16 Cooking Tools Every College Student Needs [CNET]

Our Experts

David Watsky Senior Editor / Home and Kitchen

David lives in Brooklyn where he’s spent more than a decade covering all things edible, including meal kit services, food subscriptions, kitchen tools and cooking tips. David earned his BA from Northeastern and has toiled in nearly every aspect of the food business, including as a line cook in Rhode Island where he once made a steak sandwich for Lamar Odom. Right now he’s likely somewhere stress-testing a blender or tinkering with a toaster. Anything with sesame is his all-time favorite food this week.

Expertise Kitchen tools | Appliances | Food science | Subscriptions | Meal kits

When it comes to college life, the culinary habits of dorm-room-dwelling college kids have come a long way. Now look, we hold no ill will toward any package of instant ramen (Buldak, if we’re being specific,) but the days of that 20-something staple being the only option for university students have long since passed. Don’t have the time or are too “tired” to shuffle on down to the cafeteria? We get it. And we have some ideas to help.

Making easy — and even healthy — dishes has never been easier. Simply put, kitchen-less cooking has become a tangible reality, thanks to all sorts of technological ingenuity. With just the push of some buttons, you can make perfect, simple dishes without firing up a big oven or plugging in other bulky kitchen appliances. So if you or your offspring are headed off to a compact college apartment or freshman dorm room with a sorry excuse for a kitchen (or no kitchen at all), we’ve got a few cooking devices and kitchen essentials in mind to help take your situation from yuck to yum.

For this list, we included cooking gear and small kitchen appliances that are likely allowed in a college dorm and noted ones that may not be, such as air fryers, toasters and other appliances with electric cooking elements. On Reddit’s r/cooking sub, many college students claim that they’re allowed to bring cook pots, hot plates, rice cookers and more.

There’s no guarantee that these will be allowed in your particular dorm room, though. Before buying anything, reference your school’s student handbook or list of dorm rules and allowances — it’ll save you the hassle of having to work out returning your new kitchen appliance.

Best kitchen appliances for college dorms

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We like personal blenders better than traditional ones because they’re more compact, the blending container doubles as a cup, and they come with lids to make them to-go cups so you can sip on your way to class (or as you log in to your laptop at the kitchen island again). 

The NutriBullet Magic Bullet is a no. 1 bestseller for good reason: It can crush through ice, seeds, skins and stems for a smooth, even consistency. Ice and frozen fruit are no match for this nifty little machine, so it’s great for cold, healthy drinks and smoothies. And, ahem, margaritas…

For more power, upgrade to the 1,000-watt NutriBullet Pro Plus.

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This should’ve been no. 1 on the list, really. I mean, it’s coffee. Regular coffee makers take up a lot of space and make more coffee than one person needs.

Enter this top-rated model, which is sleek and slim. It uses a mesh scoop filter so you can choose your preferred coffee grounds. The personal coffee maker brews an 8-ounce cup in 90 seconds, but you’re gonna want a 14-ounce travel mug‘s worth, which will only take about two and a half minutes to fill up.

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Even more of an essential than coffee (gasp!), is clean, drinkable water. A filtered water pitcher is a great way to have the most necessary sustenance around all the time. If you can’t fit one in your fridge, you’ll want this. There are many kinds, but a slim design works best for a limited space. The Zero Water filter pitcher is the best at removing dissolved solids (the bad stuff) of the several we tested.