I’m a coffee junkie. I remember vividly when I came downstairs one morning during my undergrad years. One of my roommates was in the clinical physiology program. She’d made coffee. She poured me a cup as I stumbled into the kitchen. Siippp.. *bing* “Aaaahhhhhhh”. “Dave, that was the classic reaction of a junkie getting a fix. You are an adict.” Sweet, sweet addiction.

These days my addiction is centered on Espresso. Espresso, cappuccino, latte, machiato. Back when I was still at Google I decided to take some of my bonus and invest in some serious espresso equipment. I did research and asked on the coffeelovers mailing list. After all that it came down to the Gaggia Classic and the Rancilio Silvia for brewing and the Gaggia MDF and Rancilio Rocky for grinding.

I ended up going with he Gaggia Classic + MDF combo, mostly because I like saying “Gaggia” and becasue I’ve always wanted to have a Gaggia espresso maker:

This worked quite well. The only thing I didn’t particularly like was the doser on the MDF.

Fast forward to Engineyard and the planning for our new offices. It was decided that we should have a proper espresso machine since there are many coffee lovers at EY. I was asked to decide what equipment we should get. For the office I decided to get the Silvia and Rocky combo because it was generally regarded as being more robust. I figured that meant that it would hold up to the rigors of life in an office environment better. Further, I thought the doserless grinder would be good:

This combo is absolutely killer. I liked the Rock so much, in fact that when my GF at the time needed a new grinder, I gave her my MDF (which worked perfectly well) and got myself a Rocky.

I have no hesitation in recommending the Silvia+Rocky combo to anyone that asks.

So I’m happily quaffing espresso at home and at work. Gotta feed the addiction.

I thought I’d share a bit about what I have in my kitchen.

Knives: a collection of Wüsthof Grand Prix II.

The ones that get the most use: 8″ Chef’s, 8″ slicer, and pairing knives. The 5″ santoku gets occasional use. The matching steak knives are the best I’ve had. These are simply beautiful knives, well designed and nicely weighted. The Grand Prix II line is reasonably priced as well.

Pots & pans: assorted Le Creuset (red).

A couple round dutch ovens, fry pan, and a saucier. These are my workhorses. The cast iron fry pan is brilliant for steak. They’re great for things that go from stovetop to oven. I use the 5.5 qt dutch oven for the Boeuf Bourguignon. I recently got a couple All-Clad french skillets that I absolutely love.

There’s a small, cheap no-stick for scrambling eggs and such. The beauty of the Le Creuset and the All-Clad is not that work so damn well (and they do), but that they clean up so easily. They’re amazing! Those pans are all pretty general purpose, while the final pan is for one thing and one thing only: a de Buyer blue steel crepe pan.

It’s for making crepes, and making crepes only. It does it very, very well. The most amazing thing is that it was almost as cheap as the little no-stick.

Misc.: Of course I have a collection of random other kitchen bits & pieces. A few things stand out either for their general utility or their ability to do one thing so well that they justify a place. First is microplane graters.

A box grater as well as some individual, classic rasp style ones (above). I’ll never use any other kind of grater again.

Last weekend when I made Potato Gratin, thinly slicing 3 huge russet potatoes, I truly understood the value of a mandoline. It’s simply brilliant at what it does. It does a perfect, consistent job of slicing things thinly, very thinly. 1/16″ in this case… and this weekend I’ll slice the potatoes even thinner. And the slices will be even and perfect.

These are my main tools. Sure, there are other things that get pulled out of their place in my cupboards or drawers occasionally to do their thing. But the tools above are what get heavily used.

When I set up my current apartment I started from scratch with decent sized signing & relocation bonuses. I figured I’d get good tools and do it right. That was one of the best decisions I made. I expect them to serve me well for many years to come, working as well in 10 years as the day I brought them home.