Top Chefs’ Pantry Must-Haves: What’s Worth Buying and What Isn’t

The Chef's Cut

In this episode of The Chef's Cut, chefs Adrienne Cheatham and Joe Flam dive into building a high-quality, functional pantry by highlighting essential

Key takeaways

• Quality over quantity: A well-stocked pantry should focus on a few high-quality, versatile ingredients rather than overwhelming variety.
• Real balsamic vinegar is worth the investment due to its depth of flavor and aging process; fake versions can be replicated with cheaper alternatives but lack authenticity.

Main topics

• Essential vinegars: rice vinegar and real balsamic
• High-quality oils and shelf-stable cooking fats

Notable quotes

"Whoever dies with the biggest pantry wins." – Sean Brock

Conclusion

A smart pantry isn't about quantity or luxury—it's about selecting a few high-quality, versatile

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:14) Today on The Chef's Cut, we are opening up our pantries and sharing the ingredients that you should stock in your own kitchen. This one, this guy here is my homie. It's my best friend. We'll tell you which brands will take your dish to the next level. Speaker 1 (0:28) Chris Bianco makes those Bianco Di Napoli tomatoes, and they are phenomenal. Speaker 2 (0:33) And we'll share our list of high-priced ingredients that are not worth the splurge. For most home cooks, I don't think Maldon salt is worth buying. All right, Chefs Cut Nation, you know what time it is. We need 10 seconds of your day. Please rate and review the show wherever you get your pods. It really helps. Speaker 1 (0:56) To start this week, be open with a quote. By the great Sean Brock, who once said, whoever dies with the biggest pantry wins. Because this week we're talking pantries. I Speaker 2 (1:08) love it. In Speaker 1 (1:09) my opinion, it's not about having the biggest pantry, right? You don't need to have the most stuff. I do love the idea of like the old school Southern mentality of all the pickles, all the things, right? Yeah. Of like, you know, you have the huge root cellar and all these things. But I think we overdo it sometimes. And I think if you break it down to the bare essentials. And you buy less things, but you buy good quality things and you have the things that you need to use. You have a better pantry. You better have a better workhorse kitchen. I Speaker 2 (1:39) told you that when we were talking about, you know, a day in the life of me doing private work, I live and die by my pantry because there are times that my clients like, oh, I'm going out tonight. No need for dinner. So I'm just there doing prep. I didn't buy certain things. I didn't plan on cooking a plated dinner. But then it's like change of plans. It's raining. Somebody got sick. Somebody had to cancel the reservation. So I'm home for dinner. And that is when the pantry is clutch. Speaker 1 (2:07) All right. So today I want to break down the pantries. Like if you had a start over tomorrow, move into a brand new place and you got to build out the pantry and you just want to build out a central. So I kind of in my mind, I broke it down. I got five categories. OK. We'll go through them. Vinegars is a really important one. Yes. Speaker 2 (2:25) Key. Speaker 1 (2:27) Oils. Speaker 2 (2:27) Mm-hmm. A Speaker 1 (2:28) carb of some sort that's dry you can put on a shelf. You know what I mean? A canned good. Got to have a good canned good. We're proper Midwesterners. Even if you live in New York now, you travel all over France, girl, I know where you were born. I've driven down that block. Speaker 2 (2:43) I'm the queen of the canned goods. Speaker 1 (2:45) And then lastly, one jar. Speaker 2 (2:48) Ooh. Got to have a jar of something, right? Speaker 1 (2:52) Got to have a jar or something. Speaker 2 (2:53) Yeah. Speaker 1 (2:54) So those are my five. So I think to kick it off, first one right out the gate, we're going acidic. What is, yeah, and I'm just saying one. Like, obviously, we all have more than one in our pantry. But I'm saying if you just have one where you're like, I can get the most bang for my buck out of this and do a lot of the things I need to do. What's your one vinegar? Speaker 2 (3:15) I mean, okay, I'll give you one and then I'll give you my honorable mention. No, Speaker 1 (3:19) you Speaker 2 (3:19) have one. Oh, I'm doing it. It's happening, sweetheart. So my one rice vinegar. Speaker 1 (3:26) Okay, seasoned or unseasoned? I Speaker 2 (3:28) like unseasoned because if I want to add mirin or if I want to add some sugar to it, but I like the base unseasoned rice vinegar as my blanket vinegar. I use it for... Everything from salad dressings to, you know, adding a little drop into a couple of sauces to bring up acidity, even put a little splash like, you know, in a braise or in a marinade here and there. Yeah. So I use that. Speaker 1 (3:53) I mean, a rice wine vinegar pickle, too, is delicious. Like, I mean, it's so like. You know, I like the seasoned rice wine vinegar, too. I use it for a ton of stuff. We use it to, like, season grilled vegetables after we pull them off, like, the hearth and stuff. It's a workhorse. Speaker 2 (4:08) It does. See, I like the unseasoned because I do usually add stuff to it. So if I'm... making a glaze or something like that, there's got so many other components