Where to find Quality Cookware & Supplies in Paris

Where to find Quality Cookware & Supplies in Paris

In answer to where to find the best of for your cookware & cooking needs in Paris, I’ve compiled a shortlist of where to find everything you’ll need to bulk up your culinary arsenal. The best thing about this list is that all of the stores are located in the same area, so you can visit them in a single afternoon. With this list in hand, you can stock up on unique molds, special utensils, cookbooks in both French and English, as well as edible food specialties that are hard (or impossible) to find outside of France.

The four shops listed below can be found in the 2nd Arrondissement of Paris, close to the neighborhood known as Montorgeuil or Les Halles. For over 700 years, this area was the central hub of commerce for all of Paris. It was a huge market complex selling everything from food and produce to leather goods, metal and clothing. You name it, they had it. This is where everyone in Paris went to do their shopping. Nowadays, the old market area is now home to a shopping mall, but Rue Montorgueil still remains a food-focused, mostly pedestrian thoroughfare with plenty of cafes and food shops. It’s no surprise, considering the area’s past, that most of the best cookware shops can be found here.

1)

E. Dehillerin

Let’s kick off this list with the oldest cookware shop in Paris, or at least that’s how the story goes. The story also says that Julia Child frequented this very store while penning her cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which brought the refinery of French cuisine to average US citizens during the 1960s. Out of all the shops I went to, this one was the most charming. It looks almost ancient inside, with creaky wooden floorboards, rustic displays, and rows upon rows of those charming copper pots that look like they belong in a medieval castle’s kitchen. You’ll have to ask for help to purchase anything since the prices aren’t listed directly on the products. They’ll hand-write you a little receipt, and as they wrap your order, you pay at the cashier’s counter.

E. Dehillerin Address:

18-20 Rue Coquillière, 75001 Paris
Metro Les Halles, Line 4
Buses 67, 74 and 85, stop Coquillière-Les Halles

2)

Mora

This shop, just one block away from E. Dehillerin, is definitely more “put together,” with a shinier, more modern appearance. This is the place to go for all your baking and pastry needs. I noticed an entire wall of silicon molds in all shapes and sizes and a whole separate room filled with baking accessories like cake plates, piping tips and sprinkles in every color. If you’ve ever wanted to bake little cakes in the shape of a flower, then come here. Don’t worry, they’re not strictly limited to baking gear, they have all the other cookware you could think of.

Mora Address

13 Rue Montmartre, 75001 Paris
Metro Les Halles, Line 4
Buses 48, 67, 74 and 85, stop Louvre-Étienne Marcel
Bus 29, stop Étienne Marcel-Montmartre

3)

G. Detou

This store is perfect for your specialty ingredient needs, not so much for pots and pans. Salted caramel from Bretagne, sweet and warm scented vanilla beans, traditional mustard jars from Meaux, the finest paté, nuts from around the world, and chocolate of various types, just to name a few things. The store is small, but all available space has been used; the floor-to-ceiling shelves are packed with amazing products. Anything from this shop would make for an excellent gift since these products would be hard to find elsewhere. The name of the shop, “G Detou” is a funny play on words that sounds like j’ai de tout, which means, “I have everything,” and they really do seem to have everything!

G. Detou Address

58 Rue Tiquetonne, 75002 Paris
Metro Étienne Marcel, Line 4
Bus 29, stop Étienne Marcel-Montmartre

4)

Librairie Gourmande

This is your prime source of cookbooks, in both English and French. There were two items in the store that really stood out to me. In fact, I’m still thinking about them, a week later. The first is a Game of Thrones cookbook called A Feast of Ice and Fire. The second is a massive wine aroma kit. The kit comes with 54 different scents, contained in tiny glass bottles, as well as a book to guide you through the art of wine tasting, and how the ecosystem of a particular region affects a wine’s flavor. You can also find big, beautiful hardcover books by European chefs upstairs, next to all the English-language books. In addition, the store has books about food in general, on topics ranging from the history of the culinary arts to the philosophy and food and culture.