Ok , Here’s mine ….
1 Chef’s Knife , Chops most things .

2 Food processor , Chops even more things ! (Not to mention Purees)

3 Cutting board , Yes to chop things on .
4 Time , Not really a gadget but very important to and relative to how simple or how complicated is what you want to prepare .
5 Anna and Kristina …. (May count as two And subject to availability…Heh )
Because It’s supposed to be fun , (Insert stressful , Injury prone , Profanity laced , and pleasantly surprising no matter what !)

Have Fun !

I definitely agree with the immersion blender. It’s an awesome thing to own.

As I love to bake here are my five need to own gadgets.

First up, a set of Silpats, which are the way to go if you’re doing a lot of pastry, bread, etc. You can use these to bake on at the top temperature in your oven without worry of fire, especially useful for breads requiring hot ovens. And, you can roll out pastry on them without fear it’ll stick. You can even let your doughs rise on them and place them right onto a cookie sheet and fire the whole thing into the oven. A definite time saver :-).

Second, a proper, flexible, yet inexpensive dough scraper — you can get really good ones for a dollar at any decent restaurant supply store. You just can’t move a lot of dough around without one. This is not to be confused with a metal bench scraper. Those are OK for cleaning benches, but it’s the flexible, plastic ones that look like they came from the top of a yogurt container that are the best ones in my opinion. I keep 5 on hand.

Also, I would definitely splurge on a very good mixer as #3. I used to love KitchenAid but after a horrible experience I’ve flipped over to a Bosch. Handles twice the dough and doesn’t labour.

Fourth, small, stainless steel cups are also useful to measure out various ingredients for baking for your mise-en-place. That way you can have your yeast, salt, sugar, and any other small quantities in nice, small containers ready to dump into the mixer as needed.

And as a baker I have to put in that you must, just must, own an excellent digital scale. Preferably one with a detachable display so you don’t have to deal with hidden displays courtesy of big mixing bowls. And it should handle at least 10kg.

Of course, if I wasn’t allowed to duplicate any aspects of your list, Anna, then I’d throw in a proper, instant read thermometer which is a huge help if you’re not yet sure what a custard or curd looks like, what temperature your sugar is at, etc. I highly recommend Thermopen. It’s the best thermometer I’ve ever used and registers in a couple of seconds. And at the tip! Hugely useful and probably the one tool I use beyond baking and into savoury dishes.

BTW, I do hope we’ll see more of you and Kristina in the near future. Not sure about others, but I’m going through a bit of withdrawal…