You can prepare a delicious meal using a $10 chefs knife and a $5 skillet. But you also can spend serious money on those same tools, making that meal with a $3,000 Japanese chefs knife and a skillet that costs almost $1,000 .

And you could even start protecting your favorite cooking sweatpants with a $300 apron . High-end, professional grade aprons are a booming industry, with companies like BA Craftmade , Hedley & Bennett , Jones of Boerum Hill and Tilit competing to be the ones who keep you from dribbling marinara down the front of your shirt.