Excellent knife and ability to sharpen it. Maybe a deep-bellied 6" chef's knife that could double as a parer, slicer, etc.
No tea kettle, but a saucepan that can also be used to boil water. 3 qt?
Strainer, useable as colander, too.
All of the elements of the place settings must be able to go in the dishwasher, so as not to take up space while drying.
Nothing must require polishing, so as to save space on specialized polishes.
A metal whisk.
A ladle.
Um, maybe I'd just put dcarch in that kitchen and let him work it out.

ROTFL!! KD, you're right!

Good knives, can opener, couple of mixing bowls, spatula, rubber scrapers, measuring cup((s)- maybe a 2 cup Pyrex one would do the trick), measuring spoons, pots and pans that can go from stove to oven.

Apparently I used minimum words too!

"----Um, maybe I'd just put dcarch in that kitchen and let him work it out.--

I had traveled to a few places in China. There are still kitchens with nothing more than a wok and a cleaver. As a matter of fact, if you go on youtube and search for Chinese kitchens, you will find Chinese restaurants basically do everything with woks, and cleavers.

A wok can stir fry, deep fry, smoke, steam, braise, stew, boil, -----.

A cleaver, well, search "cleaver knife skills" on youtube and you can see why a Chinese chef will not use any other types of knives.

On another food forum, I have read a few threads on equipping a mobile home kitchen. Interesting.

dcarch

Not sure i understand the game...
But a small kitchen can be a very basic set-up.
I have a vintage Airstream, a small one, not the bambi, but a '70 land yacht. Just a couple extra feet. Very efficient cooking with minimal needs in cooking 'gack' and stuff.
Think rubber-made crate...one for cooking, one for bathroom needs...all in 17ft x 8ft...aprox 136sq ft. Cozy : )
Bed, bath, and kitchen.
Have made 4th of july for 30 out of that kitchen...doubles as a guest bedroom for city folk...

DH covets those Airstreams!

Sleevendog, I've been trying to think about what makes the game different from equipping a trailer or boat. Ours was 28', but had all the comforts of home, except that our "freezer" was an ice chest with dry ice in it.

I actually, think it's the same kind of challenge, except that weight isn't an issue, and there's no undercarriage storage. I keep having to remind myself that I don't need any kind of drying rack or extra dish towels because there's a DW.

OTOH, we used paper plates, and proper dishes are part of the brief. Not only that, they have to be stylish. :) And the serving pieces have to look nice on the table. I don't know if it'll fly, but I choose some Joseph Joseph utensils that are meant for compactness. Like the silicone teapot (I debated a 1.5 qt. pitcher style double boiler for the tea water, but decided I didn't have enough storage space for it), I'm letting these Joseph Joseph utensils, not only because of the compact storage, but because I thought they were cute enough to double for serving since I wasn't about to do more than one hostess set for the flatware. That's a pancake turner, slotted spoon, solid spoon and spaghetti lifter, nestled into a ladle. They're all small, but only required to cook for four. At the table, they could be salad tongs, lasagnaj/cake server and ladle. I don't use spaghetti lifters, and can't think what to use it for at table, but I think it would work as a mini-spider.

I also chose the Joseph Joseph carving set, which is shown open and closed in the picture. I don't know about the quality of the blade, but figure the really good chef's knife is doing most of the work, and even cheap blades cut true when they're new. :)

We only took one long vacation, leaving before Thanksgiving and returning after the new year visiting family all over the south. Almost two months. Traveling with two pups we only ate out a couple times. A dockside restaurant for seafood in Florida that was dog friendly. Nothing memorable, but did make great meals in our traveling 'home'.
We did travel stylish and basic. Tablecloth, service for 4.
Even cloth napkins. (paper back-ups)...just in case.

A good friend and co-worker lives on a boat in Manhattan.
69th st boat basin...20 yrs now. Brilliant dinner parties.
Japanese master carpenter. Minimal kitchen tools and fantastic meals...never eats out. Does help that they work in the city and have fantastic markets nearby.

