12 Kitchen Essentials from Local Austin Hotspots

Bring Austin’s innovative culinary scene into your own home with these cooking essentials and kitchen items. From locally sourced spirits, hand-crafted accouterments, clever cooking tools and stylish Austin-bred housewares, stock your home with foodie finds that will take your at-home meals to the next level.

1. Tatsu-Ya BBQ Ramen Bowl

Slurp your way to satisfaction with this festive ramen bowl from mini chain Tatsu-Ya, which includes artwork from Tokyo skateboarding graffiti artist ESOW. ($45)

2. Bardo’s Bee Juice Honey

Bzz bzz. Owned by Sandra Bullock, Walton’s Fancy and Staple provides much more than just delicious sandwiches and baked goods. In addition to flower arrangements, you can also pick up some fun pantry staples. Sourced from California beehives located in citrus and avocado groves, Walton’s Fancy and Staple bottles this bee juice on site. Drizzle it in your tea, salad dressings or on peanut butter toast. ($15)

3. Fall Creek Vineyards 2021 Lescalo Rosé

Lower alcohol wines are so hot right now — especially when it’s also hot outside. This Fall Creek Vineyards’ 2021 Lescalo Rose is only 9.8% ABV, which also means lower calories. The lower alcohol content was created naturally by harvesting grapes from the vine earlier than usual. Lescalo Rose offers sweet peach, cherry and tangy citrus on the palette with a floral aftertaste. Perfect for sipping while whipping up your summer feast! ($20)

4. Calibrate Wellness Infused Coconut Oil

Enjoy gourmet (and legal) cannabis products with this infused coconut oil — perfect for putting in your coffee or cooking and baking with. Calibrate Wellness, co-founded by Chef Nic Yanes (of Juniper, Uncle Nicky’s and Verbena) and Janice Omadeke, a former tech CEO of The Mentor Method, crafts delicious, gluten-free Delta-8 products with straightforward nutrition facts and dosing that allows consumers to feel good about what they put in their bodies. ($34.99)

5. Hardcore Carnivore Black Beef Seasoning

The best cuts of beef deserve the best seasonings, and local live fire cook, author, meat specialist and Meat Science grad student Jess Pryles knows a thing or two about meats. Her company Hardcore Carnivore sells six different types of seasoning flavors, but Pryles’ best-selling rub is perhaps the most gothic. The Black seasoning, with classic spices of garlic and coarse black pepper, contains food-grade activated charcoal made from coconut husks to create a beautiful contrast with medium-rare meats and helps build a bark that lets the meat do the talking. ($12.99)

6. GelPro Designer Comfort Mat in Aged Wine

Give your feet and back a break while cooking with GelPro’s stylish mats. Manufactured out of Waco, this is comfort that looks as good as it feels. Fresh for spring is this limited design made in collaboration with chef and lifestyle influencer Jennifer Maune. ($129.99)

7. Farmhouse Delivery Rancher Box

Choose between a six- and 12-pound box of selected meats from local service Farmhouse Delivery. Each box contains a combination of pork, chicken, beef, seafood and/or wild game, and every piece of meat is sourced from small farms and ranches in Texas and farmed using the highest animal welfare rating standards with no added hormones or antibiotics ever. You’ll definitely taste the difference. ($69.99-$129.99)

8. Wiege 8-inch Chef Knife in Box Elder

A proper chef deserves a proper knife — and it doesn’t hurt when it’s also an attractive one! While Travis Weige produces plenty of custom knives for clients (albeit with a six-month waiting list), he also offers one-of-a-kind blades on his online shop. His 8-inch chef knives come in 440c stainless steel with dyed handles of various woods. They are as sharp and efficient as they are eye-catching. Even better: All Weige Knives are guaranteed for life for normal wear and tear and come with free sharpening for life. ($450)

9. Salt Masters Isla Blanca Sea Salt

All savvy chefs know how to elevate their dishes with a finishing salt. Get a taste of Texas with this all-natural sea salt, which is hand-harvested off Padre Island from Gulf Coast seawater and dried by hand in small batches. The microplastic and iodine-free salt can only be found locally at East Austin butcher shop and restaurant Dai Due. ($13)

10. Made In Hudson Green Collection Enameled Cast Iron Set

Stock your kitchen in one step with the heirloom-quality Enameled Cast Iron Set from Made In. The local cookware company sources its professional-grade cast iron from Northeast France, where craftsmen have been pouring the material since the early 1920s. This spring, the family-owned business partnered with Chef Brooke Williamson, winner of Bravo’s “Top Chef” Season 14 and owner of California restaurant Playa Provisions, to launch an extended collection of cookware in a custom-designed shade of green. Hudson Green is inspired by Williamson’s love of gardening and named after her son Hudson. ($549)

11. El Naranjo Salsa Macha

This isn’t a jar of your normal Tex-Mex salsa. Salsa macha is an oily, nutty, garlicky concoction that’s delicious in a plethora of different ways — as a finishing oil, as a condiment, in marinades or even as a dip. James Beard Award-winning Chef Iliana de la Vega packages her own version made from a complex seven-chile blend. ($20)

12. Savilino Kolstad Craftsman Apron

Keep your outfit clean — while looking fresh! — with this fancy canvas and denim apron from Savilino, a company that’s been outfitting Austin-area restaurants’ staff for more than 10 years. ($125)

Read More From the Food Issue | May 2023