An essential part of any kitchen, cooking tools work with elements like fire, water, and time to handle and manipulate ingredients. As interest in food and cooking grows, cooking tools evolve to suit diversifying food cultures and draw up a roadmap of culinary history. Even basic tools such as knives, pots, frying pans, and measuring gadgets have become increasingly subdivided by specific use or grouped together in function families. And traditional items made of wood, stone, and cast iron are back in full force as they satisfy both aesthetic and functional needs. Cooking tools are, in a sense, a barometer of the kitchen—the place where we can track changes across food cultures, interior design, technology, and lifestyles.