Wooden spoon.

A good chefs knife! Everyone should have at least one. I can improvise on most everything else, but there is nothing that will kill my joy of cooking more quickly than a dull, crappy knife!

Love love my Santoku knife and prefer it to my Chef's knife.

But my absolute favorite tool is my OXO egg spatula. It Is so flexible it works for folding and mixing. I flip my eggs so I actually don't use it for its stated purpose.

Good knives are a must for me. And one other thing, I think of as a utensil is a bar of stainless steel (soap like) to use after I have used onions, garlic, fish and anything else that leaves an odor on my hands.

Chef''s knife definitely, followed by 1" wide heatproof Le Creuset spatula.

My kitchen shears...from opening packages to cutting up beef and chicken...its my "must have" kitchen utensil.

Chef's knife!

My wooden spoon. I love it

My four cup pyrex bowl.

Pick just one???? I can't do it.

But I will admit to a passionate love for my roux whisk... just don't tell all my other whisks.

My 10" French knife was my favorite for a long time since culinary school (almost 20 years) but this past year or so my Japanese santoku knife is an absolute must for me - I love the feel and weight of it and I surprisingly don't miss the rocking feature of a western chefs knife but a knife be it any kind that you're comfortable with in my opinion is the first step in preparation of almost any meal so for me this is the most important tool in my kitchen.

Pampered chef kitchen shears!!! I need two more!! One in every drawer!

Scissors

tie between a wooden spoon and my German kitchen shears

Spatula I use that a lot in all sizes very useful to me.

Hefty scissors.

I use my Thermapen meat thermometer every day. My meat is never over cooked now and is so much better. Best utensil I every bought. This meat thermometer actually works - unlike the many other cheaper ones I have used in the past.

Spatula...It scoops. flips, scrapes. slices, stirs.......and lots more. And really nothing else can do exactly what a spatula does :)

Immersion blender. Mine is first generation and can't do without it.

Chef's knife

The new silicone spatulas are multi purpose (unless they stupidly have plastic handles). They can take heat up to 450 so you can use them in frying or the typical use in mixing. It makes me crazy on cooking shows how they done scrape the entire batter into a pan. What is the point of carefully measuring when you don't use all the batter.

My Carbon6 chef knife by Schmidt Brothers. It's super sharp and beautiful. Love it.

Scissors

chopping knife

Scissors

Kitchen scissors

Toaster oven, which I realize is not a utensil, but still......

food processor

Spatulas of different sizes. I also use tongs a lot but not more than Spatulas

Knife

My favorite tool is my Chef's knife- my favorite gadget is my salad spinner!!

Chef's knife

vitamin

knife sharpener

round pizza stone

Besides my favorite knife, definitely it would be my big heavy lime juicer (do you know the one I'm talking about?). I put lime in everything. This saves my life.

Definitely my cutting mats/boards with my ceramic knife. Used daily for lotsa stuff. Do use my kitchen scissors often also. New fav: ground beef chopper.

Spatula if we are referring to a rubber spatula and not a "turner"

My Schmidt Bros short chef's knife, instant-read Thermapen, Nigella Lawson

miniwhisk, mini-tongs, and number one: a Fifties long fondue fork with extra-long skinny tines. A rubber-coated baby spoon is also great.

A glass scraper. I use it on lots of things!

Corkscrew

knives

A chef and a butler! Oh wait that's me! LOL

oven mitts!

A good sharp knife.

since I can only choose one...garlic press

We recently installed an induction cooktop and got all new pots and pans. I now fry and saute with a semi-stiff 'flipper' spatula in my right hand and a all-silicone spatula in left, to avoid lifting the pan off the induction surface. Works a charm!

Best tool ever are my own two (clean) hands. After that, all my Wusthof knives. Kind of surprised knives weren't one of the voting choices.

I realize this is an old thread, but this is always a current topic.

immersion blender

Kitchen knives