19 of the most useful kitchen appliances and tools, as recommended by professional chefs

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Alyssa Powell/Business Insider

• Lots of people are cooking at home more often due to the pandemic, including professional chefs.
• It can be a challenge to cook every day — and to keep homemade meals interesting — so we asked some of our favorite chefs and food experts about the kitchen appliances and tools they find most helpful.
• Some of their top picks include the classic KitchenAid stand mixer, a high-tech sous vide machine, and sharp knives.

With so many people cooking at home more often due to the pandemic — myself included — I was curious about how professional chefs and food experts make the most out of their time in the kitchen. So I reached out to 12 chefs from around the country and asked them to share the home cooking tools and appliances that they find themselves using most often.

While the list has its fair share of standbys (you can never go wrong with a KitchenAid mixer, or a high-quality set of sharp knives), there are also some curveball picks designed to upgrade your weekday meals to restaurant-quality (think specially-designed sauce spoons and breakfast sandwich-makers).