Cook Like is a column in which Forbes Vetted asks some of the food space’s most notable personalities about the kitchen items they reach for the most. Whether you’re hosting a gourmet dinner party or trying a new recipe for dinner, look no further for ideas and inspiration.
When Meredith Hayden posted her first “day in my life as a private chef” vlog, she was in debt, struggling to pay rent and working hard to get her business off the ground. “I was just throwing anything out there to see what would work,” she says, after previous food-focused videos flopped. That series would eventually earn her millions of followers on TikTok, exploding the Wishbone Kitchen brand that would turn her into a Forbes’ 30 Under 30 alum and New York Times best-selling author.
“I still feel very intimidated by it,” she says about her mammoth audience. The constant evolution of social media trends, along with the development of her career and goals, means she’s always worried about how her followers will respond to a shift in content. “But at the same time, I find it very motivating and inspiring. I always love a challenge.”
Her debut cookbook, The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook, launched earlier this year and was an instant hit, earning the number 2 spot on the New York Times bestseller list and selling out an accompanying nationwide tour. The book focuses on using seasonal ingredients and coupling cooking with entertaining—featuring everything from 20-minute meals to full-blown themed menus.
“I always loved flipping through my mom’s cookbooks, and I always had that as my goal,” she says. “The fact that I was able to write a cookbook before I turned 30 was, at one point, a pie-in-the-sky dream, but I can't believe I actually did that.”
Among pie-in-the-sky dreams achieved before 30, Hayden also bought her own home in the Hamptons last year, and she took her followers through every step of the process. “Some people get baby fever. I felt like I got house fever,” she says, explaining her long-held dream of a spacious kitchen and backyard for cooking and hosting. After two years of working hard to publish her cookbook—nearing burnout with minimal days off—moving into her new space made it all seem worth it. “I feel like this is a whole new era, a whole new chapter, and I'm really excited to bring everyone along with me.”
Below, Hayden shares her top nonnegotiables in the kitchen: from culinary school staples to family heirlooms and hosting gems.
“These cutting boards are a good example of something that's very functional but also can withstand a lot of use—it's not going to break on you. I always recommend that people get the one that's really big, because I always see people cooking dinner for themselves using a [tiny] cutting board and it drives me insane. Your cutting board should be three times the size of whatever surface area you are using to chop.”
“Sheet pans are such a workhorse in the kitchen, not only for baking things, but also for organizing things. If I'm making multiple recipes in a day, I'll put all of my ingredients for each recipe on different sheet pans. I'm a very visual person ... so it's nice to have things organized. And they don't take up too much room in apartments, so I always recommend people have more sheet pans.”
“I've always used Wüsthof knives; that was the knife brand that we got in culinary school. I think they're really great because they'll last a lifetime; you can always sharpen them again. And they have a bunch of different sizes—whether you're an experienced chef and you want to get a 10-inch chef's knife, or if you're just starting out, something like an 8-inch chef's knife will be much easier to handle. I have all of their knives, basically.”
“This was my first big purchase for my kitchen that I made myself, and it was inspired by my mom: Growing up, she always cooked on her All-Clad set. It just reminded me of her and growing up, cooking in that kitchen…so it was a no-brainer for me. They're also something that's built to last forever; with a little TLC and some Bar Keepers Friend, you'll be able to clean them and keep them shiny.”
“Same thing … inspired by my mom. She had two Le Creusets in our house: a big, big, big one and then a slightly smaller one. Every time she would make something in the Le Creuset, she always made a double batch so she could freeze half of it. I've adopted that mindset in terms of getting a big braising pot and making as much food as possible for sustaining as long as possible. And one of her Le Creusets, I think, was her mom's, so I was able to witness how resilient they really are.”
“I have always loved a plastic deli container, but recently, I've started using Weck jars out here in my house in the Hamptons. I like to use them to organize ingredients or pack up leftovers or pack up stuff in the freezer. They're also a substitute for a Ball jar, so you can can things in them. And they're much easier to clean than the plastic ones.”
“Plastic mixing bowls sometimes can hold onto colors and smells and stains, so I've recently switched to glass mixing bowls. I got a set from Williams Sonoma and they all nest inside of each other—I really love those.”
“I really like the Ninja Foodi Smoothie Bowl Maker. I personally don't use it for smoothie bowls, but the whole premise is that it has an extra-powerful base so that it can process super-thick frozen smoothies, which works really well with pureeing vegetables. So you're able to achieve a very nice consistent pureed consistency with it.”
“My tabletop nonnegotiable is a nice set of very classic white plates. Food always looks the best on a white plate, and I personally love the Juliska Puro line.”
“A splurge item that I've been really enjoying are my Zalto wineglasses. My friend actually pointed out to me that they use them at the restaurant I used to work at. But they have very thin stems and they're just very gorgeous wineglasses; I recommend them to everyone.”