Well, see! I had to have a tablecloth and service for 4. :) Plus barware: Stems, drinks glasses and tools. Maybe the rule was meant to be an elegant boat. :)

The Chinese cook with one knife and one wok would be an obvious winner, but this was obviously a very "American" brief, because it includes being able to make a roast and a lasagna, but it didn't say anything about stirfry. :) So I have a smallish roaster (fits in small oven) that's shiny and pretty and can make a big lasagna (or the larger Pyrex flat rectangle can be a small one). I'm not adding a wok! There's nowhere to put it, so it'll have to be pre-cut teppanyaki on the Le Creuset griddle. :)

I've chosen a lot of very small and folding things, but also an 8+ quart stock pot, because everyone needs a large vessel, and a 20" reversible carving board because trying to contain a roast on a little cutting mat is a big mess, which doesn't belong in a small space. I figure the baking supplies (silicone layer cake pans, loaf pan and cupcake "papers", plus a little cookie/pastry cutter set--rolling pin is a wine bottle), folding beverage jar, folding teapot, and some other stuff can live in the stockpot. I have a baking sheet, so I guess the required meatloaf could bake freeform on that (might even be better?), but what about zucchini bread? It's not on the list, but shouldn't it have a pan?

Anyway, thanks to everyone who responded. My kitchen is done (still working on the furniture), so I wasn't cheating. I was just curious what people thought they could do without and still have a functioning kitchen. I took a page from Ann T, and used one of those immersion blender/food processor combos as the entire small appliance division. :)

Hmm. My list would look like:

10" chefs knife
Peeler
Grater or micro plane
Wood spoon, a few
Tongs
Ladle
Large fork
Spatula
Cutting board
Rolling pin
Colander or strainer
Cast iron skillet, 12"
Stainless sauté pan, 10"
Stock pot, like a 20 qt
Saucepan, 4-6 qt, two
Half sheet pan, two or three
Aluminum foil

I could cook most things with the above tools, plus burners, oven and sink of course. The stockpot is perhaps optional, but you need a large pot for lobster, crab, corn cobs, etc and you can use the stockpot to store the other stuff. If someone makes a rectangular stock pot, that would be better storage container (also could double as a roasting pan?)

If there was a little more room, I'd add some conveniences.
Pressure cooker 8 qt (in place of one if the saucepans)
Food processor (for liquefying stuff, also making doughs)
Mandolin (don't often use it, but in those occasions it is a huge help)

Great list, Johnliu! Thanks for playing. :)

Seafood boil isn't on the required list, but it's a good reason for a big pot! I looked up the All Clad, and it's under 10.5" tall, so shouldn't be impossible to store.

Are you counting on the extra saucepan to be a mixing bowl? (I've made a lot of cakes with a saucepan and a fork!)

I have forgotten the brand, but there is a European cookware line that has either removable or folding handles, specifically for meeting small area/volume storage requirements. Magefesa? Fissler? going to look around.

Yes, a saucepan can be a mixing bowl and a fork a whisk. I admit I don't bake much - if I did, stuff like springform pan, muffin pan, etc might have been on the list. For my needs, I'd plan on making special pans and forms etc from the aluminum foil.

I didn't list, but assumed, the basic tableware, flatware and glassware. I figure you can use the bowls for mise and the forks and spoons for misc cooking duties like tasting and mashing. I'd have chopsticks in the "flatware" of course.

Feels odd to have only one knife in the kitchen, but I really can (and sometimes do) use only a large chef's knife for everything. Kind of like dcarch was saying with the Chinese veg cleaver.

This reminds me of camping trips where we had kitchens of varying size.

Least: white gas single burner stove, 1 pint fuel, two nesting aluminum pots with one lid/pan/plate and one pot gripper (no fixed handle), one aluminum cup, pocket knife, a few plastic sporks. One pot was used to boil water for tea or coffee, the other for the "meal" (usually freeze dried), the lid was a plate (and maybe someone would catch a fish), and everything fit in the largest pot, save the pocket knife, spork, cup and fuel bottle.

Most: two burner Coleman stove, 2 qt fuel, two pots, two pans, 1 griddle, a 6" chef knife, cutting board (cut to fit with the stove), coffee pot, tongs and spatula and spoons, plastic washing tub that carried everything. I made a decent paella on a Coleman stove once. The "most" sort of camp kitchen is a kitchen I could actually live with long term, and many people do.

Wow, second time only half my post showed up. Here is a link to Cristel.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cristel

This post was edited by kitchendetective on Mon, Sep 8, 14 at 12:59

I have a kitchen in a metal box, I think it is about 2 ft. by 3 ft. and it has a big label on it "Chuck Box." I got it YEARS ago, ordered it from Campmor. I used to keep it in the back of my truck, along with a couple of plastic totes filled with dried foods. That way I could head my truck out for an adventure whenever the mood struck me. I finally stopped doing that because some of my totes have food in them from about 20 years. Apparently the mood didn't strike me all that often. But I still use "Chuck" whenever I go camping, he is always ready to go. Here's what's in it:

