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This article is part of a product-testing series called Food52 Approved<\/a>, a column where we thoroughly try, test, and review the kitchen and home products you’ve always wondered about. Food52 earns an affiliate commission on qualifying purchases of the products we link to.<\/em><\/p>\n You won\u2019t find a lot of reviews for grill tool sets out there. In fact, Wirecutter deliberately sidesteps them<\/a>, noting they\u2019re \u201cusually of substandard quality and poorly designed.\u201d (Usually.) J. Kenji L\u00f3pez-Alt even once wrote<\/a> at Serious Eats, \u201cAnd please, don’t even think about buying those \u2018grill kits.\u2019 Not even as a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n Challenge accepted! While these skeptics have a point\u2014if you\u2019re only looking for a new spatula or want to fully customize your grill getup, there\u2019s no need to buy a set. (Also, you probably don\u2019t need fillers like salt and pepper shakers and metal straws in a \u201ccomplete\u201d 30-piece set like this<\/a>.) But there are plenty of moments in life when buying a tightly curated set might make the most sense, especially because you can<\/em> find a one-and-done kit of very good quality.<\/p>\n Maybe you want a set that matches and stores away in a tidy case. Maybe your old tools corroded over the winter. Maybe you\u2019re just getting into grilling or have a home with outdoor space for the first time.<\/p>\n Or, perhaps most often, you need a graduation, wedding, or housewarming gift for folks in any of these situations, and you want to know you\u2019re getting them tools that will last and make their time at the grill relaxing and joyful. We\u2019re here to help.<\/p>\n We tried out 13 sets (a total of 68 tools!), including the Food52 community\u2019s favorites. We were looking for clever, easy-to-use designs that addressed our community\u2019s main gripes: namely, handles that are either too short, too flimsy, or too bulky and tools that aren\u2019t durable or entirely heat-proof.<\/p>\n All sets came with two essentials\u2014tongs and spatulas\u2014and some brought along additional forks, basting brushes, or other bells and whistles. Each set had to pass three major trials: maneuvering skinny asparagus (tongs), flipping burgers (spatulas), and flipping and basting a spatchcocked chicken (fork and tongs for flipping, brush for basting).<\/p>\n We are not a scientific lab, but we are a community of home cooks plus one obsessive researcher and food writer (hi). One more note: This happens to be a category the Food52 Shop is very well-stocked in, so there are a lot of winners from within our ranks.<\/p>\n
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\nHow We Tested<\/h4>\n
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