The Silver Spoon: Gray Kunz’s Perfect Tasting Spoon

After a knife, there is no tool in a cook's hand more often than a spoon—for stirring, saucing, portioning, and, of course, tasting. One spoon boasts more passionate partisans than all others: the Gray Kunz spoon. This stainless-steel workhorse—elegant, ergonomic, and hefty enough to crack crab claws—was designed by chef Gray Kunz in the late 1990s while he was at the helm of Lespinasse in New York City. Its bowl is as large as that of a serving spoon, which comes in handy for everything from basting to flipping foods in a pan, but it has a tapered edge, allowing for greater precision when, say, saucing a dish or making quenelles. At the same time, its handle is shorter and narrower than most chefs' spoons, making it easier to hold and control. Craig Koketsu (see Saveur 100 Chef's Edition, Number 19), chef at New York's Park Avenue Winter, traces his love for this spoon to his days of working in Kunz's kitchen. "Back in the '90s," he says, "you only had a Kunz spoon if you worked at Lespinasse. When you started, you got three of them." Lucky for all of us, now anyone can buy one--or three.