Chef Alice Waters’s 20 Must-Have Pantry Staples

A well-stocked pantry includes more than shelf-stable ingredients like condiments, canned goods, or basic building blocks like all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and baking powder. A well-stocked pantry also includes items from the freezer, perishable staples like garlic and herbs, and ready-to-go ingredients in the fridge.

Refresh your own pantry with this list of Alice’s must-haves.

1. 1. Garlic: Use garlic for vinaigrettes, sauces, braises, sauces, and soups. Garlic is a flexible ingredient, which pairs well with many foods. You can keep a batch of garlic sautéed greens on hand in the fridge to pair with a meal or to have as a hearty snack.
2. 2. Olives: Warm olives in a pan with herbs, citrus rind, and olive oil for a pre-meal snack alongside roasted nuts, or smash and add to salads for the occasional burst of earthy, sweet brine.
3. 3. Fresh herbs: Use herbs like chives, parsley, chervil, cilantro, mint, and lemon verbena for salads, salsa verde, and tisanes. Stronger herbs like rosemary, thyme, and savory will grow throughout the winter: Thyme works well in marinades and stocks; Savory is a traditional seasoning for a pot of beans; The woody stems of rosemary can be used as skewers for cooking over the fire, and the leaves roasted with almonds. Find our complete guide to culinary herbs here.
4. 4. Eggs: Eggs are a flexible ingredient that can be incorporated into custards or baked goods; transform the protein into a simple omelet or quiche; oil, fry, or poached eggs for a finishing touch on a dish of whole grains, salad, beans, and more. Our complete guide to eggs, along with 19 different ways to cook eggs, can be found here.
   
5. 5. Lemons: Lemons add natural brightness and acidity to everything from salads to roasted chicken.
6. 6. Mustard: Mustard is an indispensable addition to vinaigrettes and sandwiches.
7. 7. Cheese: Keep fresh blocks of Parmesan for grating, and aged or soft cheeses for serving with dried fruits.
8. 8. Nuts: Roast them as a snack, blend into a fine nut flour for baking, or roughly chop to add texture and crunch to salads and whole grains.
9. 9. Chicken stock: You can use chicken bones or whole chicken carcasses to make stock, which will keep, covered, in the refrigerator for up to one week, or for several months in the freezer. Use chicken stock to build flavorful soups and sauces, or as the base liquid when cooking whole grains.
10. 10. Butter: Butter, like olive oil, is a crucial pantry staple, whether used for baking, making a simple brown butter sauce, or folding into couscous or saffron rice.
11. 11. Yogurt: Use plain yogurt to make an everyday sauce like Indian raita, or serve atop morning granola with fresh fruit, or soup. You can also use yogurt to make tender flatbreads and pound cakes.
12. 12. Carrots, onions, and celery (mirepoix): These three vegetables are useful and delicious on their own, but when mixed together they form a classic French mirepoix, a versatile aromatic flavor base for any number of dishes.
13. 13. Pickles and sauerkraut: Pickle your farmers’ market vegetables with a brine of vinegar, water, salt, sugar, herbs, or spices. Fresh pickles and sauerkraut can be kept jarred in the refrigerator for a month; use them to boost a grilled cheese sandwich lunch.
14. 14. Olive oil: The popular cooking oil is an absolute essential in the pantry. Keep light olive oil in your pantry for cooking, and extra virgin olive oil for making sauces or finishing a dish. The best way to choose the right olive oil is by tasting it and finding out whether the olive oil is fruity, buttery, rich, green, smooth, or peppery.
15. 15. Good quality vinegar: You can usually find vinegar next to olive oil at the grocery store. Alice uses red wine vinegar for salads, but she also keeps bottles of champagne, sherry, balsamic, apple cider, and rice wine vinegar for a variety of uses. Find our complete guide to different kinds of vinegar here.
16. 16. Spices: Spices are a must-have in every pantry. The warm spices of Morocco—cumin, coriander, turmeric, and cayenne—are key to meat and vegetable braises and tagines. Saffron from India can feature in fish soups and rice. Cinnamon bark, vanilla beans, nutmeg, cloves, and sweet anise seed add depth and complexity to sweeter dishes. For the best flavor, buy spices whole, then toast and grind them yourself. Look for organic spices and buy in small amounts so that you don’t have large amounts sitting unused and losing pungency. Store spices in airtight containers. For salt, look for pure sea salt and keep both a coarse and finer grind on hand. Coarse salt is for seasoning boiling water and brines and fine salt is for seasoning ingredients and finishing dishes. Sea salt contains trace minerals that give it a stronger, saltier, more complex flavor.
17. 17. Rice: Alice recommends three varieties of rice for different uses. With its short-grain with a starchy coating, arborio rice can be used to make a risotto that slowly absorbs liquid, resulting in a creamy-saucy texture—a great way to showcase a flavorful stock. Long-grain brown rice was the grain that inspired Alice to start incorporating whole grains in her cooking. Many of today’s brands are nutty and flavorful—far from the dense health food store brown rice of the past. Basmati rice is an aromatic long-grain white rice common in Indian cooking that can be paired with almost anything as a side dish. Whole grain rice can be made in one large batch and heated up for meals throughout the week. Learn more about different varieties of rice in our complete guide here.
18. 18. Beans: Beans are a staple in pantries around the world. A pot of beans can be used throughout the week: baked into a gratin, mixed with vinaigrette for a bean salad, or added to pasta for a dish of pasta e fagioli. Cooking with dried beans (or dried chickpeas) adds more flavor and texture than canned beans.
19. 19. Pasta: There are many varieties of dried pasta available at the grocery store. Pasta made of farro, quinoa pastas, egg pastas with yellow noodles from the yolks, and semolina.
20. 20. Honey: Honey is a versatile pantry staple that can replace added sugar, be mixed with yogurt, sweeten tea, or make a unique dessert. Top mild ricotta cheese with honey and toasted nuts and you have a quick and elegant dessert.

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