The Underrated Kitchen Tool You Need For Maximum Precision

Professional chefs use plenty of kitchen gadgets and tools you wouldn't necessarily find in the home. Some would be impractical for home cooks; others are just waiting to hit the mainstream like kitchen tweezers. 

Although kitchen tweezers look like the tools you use to pluck your eyebrows and remove splinters, there's one major difference: They're big, sometimes up to 12 inches long. Size-wise, they're more akin to tongs, and according to Michael Handal, a chef at the Institute of Culinary Education, tweezers are perfect for delicate tasks that tongs are too bulky to handle. "Kitchen tweezers have been non-negotiable, must-have tools in professional kitchens for some time now," Handal says. "Many times, tweezers are used for delicate items such as edible flowers or their petals, or small sprigs of fresh herbs, or the important task of placing a fragile garnish to finish a plate before it leaves for the dining room."

Admittedly, you can use chopsticks to accomplish many of the same cooking feats; however, tweezers have their advantages over the famously tricky utensil. They're strong, precise, and easier to handle. Plus, they can handle high temperatures. Pros often use kitchen tweezers for fancy plating, something home chefs don't have to worry about. Sure, some folks get really, really into presentation, as a scroll through r/Plating on Reddit will attest. But most of us are just trying to feed ourselves and our families. Are kitchen tweezers really that practical for the rest of us?

What are kitchen tweezers good for?

"I think each chef and cook will adapt [tweezers] to the specific needs of their kitchens and their circumstances," says Michael Handal. "Kitchen tweezers may also be employed in removing a cornichon from a brine-filled jar. ... Frying shrimp may be more easily turned in a sauté pan with a large pair of tweezers, as opposed to, perhaps, a bulkier pair of tongs."

Kitchen tweezers make it easy to twirl pasta onto a plate, snag stray bits of food before they fuse to a burner, fish pieces of shell out from gooey egg whites, and put together a ramen bowl. Reach for them when you need to snag tempura from boiling oil without disturbing the delicate breading, or when you're picking through crab meat. Dropped your wedding ring down the garbage disposal? It's tweezer time.

Kitchen tweezers can't do everything, though. They're not a replacement for tongs. Some tasks, like tending to a grill, require additional length and heft. "Even a full-size pair of tweezers will not be able to assist a chef in the same manner as a pair of tongs," Handal says. "Vegetables that need to be turned on a large, very hot grill call for long grilling tongs, as does a whole flank steak."

What kind of kitchen tweezer should you buy?

According to Michael Handal, kitchen tweezers come in three main styles: straight, offset, and curved. Straight tweezers are, well, straight. They come in a range of sizes, from 6 ½ inches to roughly a foot. "These are great for precision plating," Handal says. "The large version may also be used as an aid in stove-top cooking, such as moving food in a sauté pan, fluffing rice pilaf, or plating pasta for final presentation."

Then, there are offset tweezers, which have a distinct lightning bolt shape. They're typically smaller, topping out at around 8 inches. "I think that chefs find these tweezers to be an aid in balancing items and with greater control during final plate presentation," says Handal. "I find the offset feature a bit awkward. They are not a natural fit for me, but this is a personal preference."

Handal favors curved-tip tweezers. Also called bent or oblong tweezers, these tools bend at a flat, 45-degree angle just before the tip. "This option is an optimal tweezer for me, especially the fine-tip version," the chef explains. "They have a slender tip for small items and allow them to be placed in very specific locations on the plate."

The good news? Kitchen tweezers are pretty cheap, so you can try a range of sizes and styles. They're slim and compact, too, perfect for space-starved apartment kitchens. So go ahead, snag a pair. You won't regret it.

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