If France is the French gastronomy epicenter of the world, then E. Dehillerin, the famous centuries-old Parisian pastry and cookware seller, is its capital.
Located in downtown Paris’ first district, this store is niched on a street corner not far from the Louvre, the French Stock Exchange, and the Church of Saint Eustache. Though if you walk by too quickly, you may miss its unassuming window displays which look more like a general hardware store on the main street of a Midwestern town than a famed purveyor of cookery wares for world-renowned chefs.
Once inside the doors underneath the green awning, you immediately bump into a crowd of people milling around the only available standing room that is as wide as a walk-in closet. These could either be customers or salespeople; usually the confused looking ones are customers. To the left and right and back of the store and in the basement, there are metal shelves packed from floor to ceiling with every imaginable cooking utensils, accessories, pots and pans, and storage containers. There are small items from tiny stainless steel dishes to measure your salts and spices to an exact quantity, to ladles so big they can double as foot baths, or cooking pots huge enough to bathe a child in. There are duck presses, Chantilly siphons, funnels for jams and preserves. These are the recognizable items; some others, like a jar filled with what looks like metal chocolate chips, have uses that are beyond the grasp of amateurs and tourists.
There aren’t any prices on the merchandise, just a cryptic code that you must ask a salesperson to decipher, tally up, and have your purchases rung up by a cashier behind a wooden counter that looked as if it could date from the French Revolution. These professionals know everything about cooking supplies. If they weren’t so swamped, they could probably take you on a tour of the store and describe every item’s use from the main floor to the basement and back again. The trick is to find one who seems rather friendly and amenable, which is quite a challenge as they all appear to be rather eccentric in manners and looks. Once you choose one salesperson to assist you, you will stick with that individual who will be your privileged advisor for all your buying needs now and forever more. So choose wisely.
E. Dehillerin caters mostly to restaurant professionals but the advanced cooks/chefs can surely find everything they need here, and even things they never knew existed. For instance, a cookie cutter in the shape of the Eiffel Tower — now who would have thought?
p.s. Dehillerin has a catalog that you can download and order from, as well as basic items that you can order online.
E. Dehillerin
18 et 20, rue Coquillière – 51, rue Jean- Jacques Rousseau
75001 Paris
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Word of advice: Don’t ask for a whole copper pot set. It immediately puts you in the “tourist who wants to hang them on their wall” category, even if you actually have a need for copper pots. In fact, unless you know exactly what you need, tell them what it is you want to do (“I’d like to make a raspberry coulis. What sort of saucepan would I need? I usually make dessert for 4 people.”) and let them be the guide. (They might joke and say, “Well… raspberries!”) Not only will they be more accepting of you because you’ve respected their “métier,” but they’ll also likely point you to the best item for the job, even if it’s not as profitable as the fanciest one. You save money, they keep pride in their work, and you walk out of there feeling like a pro.