Notes:
* Strong recommend on the Fibrox knife. If you don't already have a serious knife, don't buy one; get the Fibrox and use it for awhile. You may never want another knife, and if you ever do, you'll have a very good idea what you're looking for. Beware of knives: they're Veblen goods.
* Don't get the expensive butcher block board. Actively avoid it. If you feel like arguing about this, you're not the reader this note targets; everyone else, trust me that the butcher block board is a lot of maintenance for not a lot of practical difference. Plastic and laminate boards work great, are cheap, and you can throw them in the dishwasher.
* Get two boards of different colors and designate one for meat. This minimizes accidental cross-contamination and also makes it easier to handle multiple prep steps since a board that was used for carrots and onions can just be rinsed off to reuse for shallots or garlic.
* I'd recommend against the knife sharpener. It's hard and a little time consuming to do a good job sharpening knives, and if you're not ready to commit to learning how, you're better off bringing your knives in every month or so; it takes just 2 minutes for a shop to do it. You probably won't sharpen your own knives even if you buy the equipment, but having it, you'll convince yourself you don't need to have your knives sharpened professionally. Bad sharpeners can also mess up your knives.
* Strong disagree on "just get 10 piece set" of pots/pans. You need a large sautee, a saucier (which will double as rice and veg cooking), a soup pot, and a _small_ nonstick omelette pan, and nothing else. Except for the omelette pan, which you'll be replacing every year or so, the quality of your pans will matter a lot. I like All-Clad, like everyone else.
* If you want to optimize a little, get a Lodge Enamelled Dutch Oven and use it for soup and also braises.
* Get the cheapest All-Clad on offer. All-Clad's multiple lines are mostly about price discrimination.
* Unless you eat smoothies, most people will use their Kitchenaid Mixer more than they'll use any blender. You can safely skip the blender! People geek out on blenders, and, what's more tricky, venders aren't Veblen goods; their performance really does scale with their price. Which means you'll easily be convinced to drop a lot of money on a blender. If you're unsure whether you want to allocate a lot of dollars to a Vitamix (we love ours, but...), get an immersion ("stick") blender instead. They're very cheap and they'll do most of the culinary things you'd do with the stand blender.
* Again regarding mixers: there is only one brand. You want a Kitchenaid.
* If you're not going to bake, you can skip the mixer.
* If you get a stick blender, you can get one with attachments and skip the hand mixer.
* Nerds need slow cookers. Here again I disagree with Matt. Normal people can get away with not having a crock pot, but if you're looking to set up a kitchen that will get you cooking more and eating In-N-Out less, you need the crock pot. They're cheap, and more importantly, they allow you to queue up a meal in the morning and come home to it done.
* Hard to disagree with Matt on the utilities. You need a scale. You need a stack of light metal mixing bowls (do not waste time and money on heavy mixing bowls). Microplanes are great. You want a box grater. You want a thermometer. If you're making room in your budget for optimization: the Thermapen is totally worth it. Nobody I know who has one fails to wax poetical about them. I rarely use the rolling pin. I disagree about the silicone tongs; get all-metal ones, but get a good pair. Matt didn't say "fish spatula" but trust me on this, you'll use it all the time. If you didn't know you needed a good whisk I don't know how I can help you.
Finally:
One thing Matt didn't list here that has more or less changed my life: go to Amazon and get the largest bulk plastic deli cup box they'll sell you. Deli cups are amazing. You need deli cups. I don't mean "you need 1 or 2 deli cups". I mean you need a stack of 60 somewhere in your kitchen, and another 300 or so in a closet.
Stab at a true minimum viable kitchen (there are other minimal configurations):
- Cuisinart 3qt sautee ($52)
- Large pot ($25, Cuisinart)
- Small cheap nonstick omelette pan ($20, Cuisinart)
- Fibrox chef's knife ($26)
- Metal fish spatula ($12, OXO)
- 2 plastic cutting boards ($30 for 2, generic)
- 2 light metal mixing bowls ($20 for 2, generic)
- 1 4-cup pyrex measuring cup ($10)
- Balloon whisk ($10, OXO)
- Large wooden spoon ($5, Calphalon)
- Large slotted spoon ($10, OXO)
- Tbsp/tsp measuring spoon ($3, generic)
- Stick blender ($45, Cuisinart, w/ whisk)
- Pepper grinder ($10, generic)
- Thermometer ($20, generic)
- Scale ($20, generic)
Total: $305