A small saucepan and a large saucepan. A small frypan and a large one. (I use the frypans for lids for the saucepans, and vice versa). A strainer. A paring knife and a small chef's knife. A can opener, the good kind, and a Swiss Army knife with a corkscrew and pointy can opener, and an awl, etc. Service for 4 including mugs, plates and bowls. A plastic mixing bowl, med. size. A small plastic cutting board. Small spatula and flipper. Wooden spoon. Little metal ice bucket type tongs. A metal pot holder, and a fabric one. Recyclable plastic garbage bags, assorted plastic ziplocks, some wash sponges, dish soap and paper towels. Two things I might add if I was relying on it for a long period of time, and that is a whisk and a grater. I'd also get a cooling rack that fit into the large pot so I could use it as a stovetop oven. Tinfoil also works in that regard but is wasteful.

KD, re the half messages, are you making an addition on the edit screen and not doing another preview? I do that occasionally. :)

That cookware is interesting. I'm going to give it a better look later. I've never been a big fan of long pot handles. I have small hands, anyway, so even with good wrist strength, I need two hands anyway. The long handle is good for a sauté pan, where you need the lever action to make things jump, but I tend to sauté in a braiser, anyway, and just use a silicone spoon to cause the jumping. Oh, and it's necessary for very small things that need to be held just so, like the finjan and crepe pans.

Johnliu, foil, parchment paper, zipper bags, and "disposable" freezer containers--don't need to plan to store the last. They can live in the freezer empty or they're superfluous, though an empty can be used for fridge storage if need be--figured heavily in my plan. I'm so with you on making things out of foil! There's a lot of bang for the space in that.

The requirements of the first round--the only what said fictional person can carry--had a very specific scenario. A particular place with a map pin where the kitchen was, evening shopping hours, etc. The obvious thing, I think the challenge, were a couple of shopping centers that might or might not have what was needed (for the game, one can declare that what's on the website is what's available in the stores). By doing a specific search, rather than using lists or guides, I was able to find an REI. The rules didn't say she couldn't walk more than a mile, or that she had to use public transport. It was well under 2 miles from the pin, and I kept the total carry weight under 50 lbs. (generous budget, so got her a backpack), including the table, towels, etc.

Anyway, with a basecamp set of pots, I was able to get her all the required cooking vessels. No, wait. I had to add one of those cups on a sterno kits. But the basecamp set had at least a 3 qt., and I think a 5 qt., too, and a good size skillet, if I remember right. I also found a set of dishes that included the cups, flatware and a box for serving bowl/dishpan, cuttingboard/tray and even a dishrack (also flatware caddy for packing it all away), but I couldn't find it just now to post a picture for you. The rules said for four people. :) It didn't say that the dishes had to be full sized. :) For base camp gear, they also have folding utensils, and all kinds of clever good things.

I like car camping, but had an injury that quashed my dreams of hiking the John Muir trail--or any other backpacking. I got the Nest bowls for luxury. :) We have an old soft plastic batter bowl that has to be at least 50 years old, and probably made out of some kind of poisonous material, which is in fine shape, but I splurged for color and great design. :)

The challenge requirements for this round do include making a layer cake and cupcakes or muffins. Bakeware is a notorious space hog,...

You would probably be interested in "tiny houses", a thing that is starting to take hold in Portland and, for all I know, elsewhere.

These are typically 150 sq ft houses, often built on a trailer platform, with shower, sink, toilet (composting), small kitchen, sleeping loft, a little sitting area. They plug into an extension cord and a water hose, and use propane ranges.. Sometimes several of these are clustered around a larger structure with communal facilities.

Slightly larger "tiny houses" can be 300 sq ft and fixed in place.

Naturally, tiny housers learn to do with minimalist kitchens.
I know someone who lives in the 150 sq ft trailer type, with his girlfriend. It seems fun, in a "I'm in my twenties and unburdened" way.

In this instance, no, but I did preview twice. Maybe loaded from a cache? Trying again.

Texas Tiny Houses--a thing--for some time now.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cute, for a limited purpose or time

Yeah, the Tiny Houses started in California quite awhile back. The reason they're made on trailer platforms is that they don't have to comply with building codes that way. They're "vehicles". Tiny houses don't work for the game because of the requirements to have a fridge/freezer that will hold a certain amount of food (has to be bigger than a bar fridge and there's a minimum size on the freezer), a dishwasher (a single drawer is permissible), an oven with broiler, a microwave and a cooking surface (combos are okay), and a washer/dryer set (I found a combo unit that has good reviews). And a queen sized bed.

I've seen TV shows with containers used as building materials, but usually many together to become a good sized house. I thought of it because I was thinking of the fictional Kinsey Milhone who lived in a one car garage, but that's too big (240 sq. ft.)! Apparently, there's a whole container house movement too.

