Kitchen makeover: Stock it up for $200

A blender is a bit more optional. An immersion one is nice, but standard ones are more useful, and you can find them for as little as $15.

And, finally, something with which to keep those knives sharp. A whetstone costs about $6, and if you use it, it will work fine; a decent steel is expensive enough that you may as well graduate to an electric sharpener. Though sharpeners take up counter space and cost at least $30, they work well.

The point is not so much that you can equip a real kitchen without much money, but that the fear of buying the wrong kind of equipment is unfounded. It needs only to be functional, not prestigious, lavish or expensive.

Keep that in mind, stay out of the fancy places and find a good restaurant supply house. If you make a mistake — something is the wrong size or of such lousy quality you can’t bear it — you can spend 20 bucks more another time. Meanwhile, you’ll be cooking.

The inessentials
You can live without these 10 kitchen items:

• Bread machine: You can buy mediocre bread easily enough, or make the real thing without much practice.
  
• Microwave: If you do a lot of reheating or fast (and damaging) defrosting, you may want one. But essential? No. And think about that counter space!
  
• Stand mixer: Unless you’re a baking fanatic, it takes up too much room to justify it. A good whisk or a crummy handheld mixer will do fine.
  
• Boning/Filleting Knives: Really? You’re a butcher now? Or a fishmonger? If so, go ahead, by all means. But I haven’t used my boning knife in years. (It’s pretty, though.)
  
• Wok: Counterproductive without a good wok station equipped with a high-B.T.U. burner. (There’s a nice setup at Bowery Restaurant Supply for $1,400 if you have the cash and the space.)
  
• Stockpot: The pot you use for boiling pasta will suffice, until you start making gallons of stock at a time.
  
• Pressure cooker: It’s useful, but do you need one? No.
  
• Anything made of copper: More trouble than it’s worth, unless you have a pine-paneled wall you want to decorate.
  
• Rice cooker: Yes, if you eat rice twice daily. Otherwise, no.
  
• Counter top convection oven, rotisserie or "roaster": Only if you’re a sucker for late-night cooking infomercials.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times. For more of Mark Bittman's Minimalist column, go to their Dining section at www.nytimes.com/dining.

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