses like smashing garlic cloves. He even recommends the manpowered device as a gift for food-loving friends and family members. Mortar and pestles are usually made with marble or wood and provide a deep bowl with a curved lip and a hand-held tool for smashing and pulverizing objects inside the open container. Sizes and materials used to make the mortar and pestle can vary, but the core components of a bowl with some sort of club remain constant.

Zimmern has been vocal about his distaste for kitchen gadgets and affinity for old school culinary methods. While a mortar and pestle has made appearances in the oldest piece of medical literature, some guess that mortar and pestles were used for thousands of years prior to prepare food. We're talking even before fire and sharpened flint entered the picture. The mortar and pestle is also written in the oldest book discovered, the Indian Veda, and is mentioned in the Bible and in ancient writings from China and Egypt. Other tools have undergone changes throughout the years, but the mortar and pestle has remained largely unaffected.

Though you may not be preparing grain with the tools, this timeless artifact is easy to use and clean, and relies only on human power to get kitchen chores done. Whether preparing pesto, guacamole, salsa, hummus, fresh berry compote, or grinding course coffee, this tool is a must for any kitchen. The other benefit is that ingredients ground by this process won't be exposed to heat, unlike others placed into machines.