- Chefs agree that tongs are the most versatile, essential kitchen tool.
- Tongs can flip, stir and serve—making them ideal for multitasking in the kitchen.
- Grill tongs are best left outdoors; shorter, lighter tongs work better inside.
Joseph Yoon has cooked for people all over the world—on every continent except Antarctica—at events that range from just a few dozen diners to thousands. When he steps into a new kitchen, thousands of miles from his home in Brooklyn, NY, he’s ready to prepare his dishes with whatever he finds in the cupboards and drawers, plus a few key items that are tucked in his traveling knife roll. One of those crucial items? “A good pair of tongs,” he said.
The founder of Brooklyn Bugs, which raises awareness of the more than 2,000 nutrient-dense edible insects, Yoon is known as an “ambassador” for the consumption of sustainably raised critters. His cooking videos, found on the Brooklyn Bugs website, show how to make dishes such as mushroom and cricket “scallops,” grasshopper poutine and bonafide “ants on a log.”
In keeping with his interest in caring for the natural world, and decreasing excess, Yoon’s a proponent of tools that can perform lots of different functions in the kitchen. “I’m very strongly of the opinion that single-use items in the kitchen are probably the biggest waste of space and money,” he noted. Tongs, which can perform many different functions, are part of the solution.
Richard Witting, a historian, anthropologist and owner of Firefly Catering in Burlington, VT, agrees with Yoon. “I feel like I’m past my gadget phase,” he explained. Nowadays, he likes to pare his cooking equipment down to the essentials. “If the house is on fire and you need to cater something, what do you grab?” he asked. “A really good pair of tongs” is on his list.
What Can You Do with Tongs?
For Witting, tongs come in handy for flipping items as they cook, adding ingredients to pots of boiling water or oil—or removing them—and “in a pinch,” stirring ingredients as they cook.
Earlier in his career, when he lived on the West Coast, Witting quit a job at a high-end San Francisco restaurant because the kitchen had an inexplicable “no tongs” rule. “It was this high-stress environment…I had to grill asparagus on a charcoal grill, I was trying to use a spatula to flip them, and they were falling through the grate…I was like, ‘Nope, thank you for the offer. Good luck.’”
Choosing the Right Tongs
Diana Desmond has a background in fine dining—she worked at Stephanie Izard’s Girl & the Goat in Chicago and San Francisco’s Michelin-starred Campton Place—and now owns True Food Living in Petaluma. As a private chef and consultant, she prepares dishes she loves using seasonal, local ingredients and doesn’t have to follow anybody else’s rules about the equipment she uses.
Her go-to tongs are a pair from OXO, which are the same ones that Witting uses. (Both chefs say to avoid the ones with plastic tips). She also loves using chopsticks as tongs, a skill she picked up over time, but which was reinforced when she visited Japan. “It’s the most wonderful food place I’ve ever been,” she said.
OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Tongs
Amazon. EatingWell design.
Yoon, who is Korean American and “was taught to use chopsticks at a very young age,” does the same. Using chopsticks, he can pick up items “from a grain of rice to a half chicken,” he said. “Chopsticks are an extension of my hand.”
What Makes a Good Tong?
Alan Bergo, a.k.a. Forager|Chef, lives in St. Paul, MN, and is as passionate about good tools as he is about cooking with wild ingredients. Author of Flora, a book about preparing all sorts of plants, from the common to the exotic, Bergo is also known for his appearance on the first, and currently only, season of Hulu’s Chef vs. Wild. On that show, competitors harvested ingredients in the wilderness of British Columbia, with barely any tools at their disposal and had to craft an elegant meal from their findings. When filming the show, Bergo was relieved that he was allowed to bring along his favorite, all-purpose 6-inch petty knife.
At home, though, he’s an aficionado of well-made tools of all kinds, including Vitamix blenders, chef-designed Kunz spoons and beautiful wooden Stirsby “stirring stick” spatulas. When it comes to tongs, he likes “an industrial brand” made with “the heaviest gauge stainless-steel you can get.” “They’re attached to my hip,” he said. “There’s a certain pleasure only chefs understand when you feel the tension on a fresh pair of tongs.”
Grill Tongs vs. Kitchen Tongs
Although some folks like to use super-long, extra-heavy grill tongs in the kitchen, the extra weight is an unnecessary impediment for regular cooking: With that much heft, “Your hand might get tired with all of the tonging you have to do,” said Yoon.
As a chef-anthropologist, Witting has done lots of fire-based cooking, and understands the value of lengthy tongs when cooking over dancing flames or in stone or clay ovens but doesn’t usually see a need for them indoors. “It’s like people are trying to prove their manliness” by using oversized tongs,” he guessed. He does, however, enjoy a strong pair of regular-length kitchen tongs.
Other Tools Chefs Love
In addition to loving good-quality tongs, the chefs generally recommend Y-shaped peelers, which are easier to use deftly than the ones that look more like a stick. Both Bergo and Witting have a preference for the Swiss Kuhn Rikon brand, while Desmond sticks with OXO. “Straight peelers are awkward, and a crucible to use,” Bergo said.
Yoon, who prefers to leave the nutritious peels on most fruits and vegetables, including kiwi and potatoes, is less particular. On the rare occasions in which he peels, he alternates between using the y-shaped version, a straight peeler and a paring knife. “It just depends on which one I grab,” he noted.
Good knives made the most-beloved equipment list for all four chefs, but they enjoy different brands and materials. Bergo likes his to be made of high–carbon steel, and has a collection of different brands, while Witting leans on an inexpensive cleaver for most everyday tasks.
The Bottom Line
For everyday cooking, buy tongs that are well-crafted and are between 6 and 12 inches long, depending on what you’re cooking and on what feels comfortable to you. Witting and Desmond recommend this pair from OXO, but restaurant supply stores are another good place to pick up tongs that will last for the long haul. You can also get trusted brands at regular cooking stores. Mainly, avoid tongs that feel flimsy, have plastic tips or that lack a strong spring.
Once you have them, try using the tongs to flip food while it’s searing, to add or remove items from simmering pots and even for stirring food as it cooks. One caveat: metal tongs shouldn’t be used in non-stick pans.
Want to level up your skills and become even more flexible as a cook? Practice using chopsticks as a cooking tool as well as for eating.
