E. DEHILLERIN- the ultimate kitchen store

I admit it- one of our “guilty pleasures” is to watch cooking shows (maybe it got more interesting since one son became a chef?) Anyway, if you are also one of those people who find all of that specialized language fun, and all that cool equipment, you should take a trip over to E. DEHILLERIN at 18 Rue Coquillière, in the 1st arrondisement in Paris. http://www.e-dehillerin.fr/en/home.php

This is a GREAT store and it’s right in the center of Paris, next to Rue Montorgueil, a wonderful market street (see David Lebovitz’s blog post on it at http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/04/rue-montorgueil-les-halles-paris/

It’s also next to the former “Les Halles,” the central marketplace in Paris since the 12th century (which was demolished, unfortunately, in 1971 and is now an underground shopping “mall”) called “Forum des Halles.”

Anyway, we thought we’d go in there and pick something up for our son– easy, right? Pick out a couple of knives- should be fairly simple. An expensive knife is an expensive knife, right? Wrong. What if you don’t know what he likes in knives- does he like carbon steel, which can be very sharp and holds its edge well, but is more vulnerable to rust, or maybe he prefers stainless steel, which doesn’t take quite as sharp an edge but is more resistant to corrosion (who knew?). Suffice it to say, we decided to just buy a couple of “specialty” knives: one for fish filleting; and a small, sharp paring knife that seemed like it would be useful no matter what.

But before we did that, we spent a good thirty minutes just wandering through the various sections of the store and there is every possible kind of kitchen item you can imagine! Knives….

or what about beautiful copper pots?

or what about skewers (at least I think that’s what they were).

Enjoy!