These are three very different things, but the one thing they all have in common is this: Their purpose cannot be fulfilled by anything else. (Also they all live in the utensil crock next to the stove, if you are the kind of person who keeps a utensil crock next to the stove.) Let us take them one by one:
A wooden spoon is a spoon made of wood. Or bamboo, sometimes, but it is for the most part easily identified by the fact that it is a spoon. Made of wood. Why not made of metal or plastic? Because here are the qualities you are looking for in your go-to cooking spoon: It should have poor heat conductivity, so it doesn’t overly cool or warm anything temperature-sensitive it gets stuck into. It should be durable, so it doesn’t snap in half or melt or explode. And like a good name-brand deodorant, it should be both strong and soft, so it can get all the good stuff up off the bottom of the pan, but also not scrape the living hell out of the bottom of the pan. Wooden spoons are handed down through generations (I cook daily with one stolen, surreptitiously, from my parents’ house) but they’re also wicked cheap to buy new.
My pick: I like long-handled, flat-bellied spoons, like this set of 18-Inch Wooden Cooking Mixing Spoons
A ladle is the easiest way to get liquid out of one vessel and into another vessel, assuming that at least one of the following applies: (1) The first vessel can’t be conveniently lifted and poured; (2) It would be unbecoming (or perhaps painful) to use a cup or mug or something to do the liquid-scooping; (3) The first vessel contains a liquid that contains solids, like a soup with noodles or veggies or meat in it, and the solids are of varying weights and densities and have striated within the pot, and you’d like to create portioned servings that contain equal parts of each component of the soup, so the long handle on something like a ladle allows you to get deep in the pot and then lift, getting a remarkably accurate approximation of the balance of various stuffs in the pot. Ladles, man. They’re on it.
My pick: Pretty much any ladle will get ‘er done. I like this red KitchenAid nylon ladle
A whisk is really a marvel. Do you need to introduce air to your egg whites? Whisk. Do you need to even out the lumpy roux in your stew? Whisk. Do you need to smooth your cake batter to a glossy texture? Whisk. Do you have a whole lot of stuff that you just need to stir up really really thoroughly, like dry ingredients for baking or a lot of small things in a pot? Whisk. Do you need to get in a good tricep workout? Whisk. Let’s be clear: There’s nothing a whisk can do that an egg beater or an immersion blender can’t also probably do. But a whisk will do it all, and just as well, and there’s also the delightful fact that the most common shape—this stretched-out teardrop—is known as a “balloon whisk,” which is just great.
My pick: Silicone whisks
that were so cool when we were kids. You don’t need one of those 
to reach into the flames: this is your Oven Glove. This is your Captain Hook’s hook. This is your Terminator-style cybernetic real-grip fireproof hand, and it is like ten bucks, and it is amazing.
. I love them dearly.
. Make sure it dries thoroughly, either by fully rubbing it down with a cloth or by drying it out over a low flame or in a low oven. But don’t burn the house down.
, which is probably the one that most people have. They come pre-seasoned, which is kind of gross and weird, but saves some time I guess. If you want to be really cool you’ll buy vintage: you can find skillets from as far back as the late 1800s at 
(one for citrus, one for cheese) and one of 
(for big cheese!). All three are about 5 years old, are used on a multiple-times-a-week basis, and are still sharp as heck, as evidenced by the extremely painful and totally gross wound on the side of my thumb that is a result of last night’s overzealous encounter with a stub of Grana Padano. Fuck you, Microplane, but that’s why I love you.
for a nickel under $40. Just stay out of the extremes and you’ll do fine.
which came as a set, have a perfect shape and balance for my hands, and are brightly colored, which is a surefire way to get me to want to buy something.
?) recoil in horror at the thought of using a wooden cutting board for anything. Maybe, maybe they’ll use one for bread. 
, whose heavy slabs of maple are objects of worship for a certain type of cook. You might want to be that type of cook. You might want to spend a little less dough and not be that type of cook, but still not be the kind of jackass who only owns a plastic cutting board. Your call.
, which I inherited from my great aunt. It’s so old that instead of the black plastic knob on the lid, it has a an enameled iron handle that’s welded to the lid. It’s stamped with an F, which indicates its volume: 5.5 quarts. It’s the classic flame red-to-orange color, which I didn’t pick myself because of the inheriting-it thing, but even if I had been able to choose the color, I’d have gone with this one. It is to all other Le Creuset enamel colors what all other enameled cast-iron ovens are to Le Creuset. Which is to say: the hands-down winner.
. I swear that when I bought mine in 2005 they called it a chef’s knife. I’m also curious now if the more-general designation as a “cook’s knife” is to distinguish it from knives intended for e.g. murderers.
What You Need In Your Kitchen 