Cooking Equipment You Need to Buy at a Restaurant Supply Store
Some people think that a specialty restaurant supply store is only for restaurant owners or professional commercial chefs.
In reality, that's far from the truth. Home cooks can find a lot of the best gear and restaurant equipment for their own kitchens on our website or simply walk into one of our stores. Home cooks are some of our best customers!
Here are some of the best items that restaurant chefs or home chefs can enjoy from our premier kitchen supply site. When you’re looking for the best place to buy kitchen equipment and supplies, trust professionals like us.
Knives and Cutting Boards
With appropriate knife safety, home chefs will be able to work with sharp kitchen knives to more effectively prep food and create amazing recipes. Good cutting boards are necessary – whether you’re cooking in a restaurant or at home, you don't want your cutting boards to harbor harmful bacteria. You may also wonder if you should use wood or plastic cutting boards. Look for cutting boards that will stand up well to your use cycle (for instance, are you hand washing them or running them through a dishwasher?)
Every chef should have a professional knife set. That's true for home chefs, too. If you already didn't know, we started as a knife-sharpening company for restaurant chefs! We have the knowledge & experience to help you find the right knife for any specific job. Check out this list of knives we carry and what each knife is used for:
- Chef Knives - every chef's first knife & works with most ingredients!
- Boning & Fillet Knives - removes bones from meat!
- Bread, Slicer and Carving Knives - cuts bread without smashing!
- Breaking and Cimeter Knives - breaks down large meat!
- Clam & Oyster Knives - strong enough to crack open shellfish yet nimble in hand!
- Cleavers - easily cuts through meat and bones!
- Paring Knives - chop, slice, and peel almost anything!
- Sushi Knives - sharp blades to thinly slice fish and vegetables!
- Utility Knives - best for smaller ingredients like shallots!
For the home chefs looking for more information, check out these best knives for your kitchen.
Mixing Bowls and Measuring Spoons
It's also true that whether you're in a restaurant kitchen or at home, you want your measurements to be correct in order to come out with the right result.
Specialized sets of mixing bowls and measuring spoons have all of those effective measurements built-in, and convenient ways to help a busy cook keep everything in perfect order – pints, cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, etc.
Food Storage Containers
When you're buying for a home kitchen or a restaurant, don't forget about accessories for long-term food storage.
There are a number of steps that each ingredient takes from when it’s purchased to when it’s prepared and ready to serve to a customer.
So with that in mind, look for specialized food storage containers that will keep your food in good condition every step of the way. We've talked in our previous blogs about long, shallow food containers where you can refrigerate heated foods once they are cooked.
Baking Sheets and Racks
Other great accessories for any cook are the wide flat sheets, racks, and pans that accommodate baking and other types of cooking in a modern oven.
What is there besides baking?
There's a lot, and today's modern cooks are starting to use the oven for a range of cuisines. For instance, there is the wide culinary territory that roasted vegetables represent, where you can get delicious results out of cooking chopped-up vegetables on a baking pan.
Stainless Steel Cookware and Non-Stick Cookware
Yes, of course, you want to have a set of handy range of skillets and pans.
What materials you choose is up to you. Nonstick helps with high-heat cooking, but some people don't like the potential for the Teflon or coating to flake off over time. Thankfully, our commercial-grade nonstick products aren’t made with Teflon. If you use enough butter or oil at the bottom to prevent food from sticking, stainless steel can be an excellent and effective way to cook. Cast-iron is another alternative, and we have a wide array of these products for sale as well.
Stainless Spoons and Whisks
You can also stock up on stainless steel utensils to use to transport food, for example, from a pot to a plate.
We also have these specialized utensils called “spoodles" - a combination of a spoon and a ladle for effective serving.
As for whisks, you can get a wide variety of metal whisks for baking and mixing, in general. We have a variety of sizes from beating an egg to baking a cake!
Silicone Mats
These revolutionary accessories help to prevent food from sticking to baking sheets and pans. Silicone baking mats are cost-effective and built to last!
Cooking Torches
How about crafting the perfect crème brûlée, or inflaming some type of alcoholic cocktail for visual effect?
Our butane & propane torches can also function as types of mobile salamander or cheese melters for the kitchen. If you don’t have something like a panini press and you want to lightly toast some bread, this might be a good option as well. Remember, safety first!
Conclusion
Outfitted with all of this essential kitchen gear and supplies, you can craft your own amazing recipes and delight your dining audience, even if you're at your home instead of in a commercial kitchen. Look at everything you can get from Chefs’ Toys, from a company that is run “for chefs, by chefs,” so that we really know what’s helpful in the kitchen!
