I do not find myself frequently getting sucked into purchases via TikTok. But a surprising impulse buy, courtesy of Tess Mangione, a creator who has the kind of effortless bob and expensive sweater collection I dream about, has kicked my meal prep into a new gear. It was not her cabinet organizer or splashy set of storage containers. No, reader, it was an extra-large tape dispenser. Shortly after hearing about how useful it could be for labeling jams and various pickled items, I ordered my own.
3 Roll Steel Desk Top Tape Dispenser
I was surprised at its sturdiness and heft; I didn’t know tape dispensers could be this serious. It felt like it belonged on a construction site. Every day the tape dispenser has lived on my countertop I get a little pulse of dopamine from its industrial look and the way that it serves as a physical representation of my serious commitment to both food prep and pantry organization. It was an objet d’art, a knickknack—but also one that signified executive (chef) function.
The dispenser’s formidable place on my countertop next to the cutting board and the fruit bowl had a positive impact on my cooking life: Seeing it there, I felt compelled to do a food prep task, quite simply so I had an excuse to label a jar with my new masking tape dispenser. I made a batch of granola, labeled it with purple tape, and dated it. I marinated celery in the dregs of a jar of chili oil, adding soy sauce and rice vinegar. You can bet I labeled the hell out of that jar. I developed a fixation with making batches of soy-marinated eggs—because they were delicious, but also because they needed to be labeled. In the dark depths of winter, I made cozy batches of chicken stock and ragu and froze them, labeled. I caramelized a big batch of onions and froze them in ice cube trays and, reader, I labeled them.
