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I have a lot of silicon spatulas at home, and I was told I needed to buy a wooden spoon or spatula to make pate a choux the correct way. I watched a couple of Bon appetite cooking videos, and the instructors mentioned that it's the traditional French way of cooking choux. What is the advantage of using a wooden spoon to mix the choux verse with a regular spatula? Do I need a wooden spatula to mix my dough while cooking over the stove?

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This is one of those cases where wood works best. The main problem with silicone is flexibility, you need something that is sturdy so you can scrape the pan as you stir. The benefits of wood for choux are that wood is sturdy, doesn't heat up like metal, and thick. When you make choux time is of the essence, you want to be able to achieve a consistent mix quickly, a big wooden spoon is the perfect tool.

That doesn't mean you can't use silicone. Pick a large, rigid spatula and stir like crazy.

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    I have a silicone spoon (in both solid and slotted versions) with a rigid structure that is certainly sturdy enough to scrape the pan – if anything, the slight give makes it better at getting into the edges than a wooden one would be. Such a spoon (if a reader has one) would be just as good as a wooden one unless there are benefits from the wood itself.
    – dbmag9
    Commented Nov 2, 2022 at 12:03

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