If you’ve ever seen an episode of Good Eats, you’ve already heard the lecture about your local restaurant supply store.  For those without the Food Network though, I’ll fill you in.  There are loads of places to get kitchen equipment from department stores to specialty shops and everything in between, but these places often don’t carry professional quality kit.

Culinary Tips aims to provide cooking tips to everyone, no matter where in the world they are, but hey, we’re Vancouverites.  So here, we’ll talk about a few Vancouver specific stores, some with online presences.  I’m sure many of you have similar types of stores in your home towns.  If you do, please comment and let us know or send us an email.

Cookworks

Online:
http://www.cookworks.ca

Address:
1548 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC
377 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC

Cookworks is very high end home cook oriented.  They stock All Clad, Viking, and Le Creuset cookware, Shun, Wusthof, Global other high end knives.  The usual assortment of ‘fancy’ tools can also be found – silicone Mario Batali spaulas, creme brulee torches, grapefruit spoons … basically yuppy cooking tools and wedding gift ideas.

Ming Wo Cookware

Online:
http://www.mingwo.com

Address:
23 East Pender Street, Vancouver, BC
2170 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver, BC
9855 Austin Avenue, Burnaby, BC
844-5300 No. 3 Road, Richmond, BC
35-935 Marine Drive, North Vancouver, BC
2839 Broadway West, Vancouver, BC

Ming Wo carries more professional items, but not necessarily at a discount.  Their online presence is mostly nonexistant, so I’d recommend heading down to their store in Vancouver’s Chinatown.  Call ahead if there’s a specific item you’re looking for.  They often do a great Chinese newyear sale, and I believe they still offer an industry discount/culinary student discount.  Ming Wo carries a great selection of German knives, and a few Japanese ones as well such as Global and MAC.  Ming Wo stocks a good selection of pastry equipment, bags, tips, and even fondant and colorings.  They do have their fair share of silly gift type stuff too, but not nearly as much as is carried at Cookworks or some of the cookware places found in Metrotown.

The Gourmet Warehouse

Online:
http://www.thegourmetwarehouse.ca

Address:
1340 East Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC

I wouldn’t really consider The Gourmet Warehouse a store for professionals.  It’s more of a store for Kits-living foodies and gourmands with too much money and free time.  Yes, they carry some hard to find ingredients and high end equipment, but that is far outweighed by the gift baskets, a thousand bottles of barbeque sauce, and cellophane bagged marshmellos from Butter Baked Goods.  If you like fancy premade products, then then you’ll love The Gourmet Warehouse.  If you like incredible ingredients then you’ll probably want to take a pass.

Genesis Food Equipment
Online:
http://www.genesisfoodequip.com

Address:
1990 Powell Street, Vancouver, BC

Genesis Food Equipment, Inc. isn’t a very sexy name, nor is the store in a sexy part of town, but that’s fine.  They don’t carry the flashy items or the silly wedding gifts that the mall stores, or ‘foodie’ shops do.  Genesis is a restaurant supply store with a constantly changing set of stock.  You won’t find your brand new Shun knife here, but if you need a 26 inch knife to cut slabs of cake, or a few cheap but functional bread knives, Genesis is the place to look.  They carry a full selection of tongs, spatulas, pans, Cambros, and even chinois.  We picked up a nice chinois for $38.  An identical one was at Ming Wo for $99.  I also purchased a bain marie insert that fits the chinois, a pair of tongs, and a beautiful nonstick aluminum frying pan that came to less than the price of the chinois at Ming Wo.

Restaurant quality equipment isn’t necessarily shiny or pretty, but a well made aluminum pan will cook as well if not better than an expensive 5 ply copper core All Clad pan if used correctly.  Your local restaurant supply store may not outfit your kitchen with Kitchen Aid appliances, but at least the pasta roller you buy won’t be made of flimsy plastic, and your pans won’t cost more than the average cook’s weekly wages.

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