that, you know, I'm just rolling with the blanket one. But Speaker 1 (4:20) that season one, like a pinch of salt, you pour it over anything and you got really good pickles. Speaker 2 (4:24) Oh, yeah. Amazing. You don't need to dilute it as much as like white distilled or cider vinegar. You can add like dark brown sugar to the pickling liquid if you want to get that depth of flavor into it. Like I love rice vinegar. It's my jam. Use it for so much. Speaker 1 (4:42) What's your second one? Because Adrian's got to have a second one. Speaker 2 (4:47) My honorable mention goes to white wine vinegar with tarragon. Speaker 1 (4:51) That's not. You can't. Speaker 2 (4:53) It's a thing. You used to be able to buy it in stores. Right. But I Speaker 1 (4:56) mean, now you're making concoctions. Speaker 2 (4:59) No, this is. Okay, yes, I did stick the vinegar in this one. But you used to be able to buy it in stores. all over the place. Now you don't see it as much. You know, Speaker 1 (5:08) like all the old Italian stores where they used Speaker 2 (5:10) to Speaker 1 (5:10) have the bottles of olive oil with all the stuff jammed in them. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? I was like, oh my God, that's the fanciest thing ever. It has peppers and garlic and rosemary. And whole lemons. That must be a thousand dollars. But I like that one. I think rice wine vinegar is, I think it's probably in more like professional kitchens than anyone thinks too. Speaker 2 (5:29) Yeah. Like I Speaker 1 (5:30) don't know that, you know, the last time I've been in a kitchen that doesn't have it. Speaker 2 (5:33) Yeah, and it's not like people do associate it with Asian cuisine because that is where it came from. But I can't think of a cuisine or a restaurant that I've worked in that did not use rice vinegar for multiple recipes. Speaker 1 (5:47) My grandma's used it my whole life. Really? She makes this salad. We just call it the salad. And it's like a mix of olive oil, red wine vinegar, seasoned rice wine vinegar. Speaker 2 (5:58) Oh, nice. Just like Speaker 1 (5:59) in Tostin Greens. It's so delicious. Oh, nice. It's so good. For like every big holiday or whatever. But it's like, so it's just, I've always, in my head, it's still like equates to, you know, when I think of like an Italian salad, I think of seasoned rice wine vinegar. But I mean, I don't know when she started using it or why or how, but it's delicious. Speaker 2 (6:19) Go Grandma Mary. Shout out. So Joe, what is yours? What is your one vinegar? Just because I know you, I have it. Yep. Speaker 1 (6:32) Really, like real balsamic though. You can tell this stuff's, that's viscosity. How Speaker 2 (6:37) viscous is that? Yeah, I was going to ask. What's Speaker 1 (6:39) the Speaker 2 (6:39) age on that one? Speaker 1 (6:41) This one, I believe, is a eight year. Speaker 2 (6:44) Okay. Speaker 1 (6:45) Which is like eight year, I think is perfect. You know what I mean? Like you can get into the crazy ones. You can get into the 25, the 50 years where they're like, they're thick. They're like syrup. You know what I mean? And those ones are crazy expensive. But if you find a good eight year one, like they're not cheap, right? Like a good eight year bottle of balsamic, that'll run you 40 bucks. But it's like you use way less of it as opposed to like when you buy that like cheap, shitty, loose, like balsamic colored vinegar. And the biggest difference I think people don't, you know, for people who don't know is like real balsamic vinegar is aged in barrels. And because it's Asian barrels, that's where it gets natural thickness from. When you have those glazes or those creams of balsamics or, you know, the fake balsamic vinegars, they're just cooked in a pot. It's like real wine versus like white Zinfandel. Speaker 2 (7:33) So I was going to ask, because in a lot of restaurants that I've worked in, that's something that we've also done. If you want to glaze carrots or things, you put, you know, a less expensive balsamic in a small pot. boil it to reduce it down to like a third. So it is a little more viscous. It'll coat a spoon and you can drizzle it on top. Are you not here for that? I'm Speaker 1 (7:54) not here for that at all. I'm not here for that at all. It's like use the right thing. You know what I mean? You take the real balsamic and then instead of having to take a gallon of crappy balsamic vinegar, reduce it down to a cup. You just take a half a tablespoon of really good balsamic when those carrots come out. You know, just deglaze them with a little lemon and then just hit them with a little bit of drizzle of that. And there's just no mimicking the depth of flavor to it. Speaker 2 (8:21) So how do you describe the difference in flavor between the cheaper one that's very loose and liquidy to like an eight year aged? Speaker 1 (8:29) Well, like the cheaper one is like it's super acidic. It's just a super acid bomb. There's no balance to it. It's really, really sharp. When you have a really aged balsamic vinegar, there's just such a depth there. There's sweetness, there's viscosity, there's acidity. It's just really, really well balanced. Speaker 2 (8:46) Yeah, it's like the edge comes off of it, right? Speaker 1 (8:48) Right. So, I mean, you could brush it on a piece of meat. You drizzle it over some veg. You know