12 Julia Child–inspired kitchen tools every home cook should own

Julia Child may have been famous for her gleaming copper cookware, but she had a soft spot for the practical magic of nonstick pans and swore by them in The Way to Cook for making the perfect French omelette. 

This Tramontina Professional Nonstick Fry Pan is exactly the kind of everyday workhorse we think she'd keep within arm's reach. Our in-house culinary expert, Lisa Schweitzer, tested six highly rated options and dubbed this one the best nonstick pan she's ever tried: "Cooking with this pan is a dream! With only a slick of oil, eggs slide right off the surface and over the flared edge onto the plate." Add in easy cleanup, a grippy removable silicone handle and stellar heat performance, and you’ve got a pan we think Child would deem worthy of a permanent spot on her stovetop.

Child famously said, "Everyone should have a blow torch in the kitchen," and we agree. Our Senior Deals Editor (and a former professional pastry chef), Britt Ross, calls this kitchen tool her "secret weapon" — not just for caramelizing crème brûlées, but for toasting meringues, making s'mores, charring veggies and even searing meat.

According to her nephew Alex Prud'homme, Child liked to joke that she had "enough knives to outfit a pirate ship," but she always maintained that every cook should start with a great chef's knife (plus a paring knife and a bread knife). According to the New England Historical Society, Child favored carbon steel — just like this budget-friendly pick, which Schweitzer chose as one of the best chef's knives after testing. 

Schweitzer attended the French Culinary Institute, and this workhorse was issued to her on day one — and subsequently survived 600 hours of tomato-slicing and chicken-butchering without missing a beat. If it's good enough for culinary school, we're betting it would earn Child's stamp of approval, too.

Child made these wooden spatulas famous in 1970, and the small, family-owned New Hampshire business is still hand-crafting them to this very day. They are made by rural New England artisans from sustainably-harvested maple, cherry and walnut, and they have a natural, seasoned finish. 

While we are salivating over this heirloom-quality three-piece set, Oxo does make a lower-priced version. We're not going to lie to you though, the Child-favored spatulas have a shape, design and structure that make them a true standout that will withstand the test of time. 

Baguette bliss didn't come to Child easily. After much trial and error (and some dangerous, albeit wildly creative solutions), the winning combo turned out to be steam in the oven and a super-heated surface to achieve that signature crackly crust. Back then, it was quarry tiles or firebricks; today, a pizza stone delivers the same magic. Home bakers say this option produces crusts as crisp as a Parisian loaf. 

"I love this so much!!! ... My loaves jumped to another level after getting this. They are that perfect, crusty, golden brown now; my baguettes look like they come out straight from a French bakery," said one home boulanger.

In one memorable episode of The French Chef, Child batted aside an American-style rolling pin, calling it "a silly kind of pin to have" and sent it sailing into the trash. The French pin was her go-to, prized for giving bakers a direct feel for the dough and the freedom to roll it evenly from edge to edge. Whether straight or tapered, about 18 inches was the sweet spot — long enough for baguette-worthy loaves, fast enough to keep pace in a busy kitchen and simple enough to clean between on-camera takes.

While this isn't the exact pin she used, it has almost the same measurements. 

A woman after our own heart, Child was endlessly curious about kitchen tech and quick to embrace anything that made prep easier. She even showcased a food processor on The Dick Cavett Show in 1978, and praised the invention for taking away the "time and drudgery" from the "arduous operations" of the kitchen. 

Photos in this Smithsonian Magazine article show that she used a KitchenAid model. The exact one has long been retired, but this 7-cup option has over 6,700 five-star fans on Amazon alone and seems like a very worthy successor.

It wouldn’t be a proper roundup of Child’s favorites without copper pots and pans. Her gleaming collection famously hung behind her during her show — a fixture in her Cambridge, Mass., kitchen and a nod to her years cooking in France. Copper is prized for its unrivaled heat conduction and distribution, and after testing the best cookware sets, Schweitzer sent me this piece from the Mauviel M'Heritage line for longevity testing. It's been my most-reached-for piece of cookware for almost a year.

While Child's own set came from Paris's famed E. Dehillerin (a notoriously tricky brand to source in the U.S.), we think Mauviel is an excellent alternative. If you're copper-curious, I recommend this frying pan.

Though it's not technically a tool, butter was, without a doubt, one of Child's go-tos in the kitchen. She even said, "With enough butter, anything is good," and we enthusiastically agree. She was an advocate of copious amounts of the stuff, working it into sauces, pastries, vegetables — you name it — and making no apologies for her devotion. 

We're happy to carry on the tradition. This sampler of butters from around the world (two French, one Belgian, one American from Vermont) is worthy of any kitchen, whether you're slathering it on bread, swirling it into a sauce or baking something indulgent.