The Most Important Three Things For Your Kitchen, According To Ina Garten

It's certainly not easy — or inexpensive — to cook like the Barefoot Contessa, but Ina Garten has some tips to help make things a little less complicated for the average home chef.

Garten is known for her simple recipes and her kitchen reflects that, as she told restaurateur Danny Meyer when she sat down with him at 92Y in New York City. According to Bon Appétit, Garten shared the three tools she can't cook without. No surprise, they're very utilitarian.

The first thing she recommended was a "good set of knives," that are sharp enough to cut through anything. Though, she noted that sometimes not even she can find a knife sharp enough to cut duck.

"There was one time I was carving a duck, and it's all bones. I just can't do it!" Garten told the crowd. "I must have said something that rhymes with 'duck.'"

It's why she has a "big box of Band-Aids in the kitchen drawer, just in case." Something you probably want to invest in also.

Garten suggests buying a few half-sheet pans that can be used for all your oven needs. It's the second most important thing needed to make her signature roast chicken, that she's nicknamed "Engagement Chicken" because it's so delicious that often its result is more than a mere chicken dinner.

While it may sound like a surprising choice, Garten rounded out her list with a zester as the final item she can't live without. This contessa isn't wasting any time when it comes to spicing up her dishes and you shouldn't either.

Now all you need to do is find your very own Jeffrey and you're basically a Barefoot Contessa in training.