Is there a cook among us who isn’t a gadget junkie? Our idea of the perfect Saturday afternoon is hanging out in a kitchen shop checking the latest tools.

In our kitchens, you’ll find drawers stuffed with olive pitters, chicken pluckers and truffle brushes. We have tongs for every task and knives for every need if we could just find them.

Bean slicer

“The fascinating thing about gadgets is that they are reasonably priced, fun to work with and helpful at the same time,” says Patrick Hind-Smith, senior buyer for Williams-Sonoma in San Francisco. “We sell a lot of high-end equipment, but a lot of people enjoy buying themselves something fun. Gadgets are perfect. They are also an affordable way to help you get professional results in the kitchen.”

Not long ago, the St. Petersburg Times asked two culinary celebrities Burt Wolf, host of several TV food and travel shows, and chef Jacques Pepin if they were stranded on a desert island, which pieces of kitchen equipment would they want with them.

strawberry huller

After a long discussion, they agreed on two pans with lids, a chef’s knife, a pair of tongs and a stainless steel cooking spoon. Apparently, even on a desert island, you need a few gadgets.

Chef Kirk Williams, chief executive officer of Golden State Culinary Institute in Roseville, Calif., isn’t into gadgets (“My favorite gadgets are my hands,” he says).

But when pressed, he concedes that “my favorite tool at the moment is a channel knife, which is V-shaped on the end to use for scoring. It is the most effective garnishing tool I’ve used.”

Another of Williams’ favorite tools is a ball whisk. It’s similar to a standard whisk, but instead of having loops, it has straight pieces with balls on the end.

cherry pitter

“It’s great for working a lot of air into a product, plus it packs into a drawer or a bag well,” he says.

Also on Williams’ list: Knives (“You’ve got to have good, sharp knives”) and a hand-held juicer.

Among gadget gurus, the latest “in” tool is the mandoline. It’s a hand-operated slicing tool that was popular long before food processors.

Here are a few other nifty gadgets discovered in a recent trip to department stores:

Italian tomato press: You drop a whole tomato into the container and turn a crank. The press peels and seeds the tomato.

honey spoon

Citrus trumpet: It’s so simple it’s difficult to believe it works so well. Basically, it is a trumpet-shaped metal gadget that you insert into a lemon. When you squeeze the lemon, every last drop of juice pours out.

Splatter screen: This is a round, disk-shaped screen to cover the top of a saucepan. Steam escapes, but cooking juices won’t spatter out.

Odd-sized measuring spoons and cups: Have you ever needed 1 1/2 tablespoons or 2/3 cup of something? These spoons and cups come in such nonstandard sizes.

lemon juicer

One of the latest thermometers is called a remote. You place the probe inside the meat, but the thermometer itself sits outside the oven so you don’t have to keep opening the door to check the temperature. You can even program it to beep when the meat is done.

Happy gadget shopping.

popcorn fork