The SF Chronicle’s Food staff has assembled what they consider the essential items for a kitchen. The list is a result of their task to outfit The Chronicle Cooking School. I’m missing a few tools from their list but nothing I consider essential, and of course I don’t have all the high-end brands. Oddly, I have yet to acquire a Chinese strainer (aka spider), probably because I rarely require one. And although I always gaze longingly at the Le Creuset dutch ovens, I can’t justify the cost for how rarely I would use one.