Depending on your point of view, cooking may be a profession, a passion, a hobby or a chore. But in any case, it cannot be denied that cooking requires a few basic tools. Sur La Table, Williams-Sonoma and a slew of department stores will gladly take your money in exchange for tools imbued with misty notions of fairytale domesticity and twee French farmhouse fantasies, all perfectly capable of performing tasks but with spectacularly marked-up prices. I get swept up in this kind of romance regularly, and would join the associated support group if it existed.
But let's not forget that these are tools, not lifestyle accessories. For restaurant professionals, this truth cannot be denied; frugality is essential. Succumbing to the siren's promise of retail romance would take the already-thin margins of the business and whittle them down to nothing. So where do they buy their tools?
Restaurant supply warehouses.
Every city with a certain number of restaurants is bound to have one, typically located as far as possible from the shopping bag-laden throngs of zombie customer cows that clog the high streets. Here in San Francisco, there are a half dozen decent ones, and Economy Restaurant Fixtures is my current favorite; I find myself driving over to Potrero Hill on a fairly regular basis to peruse their aisles of culinary tools and accessories. Their prices are reasonable, and although they won't always have a lower price than similar outfits here in San Francisco, their quality doesn't seem to waver either. One thing is for sure - they provide a cheerful relief from the prices at any retailer with a catalog and national advertising budget to offset.
From cookie cutters to digital scales, roasting pans to ice buckets, springform pans, glassware, and even pizza delivery accoutrements, restaurant supply houses have it, often stacked unceremoniously and without excess packaging or merchandising. They feel reassuringly like the Home Depots they should resemble, and for the home cook buying just one cocktail strainer for $2.32 instead of $16.95 downtown, it's enough to make even the chore of shopping into a joy.
Tiny whisks, normal whisks, and yes, even giant three-foot long whisks
Strainers, chinoises, and colanders, oh my!
More cookie cutters than you can shake a whisk at
Everything required for that pizza delivery man Halloween costume
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