I should say, although I titled this "minimum tools", what I really was getting after was more what one wanted in a fully stocked kitchen, not a minimal one. I was going to use Roslë cooking tools until I realized they'd look too "kitchen" to use for serving. I had fun loading up on Joseph Joseph stuff. They have a folding scale! There isn't a profile to work from this time, so Dcarch's Chinese cook sounds like shoo in, even though he still has to make cut cookies (pressed or springerle might pass), a decorated layer cake and a lasagna. :) Part of what makes it a fun game is that you're given a brief, but not all of the rules, so the need for a roasting pan, carving knife and board sneak up. :)

We are offshore long distance boaters with a Nordic Tug trawler in the 30'-40' range. Not sure if that size meets your size requirements? I maintain a full galley except for a D/W. We carry 3 months' provisions + 200 ga. of fresh water. Typically, we take the dingy ashore for fresh produce every few days but it wouldn't be necessary. I pack for 3 months offshore w/o resupplying. My galley is "battle tested" from many voyages so I could list what we carry, if interested.

/tricia

Tricia, sure I'd be interested! Your real life situation sounds fascinating! But since this started with a game, not anything necessary, it's just for thought and I wouldn't want to put you to any trouble for a thought exercise. If you'd like to share, please do!

The cooking list for the game so far is:
All meals for four
Broiled chops
Grilled fish
Meatloaf
Roast turkey
Lasagna
Chili
Pancakes
Omelettes
Pasta with homemade sauce (any kind)
Pizza from scratch
Decorated layer cake
Cut shapes cookies with some kind of decor
Cupcakes or muffins
Pie
Personal soufflés
Ices

Must be able to serve with non-kitchen looking dishes and utensils: Main, salad, hot vegetable, hot starch (bread doesn't count--it has to be a hot grain or potato dish--not baked potatoes. I.e., requiring a serving bowl and pot/baking dish (oven to table is fine if it looks good with the dishes)). Soup from a serving bowl. Dessert on separate dishes. Water in appropriate glasses. Mixed drinks in appropriate glasses. Wine in stems. Coffee and tea in coffee/tea cups or mugs.

Tricia,
I'd be very interested in your list. Our current (sail)boat has a far less luxurious galley than a Nordic Tug, but it is set up pretty well for offshore cruising. Love those Nordics!

Ok, I have been typing away for a couple hours this morning, flipping back/forth between pages so I could give links to various pieces of equipment we carry. The last time I hit "Back", I ended up at the main CF page instead of my reply to this thread! Sloppy procedure on my part, but still...bummer. I'm going to retype everything in Microsoft Word and cut/paste this time. So, expect to see it, hopefully, appear here sometime tomorrow morning. :(

For now, let's say I really love MAGMA products!

/tricia

Tricia, I'm so sorry about the list that disappeared! I hate it when that happens! One of the things I love about Firefox is that those things are sometimes recoverable. (Either following the back arrow, or closing and reloading.)

The MAGMA cookware is interesting. Same kind of thought as the Cristel that KitchenDetective mentioned. Seems to have good variety, too.

So I've been trimming my list and I think I have it down all the way. I thought I'd share. No wok required, but it could hand half into the window, next to the dishwasher. :) It's still a really long list, but I think everything actually fits, and pretty easily. More so than the people! When four people sit down to dinner in my shipping container, the table and chairs are big enough for the people, but there's no real room to maneuver and everyone has to move if someone needs to get up. :)

So, for cookware storage I have a set of 24" drawers, for the dishes I have a shelf, and between the studs storage for glasses and mugs. There's also a little storage above the fridge and oven, but I don't want to use it for cookware other than the 20" wood carving board. The "pantry" is three wire baskets in a moveable cart with drop leaves that tucks away between the side of the cooktop cabinet and the washer door.

I kind of cheated and used my own 24" self imported induction cooktop. After reading Johnliu's list, I just couldn't deal with the single element Miele 15" or the other, wimpy dominoes.

The paper towels would go in a basket in the cart, which pulls out and becomes an island with the drop leaves up. The foil, parchment and plastic bags can go in the between the studs storage, along with small bottles and jars, or in the cart drawer with the tea towels and pot holders.

There's room for cleaning supplies, including:

• telescoping broom and mop
• compact mop bucket
• cleaning supply caddy with nesting bucket
• collapsible 13 gallon lidded trash can--a frame which holds the bag, then flattens to 2.6"

Sponge holder suctions to sink side.
Press-with-back-of-hand soap dispenser sits on counter.
Clothes iron hides behind a sliding cover on the shelves folding Ironing board and Drying rack hang on bathroom door.
Side of shelving case is reinforced and has hooks to hold the four chairs, when folded, 6" thick, total.

