A knife is esential to any chef. Japanese knives differ from Western knives in many different ways. In all, over 20 types are used and the blades, often made in the same way samurai swords were, are thiner than Western knives. The standard set includes: thin blade for veggies; cleaver for large fish, meat or poultry; a sashimi knife for slicing fish and a small knife for peeling and chopping. When keeping the knives at their best, a Japanese chef will use natural stone for sharpening and prefers a wooden cutting board to a plastic because of how gentle the wood treats the blade. In fact, selection of the cutting board is so important that even the word for chef, itamae means "before the board".
This is specifically used for the grating of daikon, or Japanese radish. Most of these boards have fine grating and a special area that is used for spices such as garlic, ginger and fresh wasabi.
This is used for tea. Many times in order to preserve the natrualy beautiful color of the wood the whisk is soaked in warm water before it is used to whisk the green tea powder into a nice frothy tea. This avoids staining.
Not only is this used in eating food, but cooking it as well. Cooking hashi is much longer and sometimes the set is tied together at the end so as to not become lost. Some may notice that when visiting a Japanese home, different chopsticks are used for the guests. These are called waribashi. They come in paper pouches and are connected at one end so they can be pulled apart.
This is a little porcelain or wooden rest in which people place their hashi when they are not eating but are still at the diner table. NEVER rest your hashi on the table directly or stick them in your food for resting. While in the food it makes them an offering for the dead!
This is a wire mesh used to grill food, however an oven shelf will work just fine.
A wooden round frame with a fine mesh of horsehair, stainless steel or nylon. This is used to sift four or straining wet food. Horsehair sieves need to be soaked in water before use to avoid cracking of the hair.
Used for cooking veggies or tofu this pot has a wooden lid that is placed gently on the food to keep it (the food) from moving.
This is a square pan used for fryng omeletts. An ordinary omelette pan may be used instead.
Since rice cookers can keep rice warm all day long, these have become a little obsolete. It helps to keep the rice nicely moist through the day.
A wooden spatula, this helps to aerate cooked rice and when pressing wet food through the uragoshi.
This is used for mixing rice while making dishes that require things like sumehsi. (for sumeshi see sushi)
This sushi roller is made of bamboo sticks in which the shape of these sticks varies. The pale green with a shiny side is used for making sushi and the trianle or round shaped one are used for making imprints on omelettes. As stated in the sushi recepie, these are generally hard to find where I live so I just use disposable cutting boards or my hands when making sushi.
These are used for packing rice when makign oshizushi.
Used for making sukiyaki, shabu shabu, oden, udon, and yudofu this heats slowly on a gas OR electric heater and remains heated. NEVER heat without water in it!
There are many different styles and types of bowls, but traditionaly a set consists of mainly a seperate bowl for each dish like: rice, soup, noodles, dipping sauces, steamed or simmered food (bowl with lid) and are usually on lacquered trays. Plates can be used in place of all the bowls aside from the bowls for rice and for soup.
Each tray traditionally acted as mini tables during tea ceremonies. Bamboo mats in round (with lid) or square wooden boxes are used for serving soba noodles. Bento boxes have up to five or six compartments and are basicaly the same as the American lunch box in their function.