I was home chef long before I ever turned professional, and it wasn't until cooking became my profession that I ever went to a restaurant supply store. Frankly, it had never even occurred to me. While 90% of the equipment for sale in one is too big or unnecessary for the home kitchen, there are still plenty of pieces that will work better than some of the high-end equipment that is commonly available to you.

First, assess your equipment needs and determine what your inventory is lacking. Now think about the type of cooking that you regularly do AND what types of specialty cooking that you occasionally do. For example, if you are cooking daily for a family of four but like to host major holidays for a crowd, then you might only need a few things like a roasting pan and serving ware. However, if you are the regular cook for a large family, say six or more, or regularly host large dinner parties, barbecues or other food-centric shindigs, having several pieces of professional grade equipment like hotel pans and food processors will allow you higher quality with less work.

You might first want to explore the offerings at your local restaurant supply (most are open to the public, check the yellow pages) to see what they have that you can use. Before you make any purchases, it is very important to measure the pieces and be sure that they will fit in your kitchen. Keep a list of the dimensions of your oven, counter-tops, refrigerator and cupboards. Many professional pieces are larger than home models and a great pan that won't fit into your oven is completely worthless to you. While you are browsing, please make note of the prices of the pieces. Professional restaurant equipment is expensive, however it is built to last through horrific abuses for a long period of time. While you may pay much less initially for regular home equipment, chances are good that you will have to spend that money several times over the course of your life when that equipment burns out or breaks.

The easiest way to tell if the equipment that you are considering is professional grade is to look for the NSF rating, it will have the letters N S F on it somewhere. In California, all purveyors of food must use NSF rated equipment, it is a health code violation if you don't. This protects the retailer and the consumer because the food gets made more efficiently which helps mitigate the risks of food borne illnesses and contamination. Almost all pieces of equipment with wiring has an UL rating, this is NOT the same as NSF as professional equipment with wiring will have both ratings.

Many restaurant supply stores also sell used equipment. Sadly, most restaurants fail within the first year of operation. This translates to a lot of surplus equipment that hasn't been used much. If you are looking for a big piece, such as a pizza oven, find out what kind of deal you can get on a used piece. It will most likely be substantially less than a brand new piece and you can expect the same durability and longevity.

So what kinds of professional equipment work well in the home kitchen? One of my favorite pieces is a commercial toaster, a bit pricey at almost $200.00, but the slots are extra long so I can fit four regular slices of bread or two extra long slices. I don't expect to be replacing this toaster for at least 10 years. By comparison, the high-end name brand toaster that I got as a gift on Christmas did not even make it to the next Christmas before losing its' ability to toast the slices evenly. The immersion blender is another favorite, the commercial one is much heavier, stronger and bigger than a home model. I know that if I need to spend 15 minutes or so whipping up an emulsified salad dressing, my professional blender will not burn out or even start making that overworked electrical smell. Plus I can put the whole unit into the water for effective washing without ruining the wiring.

A salad spinner is another good buy because it is a home multi-tasker. Of course it is great for spinning excess moisture out of greens, or spinning excess moisture out of other things. Once my washing machine went on the fritz before the spin cycle had kicked in, I had a lot of dripping wet clothes that I did not want to wring out by hand. Enter the trusty salad spinner, I was able to manually do what my machine could not. Also, if you remove the spinning drum you will have a large plastic bowl at the ready for marinating large pieces of meat like a turkey.

Other ideas for equipping your home kitchen: pots and pans, from very small to humongous, most will go from stovetop into the oven; baking sheets, there are half-size sheets available as well; a robo-coupe is a professional food processor that works quickly and efficiently on hot and cold foods (this one is very expensive, but you'll probably only buy one in your lifetime and probably pass that on to your heirs); large plastic containers called Cambros that make it easy to mix and store large quantities of prep; and a multitude of gadgets and widgets for every task. Also you can find heavy duty serving pieces, such as plates, cutlery, glassware and bowls that will withstand even the klutziest children or guests.

There is one last type of equipment to think about before your field trip to the restaurant supply store, which are hotel pans. A standard hotel pan is over 2 feet long and 2 inches deep and also come in depths of 4 and 6 inches. Full size hotel pans will not fit into most home ovens, please be aware of that. But they do come in half-pan size in all depths. A good hotel pan can be used for more things than I can list here: fill it with ice and keep your cold prep cold while you're barbecueing; storing and transporting large quantities of food; stovetop, oven and grill cooking; filled with hot water it will keep containers of melted butter or sauces warm without scorching the bottoms, and lots more.

There are many different sizes of smaller container pans that are designed to fit inside a hotel pan. They are easy to identify by the number of containers that will fit inside one hotel pan. For instance, a three pan is a rectangular insert that is 1/3 the size of the hotel pan and three will fit inside the hotel pan. You can also get six and nine sized inserts in three different depths, these can be metal or plastic and are all very durable and useful.

If you like to cook, I strongly recommend checking out your local restaurant supply house. Always remember, though, that a great cook is not defined by her equipment but by how she uses it.