Home cooks are increasingly shopping with chefs and restaurateurs at restaurant supply stores, where they can find inexpensive but durable kitchen tools. Here are the tools that Lesley Stockton, a senior staff writer at Wirecutter, recommends looking for on the shelves.
Stainless Steel Mixing Bowls
These can be found in nearly any size, so you can build the perfect set for your kitchen’s needs. Make sure you can lift the bowl if it’s filled. If it’s too heavy, consider a thinner gauge.
Sheet Pans
Mix and match half-, quarter- and eighth-size sheet pans. Full-size sheet pans will never fit in your oven unless you have a commercial range.
Cooling Racks
They’re made for cooling baked goods like pies, cookies and cakes. But they’re also great for baking things like bacon, lifting them above a sheet pan so they don’t sit in the grease they give off. Try to find racks that nest within your sheet pan.
Ladles
Two-ounce ladles will dole out just the right amount of batter for pancakes, crepes or popovers. Four-ounce ladles work for soup or stock.
Carbon Steel Pans
If cast-iron pans are too heavy, or you’re considering getting rid of nonstick pans, consider buying a carbon steel pan here to see if you’ll like it. It’s lighter, and can really take a beating from a novice.
Plastic Cutting Boards
Cutting boards at restaurant supply stores are color-coded to safely distinguish their uses in a commercial kitchen. You can deploy them the same way at home, to prevent bacteria from meat or fish from getting around. But don’t buy the biggest restaurant model; stick to a medium size. If your cutting board is too big for your sink, you’re probably not washing it properly, and that could make you sick.
Rubber Spatulas
These are great for cooking in scratch-sensitive pans or scraping things out of a bowl. To maximize their uses, buy the heat-resistant ones.
Tongs and Whisks
There’s no need to seek out a name brand, as all are of roughly similar quality. At restaurant supply stores, they come in a variety of sizes.
Dry Storage Containers
Consider getting the Rubbermaid commercial containers. These are great for organizing your kitchen, and you can put them in the fridge or freezer to store things like soup or flour.
What Not to Buy
Off-Brand Microplanes
Stick with the name brand here. The graters and zesters available at the restaurant supply store are often low-quality, catching onto whatever you’re trying to zest, or they can cut too much off.
Chef’s Knife
If you want to stock a kitchen quickly and at the cheapest price, you can buy a knife here. But chefs bring their own expensive knives to restaurant kitchens. The ones you’ll find for sale at restaurant supply stores are often used as communal knives in restaurant kitchens. Instead, invest in and take care of a good knife. If you bought knives from a supply store, you may soon be looking for better quality ones.
Stove-Top Pots and Pans
The ones available in restaurant supply stores are often made of aluminum, which are harder to master as a cook if you haven’t worked in a restaurant kitchen.
