A friend and I had a conversation at work on what our top 10 essential pieces of cookware would be if we could only have 10 and nothing else. We both ended up bumping it up to 12 because we couldn't part with a few things, but these were my choices, most important of which would be the Chef's Knife and the Wok.
A lot of my picks were because of their versatility, e.g. the wok which can deep fry, saute, boil, and even bake if you're brave enough, or because of their necessity.
Here is my reasoning for each of my picks:
Can Opener: knives can open cans, but I don't want to have to ruin my chef's knife by doing so
Wok: Carbon steel is easy to clean, durable, and non-stick and can still get good color and fond when sauteeing meats. The form factor is more versatile to boil or deep fry, and big enough for soup or stew while still being able to saute. I almost went with a cast iron pan for this pick, but it isn't big enough for soup or stew and doesn't do well with acid.
Chef's Knife: probably the most important tool of all, and the most versatile knife of all the blade choices. You could probably substitute a cleaver here but I am more used to the chef's knife personally.
Chopsticks: I feel like chopsticks are more precise and versatile than tongs or a spatula. This one is more personal preference. (especially because they're so easy to clean).
Corner Spoon: can't use chopsticks for liquids so I picked a corner spoon which can double as a spoon and a spatula.
Cutting Board: probably one of the weaker picks, but I think it's necessary to keep your countertops safe and also to keep your blade from dulling too much with use.
Food Scale: Another important one, you can't recreate recipes accurately without measuring ingredients. Some scales have a liquid and solid option so you will be able to measure both volume and weight close enough to be accurate.
Immersion Blender: probably my weakest entry, but I feel like it's necessary enough to include. You can't make certain things without a blender and the immersion blender is more versatile than a countertop one.
Mixing Bowls: Essential for mise en place and separation of ingredients, for recipe and/or safety.
Mortar and Pestle Necesary for spices and ground ingredients that a chef's knife would be too tedious to use (e.g. ground cumin). More versatile than just a spice grinder.
Thermometer: Essential for accurate cooking temps and food safety. You could technically do it all by feel, but to me especially in the context of baking and meats, accurate temperature is important.
Whisk: Another weaker entry, but you couldn't make things like hollandaise or whipped cream without one. You could probably remove this one if you had a whisk attatchment on the immersion blender.
I did not include heat or cleaning stuff in this list which is technically also necessary. You need some form of heat (like a stovetop or campfire) and refridgeration to cook too, and some cleaning agents.
I'm curious what you all would add, remove, or swap to the list. What's essential to you?
My must haves:
Nice to haves:
Explanation: A wok/pan (which ever is more comfortable to you) is most important tool because you can make plenty of things without a knife (eg. Instant meals) so it's probably a no brainer. You don't even need anything to toss things in the wok.
Next you really want cooking chopsticks to use with it or a spatula. I think the chopsticks is just a hair more versatile so I put it ahead.
I think 1 to 5 should be obvious.
Next you need a bowl to either hold the finished food or for intermediate ingredients or even marinading so it's pretty important.
Lids are actually something I forgot about. These things are pretty critical to a good portion of dishes. The most important things they let you do is to simmer and steam foods. A lot of recipes are basically impossible or much much harder if you cannot steam things. The most obvious recipe they enable is rice.
8, 9 and 10 are actually kind of "very nice to have" cooking items. None of them are needed if you have a lot of experience and can just eye ball everything but they do make everything so much easier and makes your meals a lot more reproducible.
I put measuring cup first because those quantities are probably the hardest to eyeball. I can probably eye ball a tablespoon but I doubt I can eye ball a cup.
Measuring spoons are just plain useful. Not just as measuring tools but to get stuff out of containers.
The scale is probably the least used for me of the three.
I think with 1 to 10 you can probably make most things, although some things might be annoying to make.
The next thing you probably want is some way to sharpen your knife. Unless you are just going to buy a new knife every year I find a knife sharpener pretty crucial, probably more than the average person.
Sauce pan and pot are interchangeable. I put pot first because I like soups. Woks are also not great at replacing a pot.
Beyond 12. These are the "nice to have" items. You basically don't even need these at all.
Can opener is first of the nice to haves. I put it this low because I thought about what I even use them for and these days almost everything that comes in a can can be found in other form factors or the can has an opener integrated which is why this tool is so low. However, having one does unlock certain foods, the most obvious to me are canned mexican foods and campbell things.
Next, peeler, scraper and tongs are all very interchangeable for me. Of the three I definitely use the scraper the most, even more than a lot of things higher in the list. The reason why it's so low on the list is because no one needs a scraper. It just makes transporting things like minced garlic so much easier.
Peeler and tongs are very useful but I wouldnt consider either of them necessary. You can peel with a knife and you can use chop sticks instead of tongs although tongs are a lot safer if the thing is big.
Next is the rice cooker. So if we were to go by price to utility ratio, the rice cooker would probably shoot up to a spot in the top 10. However I'm ranking based on necessity of the item and no one really needs a rice cooker. You just need a container (eg. A wok or sauce pan) to hold rice and water and a lid to steam it. Realistically though, it would be one of the first things I buy because rice cookers are ridiculously cheap and they save so much time.