If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what famous people add to their carts. Not the JAR brooch and Louis XV chair but the hair spray and the electric toothbrush. We asked JJ Johnson, founder of New York City’s Fieldtrip, author of The Simple Art of Rice, and one of the latest chefs-in-residence for OXO, about the backpack he takes everywhere, the probiotic that saves him from hangovers, and the strawberry ChapStick he’s been using since college. (You’ll notice that our regular buy buttons have been swapped out for Google Shopping links; these will take you to Google Shopping pages, where you can shop at the retailer of your choice.)
I like to have a little sock swag at the gym — and I have a good 15, 20 pairs of these. When you put them on, you feel like LeBron. You’re locked in. And they never move for some reason. They don’t shrink. I think you can wear the Nike 3/4 socks even if you don’t wear Nike sneakers … they’re the one sock you can get away with paired with everything else and with dueling brand sneakers. Or if you have a dueling brand shirt on, you could rock the socks with it.
For me, it’s all about the waist, the thigh, the butt kind of moment — how the jeans sit on my body right. They’re not supertight to your leg or super-baggy. I have eight in different colors, and they’re colored denim, so if you’re a trouser guy and you sometimes wear jeans, or if you’re a jeans guy and sometimes wear trousers, the Paige jeans makes it look like it’s that in-between, so you could dress it up, dress it down. They’re also an extremely great price — and if you pay attention to their website from time to time, they always have a dope sale going on.
I used to walk around with a basic gym backpack, and then my director of operations bought me this for my birthday. It fits everything: my laptop, my workout gear, my change of clothes for my next event, my knives. There’s a compartment for everything. I’ve had it for three years now and it’s been super-durable. It also gives you a little, like, “Oh, okay, I think he’s swaggy. I’m not really sure, but I think so.” People always compliment me about it or are like, “Yo, I got that same bag, man.”
The JBL Charge 4 brings the vibes. The battery lasts long. It’s something that I bring with me when I travel for my hotel room, and something that when we’re prepping in the kitchen, we turn on and rock out. If you catch me in there trying to focus and bring rhythm to food, I’m listening to jazz. We can put it on to dance with our kids anywhere in the house, or even when we go to somebody else’s house, like bringing it to a cookout. It goes into the Tumi.
The facial moisturizing cream to me is really key. As women have their face-game repertoire, this is my go-to. Sometimes I used to steal my wife’s facial cream to try to find out what worked for me. But Kiehl’s is really solid. I have a larger pump in my house and a smaller jar I take on the go. You don’t need too much: It spreads really well and doesn’t cake up your face.
I’m always talking, so my lips always chap. It’s the ChapStick I’ve used since college and it’s always worked for me. Strawberry is my flavor. It kind of tastes like candy. Maybe I bought it in college for different reasons, but it always worked. It’s an ongoing joke on my team. I’ll say, “Oh, I forgot my ChapStick.” And my assistant is like, “Don’t worry, I got one for you.” But I also always have one in my pocket, one in my coat, one in my backpack.
I saw ZBiotics pop up on an Instagram ad, and I was like, “There’s no way this works.” You have those nights when you go out with your friends or you’re at an event and you just drink way too much. And you wake up the next day like, “What did I do to myself?” I was reading an article that said our body needs more probiotics because alcohol flushes this good bacteria. And this said that it gives you extra of that. I probably started taking it like four months ago, and no lie, it works. You take it before your first drink, you wake up, you feel great. Everybody laughs at me, but when I give it to them, they’re like, “Oh wow.” I just left the Food and Wine Festival in South Beach. I took one every day I was there and I wasn’t hungover. It’s like a shot: You pop it back, it tastes like salt water. It’s not bad at all.
In my house, we have a go-to rice — and it’s the go-to because everybody can cook it. We eat rice three nights a week. Yes, we have other rices in the house, of course, but the Lundberg is great. We know that it’s from a farming practice where they’re doing a great job. It’s not bleached, it’s not enriched, it’s not parboiled. None of those things have happened. Just really good rice that they’ve milled. I can use that Lundberg rice with everything and anything that I cook.
I think an organized fridge is everything — and the OXO refrigerator organizer suite really helps. I was pretty good at organizing it before, but now it’s like I’m a genius at it. I have all my wife’s ginger ales stacked up, we have rows, we have our kids’ yogurts, we have their snacks. The pieces are really versatile. I think the best tool for me is the egg holder. You no longer have the carton in there, so you can see all your eggs. There are plenty of times in the past where I would reach in my fridge and there’d be one egg left, and I was like, who did this?
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