Paris Shopping - Cookware

The first stop on our Paris tour is E. Dehillerin, a two century old professional kitchenware shop

 at 18 et 20 rue Coquilliere  at Le Halles.  This is essentially a restaurant supply store

and much of their stock isn't suitable for the home cook but they do carry enough  home sized

items that we felt like we were in foodie heaven.

Two years ago my daughter and I bought copper pots here and we love them for their beauty and functionality so came back on our recent trip to buy more.  They have every size and shape you could imagine

and narrowing down our choices took time.  There are several large cooking stores in the area but 

Dehillerin has the best selection of almost everything and is the most reasonably priced.

It is very expensive to have items shipped home so I recommend buying what will fit into your suitcase.

I've read complaints about their customer service, but we were more than happy with the help we received.

Emile introduced himself when we arrived and stayed with us for the several hours it took to pick out pots, utensils, bakeware, and knives.  He even arranged for a taxi to take us back to our hotel so we didn't have to wrestle with the Metro with all our heavy bags. 

Dehillerin is famous for its copper and it is sold in every size and shape imaginable. The pots are lined in either tin or the more durable stainless steel.  Copper is a small part of their inventory and you will find just about any other imaginable contraption to wash, cut, boil, steam, bake, mold or serve food.

Be sure to carefully look over the display on the landing of the staircase to the basement.

We found Revol lion's head bowls for a small fraction of the price at home

and perfect shallow dishes for our favorite creme brulee.

Stainless steel food containers, bread and cake pans of all sizes,

hundreds of tart pans and rings, funnels, cookie cutters

Knives, peeler, serving utensils, silicon molds,

decorative baking tins,

pastry tips and bags, spatulas, whisks

measuring cups of every size,

ladles up to 1 gallon size (can you imagine how much that must weigh?)

pan liners, pie plates, scoops,

cooling racks

Knives, knives, knives, and more knives

The gigantic, restaurant size pots are in the basement.

They are fun to look at and to imagine what might be simmering away in them

in the famous restaurants around the city.

If you visit Dehillerin be sure to go down to the basement and look around.

The building is old and so very interesting.

I would love to take a peek at what is up this staircase.

We took a little shopping break and had a wonderful lunch

 at a cafe next door to the store.

This gave us time to talk over our possible purchases so we didn't make any mistakes.

Its hard to fight that impulse of wanting to buy everything, 

you know what I mean?

the "I may never get back here again so I better buy it while I can"  train of thought.

In the end we were prudent, bought only what we could carry home,

and are thrilled with all the great memories we have of our unbelievably fun 

 shopping day in Paris.

bonne journee