My top 15 Essential Kitchen Utensils

1) Kitchen knife (serrated)
2) Measuring cups/spoons (because I bake a lot)
3) Kitchen shears
4) Cutting board
5) Good peeler
6) Sturdy spatula
7) Wooden spoons Bread knife
9) Mixing bowls with lids
10) Whisk (I rarely use an electric mixer)
11) Manual can opener
12) Pots and pans
13) Cookie sheets
14) Bread pans
15) Rice cooker

We have a very small kitchen, so being able to use the rice cooker outside of the kitchen makes meals easier, especially since I married into a Chinese family.  Not all of my items are utensils, of course, but I really don’t need or use a lot of different utensils most of the time.

Well, just looking over your list…

Most of those are pretty useful. And I have all of them (and then some).

I don't remember the last time we used our food scale, so that's probably not in my "essential" list. And I've never used our sifter, though occasionally my husband does. We could live without it, though. The juicer isn't essential, but a nice addition as it does work better than a fork (what I used to use).

I do use our garlic press quite a bit. Not essential, but very handy. I'd say that I use it every few days at least.

I'm trying to think of other things we have that we do use:
* An apple slicer/corer. Not essential, but handy, especially if you're making a dessert that takes many apple slices.
* A sauce brush. Very handy. Not super essential, but it helps spread things more evenly without a lot of waste or having to use paper towels.
* Several sizes of strainers. VERY handy for making tea (in cup size or pot size) and even rinsing sprouts. I even make coffee with the steel mesh tea cup strainer. And now I also have a hemp bag for sprouting and making carrot juice and plant milks.

I had to look over the utensil list at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_utensil

Some of that stuff is not what I'd normally consider a "utensil", but I definitely like my cutting board, mandoline slicer, toaster oven, frying pan, oven glove, and similar stuff.

I think the bare minimum would have to be a knife, a ladle, a strainer of some sort, and something to turn/stir/serve food. But I'm really glad to have a lot more than that!