Garlic Press (Alpha Grillers)

The garlic press is the most polarizing tool in the kitchen — Anthony Bourdain called it a unitasker abomination, but J. Kenji Lopez-Alt uses one daily. The Alpha Grillers model ($13) won the argument. It presses unpeeled cloves, which means you skip the fiddly skin-removal step entirely. The garlic comes out uniformly minced in 2 seconds versus 30 seconds of knife work. For recipes that call for 6+ cloves (good recipes), the time savings are real. The Alpha Grillers model is dishwasher-safe and has an integrated cleaner.