Here's Why Anthony Bourdain Loved Plastic Squeeze Bottles
These days, there are so many kitchen tools and gadgets that promise to save you time in the kitchen, or help you cook the perfect meal with less effort. From the instant pot to the air fryer to the sous vide machine, it seems there's a new and seemingly more complicated kitchen gadget every few years that becomes trendy and a "must-have" for the home cook trying to elevate their kitchen game.
Well, according to the late and great Anthony Bourdain, all you really need to elevate the dishes you cook in your home kitchen to a professional and restaurant-level quality is something incredibly basic and simple — as he explained in "Kitchen Confidential," besides a really decent chefs knife and perhaps an offset serrated knife, the number one "indispensable object in most chefs' shtick is the simple plastic squeeze bottle....essentially the same objects you see at roadside hot-dog stands, loaded with mustard and ketchup." Plastic squeeze bottles? Can the answer really be that simple? Yes, yes it can.
Plastic squeeze bottles have many uses in the kitchen
Bourdain goes on to explain in "Kitchen Confidential" that plastic squeeze bottles can be used to drizzle sauces around a plate in an artistic manner — for example, you could use the squeeze bottles to decorate a plate with circles or lines of sauces in contrasting colors, and then drag a toothpick through the sauces. Studies have shown that a pretty plate tastes better (via The Guardian), so this simple trick for making artful swirls and drizzles will help elevate your dishes at home.
Plastic squeeze bottles also have other uses in the kitchen besides making a plate look pretty. According to Cook's Illustrated, they're great for "storing and dispensing oil, vinegar, and other condiments and sauces" as "they offer a precise, controlled pour." Epicurious notes that plastic squeeze bottles are really useful when making mayonnaise and other emulsions and sauces that require precise ingredient portions, and also great for storing those homemade condiments and dressings so you'll actually use them, or for decanting bulk purchases of sauces and syrups into manageable and useable portions. Given how useful plastic squeeze bottles are, it's no wonder that every professional kitchen has them (via MEL Magazine). Every home kitchen should consider stocking them too.