As a cook, Bibi Kasrai considers herself “the anti-gadget person.”
She believes the flat side of a heavy skillet is the best tenderizing mallet ever made and argues that a ceramic bowl set over a bubbling pot of water is as effective as any high-end double boiler. She has little interest in electric food processors.
“I cook more like your grandma,” she says.
As she gives a tour of the kitchen at her Harvard Cookin’ Girl cooking school in La Jolla, it’s clear Kasrai loves simple kitchen tools. Silicone spatulas, a bamboo salt box, a steel bench scraper, a favorite knife, a wooden citrus juicer and a masala box — filled with colorful, aromatic spices — are cherished.