Top drawer has a compact flatware organizer which can hold the four settings of seven pieces and five hostess pieces:

• tea spoons
• soup spoons
• salad forks
• dinner fork
• table knives
• appetizer spoons
• appetizer forks
• serving fork
• serving spoon
• slotted serving spoon
• sugar spoon
• butter knife

Utensils:
Infrared/themocouple thermometer
Shun Classic Hollow-ground 8" chef's knife with edge guard
Shun Classic honing steel (I decided the cook could take the knife out for proper sharpening rather than making room for a stone set)
Normann Copenhagen nut cracker
Rachael Ray peeler with attached vegetable brush
Norpro stamped steel church key for...

>There's a coffee grinder and a Toddy cold drip coffee set.

Wouldn't it be easier just to grind the beans at the store if you're going to brew the whole shebang at once? Not sure you need the grinder with a Toddy.

Love the folding scale!

Well, it can also grind seeds and nuts. :) I'll take your word for it about the coffee. I've never been a coffee drinker and don't know the ins and outs. I have a friend who was telling me about the Toddy, and it sounded like a better arrangement than even the smallest 1 cupper, which wouldn't work for company. Doing the coffee concentrate, brewed well ahead, then mixed with the hot water, seemed a much more convenient thing. You can do each serving at a preferred strength. I guess it's like an old fashioned coffee service where there was always a put of hot water for diluting it... For daily use, too, it seems easier than constantly fiddling and having the machine take up the tiny counter space. The grinder could go. :) The really good knife would probably work fine for seeds and nuts.

Yeah, isn't the scale awesome?!

Well, the thing about making the concentrate is that you brew a whole pound or half pound minimum at a time. With my coffee grinder that would take a whole lotta grinding episodes, so it would be simpler just to go to the store, coarse grind it there, bring it home and start the concentrate right away.

For grinding nuts and such, I just have a lowly kitchen-aid immersion blender, but the little food processor attachment to that works fine. (Actually it works pretty well for most small jobs as long as you don't need to stream anything.) I would guess the Breville would do at least as well.

Thanks so much for this thread. Lots of clever ideas and I'd never heard of Joseph Joseph before.

Wow! Writersblock, thanks for saying so!! I was concerned that I shouldn't have posted. When I did, I was in the midst of such concerns as whether the serrated utility knife would count as a bread knife, and really did wonder what others thought was necessary. My own personal kitchen flatware has ordinary looking table knives, but they're very sharp and I often use them to cut bread, but I also broke the acyclic handle of one by pressing too hard on a really tough crust. So a knife that would reliably cut bread was a must. One assumes that the utility knife handle isn't as brittle and the shaft is longer. :)

I think what's fun about these games is the treasure hunt aspect. I know nothing, really, about coffee. My father taught me that bad coffee comes from the build up of residues and bad water, so a really clean coffee maker and purified water are the secret to good coffee. I get compliments on Yuban from a $15 drip coffeemaker. For a different game, with unlimited funds, there was a rule for any kind of coffee drink. I learned a lot about pressure and foam. :) There are low volume professional espresso machines that are okay for home use, but they don't do regular coffee. I just chose the Japanese glass tower of a cold brew from Williams-Sonoma because it looked cool. :) I'd never heard of cold brew before.

For this one, no need to do espresso (though I've read that cold brew coffee concentrate makes a decent substitution for mixed coffee drinks), but the fictional resident is coffee addict. :) When I told my friend about the cold brew glass tower, she told me about Toddy. :)

So, above, I forgot about spices. I'm glad to hear that the Breville will do for the nuts and seeds. My own immersion blender won't, but it's older and not so fancy. I don't think it would do for spices, however, but I found a great Kyocera hand crank spice mill that's smaller and will fit in the between the studs cabinet or in between some pots. It's called The Everything because the grind is adjustable. I can't find whether it's continuous, or just fine/coarse, but it has a dial, so I'm hoping the former. Besides salts and peppercorns, it can do small seeds (sesame, flax), and dried herbs. This is a definite boon!! For something big like cardamom, it would be two stage, first a whack with the blender then the spice grinder, but that's fine. Or coarse. :)

I love finding these things that don't seem laborious to use and don't require electricity as well. It's better!! Now that I don't have to grind coffee (my friends go on and on about the storage and grinding of coffee beans, and people here are roasting their own) thank-you for liberating me!