Kitchen treasures

E. Dehillerin (1st arr)

GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Shop

Steps away from the Bourse de Commerce, there is a place where professional kitchens, ambitious home cooks, and culinary history have been crossing paths for more than two centuries.

Established on Rue Coquillière in 1820, E. Dehillerin began as a collection of small shops selling kitchen equipment. In 1890, Eugène Dehillerin brought them together under a single roof, creating a legendary address still standing today. Originally supplying food professionals and kitchens of wealthy households, the company gradually expanded into refrigeration and industrial cooking equipment. With workshops on the outskirts of Paris employing more than a hundred people, its reputation grew so much that in 1930 it was entrusted with designing the kitchens of the famed ocean liner Normandie. Remarkably, the store remains in the hands of the Dehillerin family eight generations later.

Stepping inside feels like stepping slightly outside of time. Staff dressed in green coats embroidered with the house name in yellow move briskly through the aisles, guiding customers through what is, at first glance, a wonderfully overwhelming maze. Finding what you are looking for is something of a treasure hunt. Laminated binders hang throughout the store, listing prices by category rather than displaying them directly. To know the cost of a knife, a copper saucepan, or a pastry mould, you first need to locate its reference number and then track it down in the corresponding catalogue.

The narrow aisles require a certain choreography. You negotiate passage around fellow shoppers to inspect a fish spatula, squeeze past someone comparing stockpots, or circle towering wooden shelves that rise nearly five metres high. Every available inch seems occupied by kitchen tools.

There are copper pans large enough to feed a regiment, tiny animal-shaped moulds, professional-grade pastry equipment, precision tools, storage containers, carving knives, and ladles in every conceivable size and shape. Some pieces feel as though they belong in a museum, while others represent the latest evolution of a centuries-old craft.

What makes Dehillerin so compelling is that it never feels curated for nostalgia. It remains, first and foremost, a working shop. Professionals come here because they need reliable tools. Home cooks come because they dream of becoming just a little more professional. You may arrive looking for a simple paring knife, and leave an hour later having considered an entire batterie de cuisine. –Candice Chemel

→ E. Dehillerin (1st arr) • 18-20 rue Coquillière • Mon 9h-12h30 & 14h-16h, Tue-Sat 9h-19h.