what I mean? Any salad, just like toss it in olive oil, salt, lemon juice, and then just like. I mean, a drizzle of this at the end, it'll carry it through the whole thing. It's just unbelievable. So that's why for me, it's just, it's a monster workhorse. It does so many things. And I think it's one of those things people like, people get backed off of buying the real one because of the price. Speaker 2 (9:12) But Speaker 1 (9:13) I think when you realize like, you're not going to go through a bottle a week. Speaker 2 (9:17) Right, right. You know what I Speaker 1 (9:19) mean? Like you're going to go through a bottle like every two months. Speaker 2 (9:23) Okay. So it's worth to spend a little bit more. That's what I'm saying. Less than 50 cents a Speaker 1 (9:28) day. Speaker 2 (9:30) Okay, Sarah McLachlan. You know what I Speaker 1 (9:32) mean? Like, you know, you're getting the good balsamic. So I think it's one of those things like it's worth the splurge. Speaker 2 (9:41) Okay. It's Speaker 1 (9:42) worth the splurge. You know what I mean? And I also think if the combo of your two vinegars, if you have rice vinegar and balsamic in your house. Oh, you Speaker 2 (9:50) got everything you ever need. Speaker 2 (9:58) Okay, so let's move on to your next category. You said next category. Speaker 1 (10:02) Oil, the fats. Speaker 2 (10:03) Okay. Gotta have a fat. Speaker 1 (10:05) Gotta have a fat. Gotta Speaker 2 (10:07) have. Speaker 1 (10:07) So. I think you go a hundred different ways with this. What is your number one oil in the house? I Speaker 2 (10:13) like a good finishing oil. Yes. I like a good neutral oil like grapeseed or canola, but I really like this one. This, this guy here is, is my homie. It's my best friend. Frantoya extra virgin olive oil. And I Speaker 1 (10:29) mean, Speaker 2 (10:30) I love it. It's an Italian olive oil. So it's got these grassy notes. It's not like. a Pequol or some of the Spanish olive oils have a lot of that, like you get that spice on the back end. Speaker 1 (10:41) This Speaker 2 (10:42) is grassy. It's a little more balanced. It gives you some of that spice, but it's also, obviously I'm not doing high heat cooking with it, but I can use it for low heat cooking, which I appreciate. I Speaker 1 (10:55) think you can get higher with the heat on it too than people realize. Speaker 2 (10:57) I think so. Like I definitely, I use it for poaching. I use it for some like light sauteing. I don't use it for like, if I'm going like. super high wok style heat. But if I'm like cooking something in the pan and it's not going to like smoke out, then I'm definitely using this for cooking and I'm using it for finishing also. Speaker 1 (11:16) See, I'll kind of rip it with olive oil. Speaker 2 (11:18) Really? Speaker 1 (11:19) Yeah. How Speaker 2 (11:20) high do you go? Like I'll Speaker 1 (11:23) get after it with some olive oil. I just kind of like, like, especially like if I'm doing mushrooms. Speaker 1 (11:30) I don't want to do a base oil. I want to do olive oil. So sometimes what I'll do is I'll go like I'll put the mushrooms in the pan like no oil, Speaker 2 (11:36) a little Speaker 1 (11:37) bit of salt. Let the water start to come Speaker 2 (11:39) out. Okay. Speaker 1 (11:41) And then pull it off the heat for a second. Hit it with the olive oil. First couple sautés, then put it on. We're working. That Speaker 2 (11:49) makes such a delicious sauteed mushrooms with a good, and this isn't crazy expensive. A little garlic, finish it, boom, crush a little lemon. Nothing like it. And I love, like, if I'm frying something, I would use, like, rice bran oil. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that has a really high smoke point, but it doesn't give you any flavor. So I like this because you can cook with it, you can finish with it. Like, that's my jam. That's my personal one. Speaker 1 (12:14) This is one of the few times in life. Or you and I agree. Speaker 2 (12:19) Oh, what's yours? What's your fat? Let me see. Speaker 1 (12:21) I keep a little bigger one on deck at the house. Speaker 2 (12:27) Holy moly. Little bigger, just a gallon. Speaker 1 (12:31) It's larger than a gallon, actually. It's 1.32 gallons. Speaker 2 (12:33) Oh, dear. Speaker 1 (12:34) I use a ton of it. When I make pasta sauce, I use a ton of olive oil. So that's like my base. cooking olive oil. Speaker 2 (12:40) You know Speaker 1 (12:41) what I mean? It's a mix of a bunch of different olives from Italy, but, you know, from different places in Italy. But it's all Italian olives, all cold-pressed, still extra virgin, but it's, like, kind of a melange. So it's softer, like you were saying. So it's better for, like, cooking, vinaigrettes, all that stuff, right? I love, like, I have a bunch of finishing oils because, like, of course. That is not surprising. So, like, at work, you know, I have different finishing oils for different things that I like. I just bought a palette of finishing oil. A palette. Yeah, it's a strike for another day. But I love finishing oils. They're really good. But again, kind of like the balsamic, you know, you're not using them in bulk. You know what Speaker 2 (13:18) I Speaker 1 (13:18) mean? You're using a little bit like that's when you want that super intense peppery green where it's got that like wild arugula taste to it. It's