Visit Best Kitchen Supply and Shop Like a Pro
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By Bart Hutchins, photos by Vina Sananikone | from the EdibleDC Fall Issue
If you’ve ever Googled “best chef knife” or “best cast-iron pan,” two things are true about you:
Number one, you’re my kind of person. Those who love to cook and want to do it well are the spiritual aristocrats of our era.
Number two, at this very moment, tech overlords are flooding your Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest algorithm with direct-to-consumer cookware. Be it the Great Jones Dutch oven or the ubiquitous Misen knife, these big brands are hunting you down in your own home to get you to buy their product. I have nothing bad to say about these two or other direct-to-consumer cookware goods, but for my money I’d rather use the same tools at home as one might in a professional kitchen.
Get thee to Best Kitchen Supply. This DC beacon of joy might not have a pretty website (it barely has one at all) and as it is tucked away in what’s left of the industrial segment of the Union Market district, it doesn’t have the prettiest storefront. However, my friend, this modern- day Eden has everything a cook could ever need at a higher quality than the internet and for a lower price.
To show you what I mean, my friend Vina and I took a quick stroll through the store recently to point out some of the most useful tools that are easily available at this local establishment.
“I could go on and on and on and on about the difference between trick gadgets marketed to home cooks and the real tools used by cooks and chefs worldwide. There are more worthy discoveries at Best Kitchen Supply, but I hope that this overview of some of my favorites gives you a beginner’s guide. It’s an incredible privilege to cook at this particular time. Our access to fresh vegetables, proteins and useful tools is greater than ever. As such, I hope that you find your way down to the kitchen supply and get serious about the art of cooking and living well.”
Microplane
Remember that time you watched Julie & Julia and were so inspired by the incredible food that you tried to make your own beautiful beurre blanc sauce and serve it over a filet of salmon? Of course you remember, it was disappointing. It looked so good in the movie. What was wrong with yours? You, dear home cook, did not use your trusty Microplane to zest a little lemon into the finished sauce. At Best Kitchen Supply you can get the name-brand Microplane without a handle (more versatile with more surface area for zesting) for $7.99. Use this bad boy to never waste a lemon peel, to beautifully grate a fine cloud of aged parmesan over your pasta or to send a mist of chocolate dust over the top of your favorite dessert.
Cambro Plastic Storage Containers
The two greatest frauds perpetrated against the American people go in this order: One, the idea that John F. Kennedy was killed by a lone gunman, and two, the idea that Tupperware is even remotely useful. I never got a chance to look into Oswald’s eyes and find out if he acted alone but I have lost roughly 212 Tupperware lids. These plastic demons are plaguing your kitchen, clogging up your storage and constantly going missing. Not anymore, you savvy cook, you! At Best Kitchen Supply you can organize your leftovers like the pros. Always perfectly square, with lids built to take a beating, you can buy Cambro storage containers for as little as a dollar a piece. Use the small ones to store cheese; use the big ones to brine an entire turkey for the holidays. And most importantly, never ever again go looking for those flimsy, useless Tupperware lids.
Pots and Pans
The pans you use at home are not the pans used by professional cooks and chefs. You’ve either purchased a very expensive All-Clad pan, which is too beautiful to rough up, or you’re trying to cook in a nearly worthless skillet that has the Rachel Ray name stamped on the bottom of it. This isn’t your fault; the average kitchen store or Target does not carry a genuinely useful mid-cost pan. But guess what? Yep, you guessed it: Once again, Best Kitchen Supply has what you need. I am begging you to go to Best Kitchen Supply and get yourself one 8-inch nonstick pan, and one 10-inch stainless steel pan. This will run you about $35 and last you roughly five years. Use the nonstick to make beautifully folded French omelets and the stainless steel for cooking fish without scorching the skin. These are restaurant-quality pans, which means your dishwasher won’t bother them much and when they eventually do, you won’t be out 700 bucks.
Potato Ricer
The humble potato gets mishandled in a multitude of embarrassing ways. I cannot count the number of dense and sticky gnocchi I’ve been fed, or the dry and wasteful mashed potatoes I’ve been proudly proffered. This can all be solved with a potato ricer. Found for $12 at Best Kitchen Supply, this tool will transform your potato dishes and have you making elegant gnocchi like Nonna made back in the Old Country.
Best Kitchen Supply, 413 Morse St NE, Washington, DC | M–Sa 8:30am–4pm | www.ebestkitchen.com
About
Bart Hutchins is the chef de cuisine at Beuchert’s Saloon kitchen on Capitol Hill. A writer and editor, Hutchins is an editor and contributor to the JTTB blog and a contributor to the Perfectly Imperfect newsletter. Follow him @bartisnew
Vina Sananikone is a social media director for the Foreign National Restaurant group and a photographer. Follow her @vinasana
Bart and Vina were guest editors of Edible DC’s Fall Issue.
