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I'm just a home cook, but for the pro cooks out there, what kitchen equipment at work do you also find indispensable in your home?

I'm not talking about the basic things like a spatula, spoon etc but something not normally found in a home kitchen.

I once went to a restaurant supply store and bought some cambro storage containers and love them for brining and couldn't imagine my kitchen without them now.

k.
 
+1 to the stainless mixing bowls and vitamix. also, heavy duty baking sheets.
 
I have one of those big stainless steel buffet pans that comes in really handy for prepping meat for the bbq and storring the meat once pulled off the grill.

Looks like this:
175-30312.jpg
 
Got me thinking and here are some commercial equipment items I have:
sheet pans
cake pans
tongs (although I have a lot of oxo's as well)
espresso machine
espresso grinder(s)
baking scale
hand blender
various utensils
bowls
wire storage racks
 
Things I regularly borrow from work:
Half sheet pans
9th pans
A stock pot big enough to cover your whole :censored: stove
Big cutting boards(though that's a bit more common in these parts, lol).
The habit of labeling and dating stuff in storage

And I'd love to have tiny equivalents of the 2/4/6/8/20/24-qt plastic tubs with snap lids. It's basically tupperware, but heavy duty and long-lasting.
Quality tongs, no locks, no gimmicks, just long-lived spring tongs. I wish they were easier to clean than the ones we have at work though
Gray Kunz Spoon

Oh yeah, if I had a Vitamix, it'd be part of my daily routine to blenderize fruits and veggies.
 
Mass quantity with a kitchen aid attachment a chinoise and a bucket.

Small - medium quantity my stainless steel citrus reamer or a fork.
 
Most awesomely epic thread topic here... THANKS ! !
 
Vitamix, Robo Coupe, Rondeau, Tongs, anything Cambro, 6" 1/2 Hotel, Half Sheets, mixing bowls, 5 Gallon Pickle buckets, Commercial issue cling wrap (super easy to dispense compared to the home ones), steel scrubby
 
No, it wasn't the Vitamix (though that is an interesting point). I caught an Anthony Bourdain No Reservations a couple weeks ago, and he mentioned that when you use commercial slicers and slice meat really thin, it ends up cooking the meat a bit. I imagine it depends upon how much things heat up (volume) and the type of meat though.

k.
 
I generally like Bourdain because he isn't full of sh*t, but I have 'some reservations' about this. If I was slicing a protein that thin, I'd have it pretty damned cold to begin with. It might warm it up a bit, but not 'cook' it. I'm sure something happens on a molecular level, but I don't know how close it comes to cooking.
 
I've been using my stones to sharpen my slicer. What a difference!
 
+1 to half sheet pans, plastic containers, Vitamix (I got a super price years ago on a single speed, 30 second timer Vitamix at Surfas, a restaurant supply store here in the LA area), tongs (I prefer Edlund locking tongs), cake pans and wire racks. The Vitamix kicked the cr*p out of my Kitchenaid blender so much that I gave the Kitchenaid away. Also, restaurant supply stores are the only place that I've found liquid Barkeeper's Friend.

However, I will say, of these, the half-sheet pan wire racks that I bought from Surfas were the best things I ever bought. They fit the half-sheet pans perfectly, were cheap, and I use them for almost everything - roasting, prep (raising rinsed or marinated items off the liquid prior to cooking), for draining fried foods and also keeping fried foods warm in the oven, aging meats for short periods of time in the fridge (the racks allow for circulation of air underneath the meat) . . . all kinds of things.

I just need to find a local restaurant supply store that carries Dynamic immersion blenders.

Have any of you guys bought from KaTom? They have the best price on the Dynamic Minipro Immersion Blender and I'm considering buying it through them although they don't honor the warrranty if the product is used non-professionally.
 
No, it wasn't the Vitamix (though that is an interesting point). I caught an Anthony Bourdain No Reservations a couple weeks ago, and he mentioned that when you use commercial slicers and slice meat really thin, it ends up cooking the meat a bit. I imagine it depends upon how much things heat up (volume) and the type of meat though.

k.

Strictly speaking, cooking is the preparation of food by means of the application of heat, and the heat being transferred via the air and friction of the slicer are so minimal and unintentional they will never matter.

He's probably referring to the fact that these things are a giant PITA to sharpen and generally get kept up by grindy stone attachments, and the edge is extremely rough. The increased number of broken barriers in the food(as compared to, say, a polished yanagiba), paired with meat's natural tendency to lose color due to oxidation very likely created the impression that it was being slightly cooked.

Nothing better than roast beef straight off the slicer--1 minute later, it's not the same.
 
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