What the crap do I call this thing?

December 12, 2007 12:05 PM

Looking for a spatula that can pick up and flip food, especially fish. These were on infomercials for a while...

I'm looking to buy one of these for a family member who wants one, but I cannot for the life of me think of what to call it, so google searches have been fruitless.

It's like a spatula made of wire, and it's flat. It somehow opens up to be like tongs almost? And you can use it to pick up and flip a piece of fish.

I remember seeing tacky as-seen-on-tv commercials for it maybe 3 or 4 years ago. Any ideas?

posted by shwynn2 to Food & Drink (13 answers total)

Is it the Chef Wizard?

I have one. It's horrible.
posted by inconsequentialist at 12:07 PM on December 12, 2007

I had one too, and it was terrible.
posted by barnone at 12:11 PM on December 12, 2007

Is there a barbecue store anywhere near you? Barbeques Galore is a big chain. Might be one near you if you're in the states. Anyway, any store like that would have what you want. We bought exactly that sort of spatula from there a few years ago. It's very helpful for turning food, but it's also a bitch to clean.
posted by katillathehun at 12:13 PM on December 12, 2007

Maybe it's called a spatula tong? Here's a silicone one - maybe better than the piece o' crap wire one.
posted by barnone at 12:17 PM on December 12, 2007

Or these? These KitchenAid ones get good reviews too.
posted by barnone at 12:20 PM on December 12, 2007

If your family member is looking for an easy way to flip fish on the grill, maybe they'd be better served by something like this. A google search for fish grilling basket gives plenty of options.
posted by contraption at 12:21 PM on December 12, 2007

I have three go-to implements for fish, depending on what I'm cooking. I find a simple offset spatula indispensable for turning narrow sauteed fillets of fish or other protein (like a pices of salmon cut from the thick head-end of the fish). For larger and more delicate pieces (like a fliet of sole), I swear by a slotted turner. I also have an 8" wide fish turner which is good if you are sauteeing/grilling/broiling something like a whole trout, but otherwise doesn't get much use.
posted by donovan at 12:30 PM on December 12, 2007

The Gripper Whisk. I bought one in a pound shop (UK dollar store) and it's useless. So you got the name right. It's called crap.
posted by essexjan at 12:42 PM on December 12, 2007

Wire tongs.
posted by dizzycow at 12:57 PM on December 12, 2007

Behold, the Forkula!
posted by BitterOldPunk at 1:10 PM on December 12, 2007

The wire tongs dizzycow linked to are not bad, although they're not as grippy as regular tongs - because of the give, heavier things can sometimes slide out of them. donovan's slotted turner is the most useful thing I've found for flipping fish. If you have problems with that, use two of them.

This Orka scimitar-looking silicone flipper is pretty good, but it requires some practice.
posted by Caviar at 1:12 PM on December 12, 2007

Seconding the wire tongs (Kuhn Rikon). They having a sliding button to lock them on item. Well made.
posted by artdrectr at 1:13 PM on December 12, 2007

The "slotted turner" that donovan linked is really the best tool for turning fish. You may be looking for tongs but they tend to be less useful for turning fish as you might think. Tongs squeeze the fish and cause it to break up as you turn it. Just a thought.
posted by nola at 4:05 PM on December 12, 2007