Every Meal, A Different Kitchen

Being a full-time digital nomad generally means, at some point, you will cook. I enjoy cooking and use the opportunity to save money while learning to make local dishes.

The hard part about cooking in different kitchens is that you never know what equipment you will have to work with, and I can tell you from experience that most Airbnb and hotel room kitchens have never been lived in a while having pots and pans. The number of times I've had a knife without a cutting board...

Everyday items for the traveling chef are spices. They are small, easy to pack into little bags and keep well. You can travel with your chef's knife if you have checked luggage. At the very least, I would consider a hand sharpener. Knives do not make it on the list when maintenance is checklist-driven afterthought.

With my carry-on-only lifestyle, I travel with two essential cooking items—a measuring cup and, more recently, measuring spoons.

Sea to Summit makes backpacking gear; their bowels and cups are excellent. They are made of silicon and fold flat. What's nice about the X-Mug is that its ridged walls make it work for hot liquids so that you never risk going without your morning coffee or tea, but the critical detail is that the inside is marked in both cups and milliliter measurements. I highly recommend getting the teal over the black option if you want to be able to read the measurements in less-than-perfect lighting.

The Polygon Measuring Spoons are a neat design if you want something that takes up almost no space. They lay flat and hold together using magnets, making them work well for traveling. I would not get these for my home kitchen; they are not strong enough to allow you to dig into something like cold butter, but they work well enough.