Yes, You Need a Pair of Kitchen Tweezers. Here's Why.

I know how people feel about kitchen tweezers. They think of a very specific restaurant that serves goat-blood ash and pickled sea buckthorn. A place where the servers pour wine made from fermented foraged lovage. Although I've eaten some very good ash, I understand the hesitation to endorse any part of something that seems so affected.

Kitchen Tweezers vs. Tongs

Tongs stand in stark contrast to the fiddly nature of tweezers. They're the everyman's tool. They're big, they're riveted, and they give you something to anxiously clack as you hover over a bunch of hamburgers on the grill. But they're also more limited than most cooks are willing to admit.

I started cooking in a world filled with tongs. It was a land where ranch dressing was a mother sauce and servers would flock to half-eaten plates of awesome-blossoms in the dish pit. I expertly slid sheet trays of potato skins out from under the salamander and yanked steaks from the depths of the deep fryer, all with my well-worn tongs.

Like most cooks, I was a big believer in the utility of tongs, until I fell into my first fancy cooking job. First I was introduced to the fish spatula, and learned that my salmon filets always fell apart because the tongs were ripping them up. Then I was told that the two seconds I was saving by moving a hot sizzle platter with tongs, instead of finding a dry kitchen towel, was not worth the risk of dropping it and spending the rest of service in shame. I was also informed that deep-frying steak was not advisable. I was easily converted. I bought some tweezers.

What Are Kitchen Tweezers?

Although tongs will always have a place in my heart (and kitchen, of course), I'd argue that most things tongs can do, tweezers can do better. Tweezers are thinner, smaller, and more nimble than tongs—but longer and grippier than a pair of tweezers you'd find in a toiletry kit. Kitchen tweezers are commonly used for intricate plating—arranging ingredients artfully on a dish—retrieving items from jars, and even cooking. You can use strong kitchen tweezers in most situations where you'd employ tongs.

Unlike tongs, it's easy to have a pair of tweezers at your side at all times, since they fit right in an apron pocket, which means they're always at the ready. No pocket? Their compact size makes them a better fit in a crock or sharing a cubby in the cutlery drawer.

What Are the Two Types of Kitchen Tweezers?

There are two types of tweezers I find useful in the kitchen. Longer, heavier tweezers are most interchangeable with tongs; they can handle some heft. Shorter and lighter ones (often with offset tips) are ideal for plating and picking up small items, like herbs.

The Best Long Kitchen Tweezers

Küchenprofi 12-Inch Tweezers

$22 $18 at Amazon

The Best Kitchen Tweezers for Plating

JB Prince Blue Offset Fine Tip Tweezer 7.8 inches

$40 at Amazon View on Jbprince.com

Both kinds of kitchen tweezers are much more responsive than tongs, allowing you to pick up hot items with the same precision as using your hands. For example, reaching into a boiling pot of water for a taste of pasta (use the sturdier, longer tweezers for that!) is so much easier than chasing around noodles with a wooden spoon. But what else can they do?

How Do You Use Kitchen Tweezers?

What can't kitchen tweezers do? This list proves they're great for more than just arranging edible flowers on a cake. They're surprisingly strong (seriously, they'll put most tongs to shame), and their simple design means there aren't any grooves or pockets for food and gunk to get trapped.

• Extract egg shells from a bowl
• Turn scallops in a pan
• Flip a steak
• Garnish anything
• Remove capers and olives from small-mouthed jars
• Flip vegetables on a grill
• Create a perfect pasta nest on a plate
• ... and act as utensils for said pasta
• Stand in for chopsticks
• Fish a lemon out of a cup of tea
• Unclog a stubborn drain
• Steer sautéed vegetables around a skillet

Perhaps I should have left my kitchen tweezers behind when I walked away from my life as a premier ice program manager at a fancy restaurant, but I believe tweezers are meant for all kitchens—including my home. If you do decide to pick up a pair of fine-tip tweezers, just be warned: Their tips are super sharp. It's one of the things that makes them so useful, after all.

FAQs

What are the best kitchen tweezers for fish bones?

Fish tweezers differ from conventional tweezers in that they have a broader surface area at the tips. This allows for a sturdier grip on tiny bones in slippery conditions, as one tends to encounter with raw fish. We like Global’s fish bone tweezers for their ergonomic shape. 

What's the difference between tongs and tweezers?

Where tongs can be bulky and imprecise, tweezers are slender and tapered. They're equipped with ridged tips for a spot-on grip. Tweezers allow you to reach into narrow jars, pluck exactly one piece of pasta from a boiling pot, or delicately flip a scallop mid-sear—to name a few of their advantages.

Should I buy tweezers or tongs?

Because the two are fairly different, but equally multi-purpose, we recommend buying a pair of tweezers and tongs. Luckily, our recommended tweezers are under $30 and our favorite tongs from OXO are $16.

What size kitchen tweezers are best?

Since tweezers are one of the more affordable kitchen tools, you can probably swing two pairs. We like having a long, sturdy pair to use in place of tongs, as well as a shorter, lighter pair for more precise activities, like retrieving an errant bit of eggshell or placing a garnish just-so on a plate. 

What are the best kitchen tweezers?

We recommend these 6.5-inch tweezers from JB Prince for precision tasks, like plating. As a stand-in for tongs, we like this 12-inch set from Küchenprofi.

Why We're the Experts

• Sohla El-Waylly has worked for some of New York City's best restaurants and is a cookbook author, social media star, video personality, and recipe developer for NYT Cooking.
• Sohla has written many equipment-related stories and recipes for Serious Eats, including reviews of ice cream makers and immersion blenders.