Kitchen Deals -> Cook's Tools

The importance of high quality knives can't be stressed enough! Buy the best you can and expect to spend some serious money. It is better to buy a couple of excellent knives and slowly add to your collection rather than buying an entire set of low quality knives. Start with a chef knife and paring knife. You will also want to buy a sharpening steel.

This is a big ticket item, but worth its weight in gold. It will save so much time when it comes to simple chopping or more advanced preparations like mayonnaise. As with most things, buy quality-- it will last longer, be capable of tougher jobs, and give you less problems. To make the food processor easiest to use, leave it on the counter top instead of storing it in a cabinet.