This page contains links to various specialty shops where you can shop for quality food, kitchen, bar and home items. It is a work in progress, and if you feel that another resource should be listed here, feel free to contact me using the form below. Please keep in mind, however, that I am pretty picky on what I include, so not every suggestion will be taken. Thank you very much.
Designer Home
Clio has a great and unique selection of home goods but a good portion are related to the table (e.g., glassware, tableware, linens etc.). Their products are by designers from around the world and are truly unique and beautiful.
Scandinavian Details has beautiful modern contemporary products for the home all in that Nordic, modern simplicity. If you want clean lines, a contemporary feel, and simple design, you may want to check out this website.
The Conran Shop out of New York is a good place to find contemporary home, kitchen, and dining materials. A lot of the big food magazines source their glasses and other tableware from this store for and it is pretty expensive. For small orders their shipping can be pretty expensive, but if you are looking for modern home/office/kitchen items, this is a good place to browse.
The MoMA Store for the Museum of Modern Art in New York City is a great place to browse for interesting items. It is more gift and design oriented, but the kitchen and home sections usually have some interesting items. They also carry MUJI items.
Unica Home has an amazing array of design partners and products to offer. The site can be a bit overwhelming, but it is possible to navigate the many subcategories to find what you want. Or you can also click on the designer icons at the bottom of the page.
Emmo Home is a good site. It has a lot of design-oriented kitchen and home items and it has a creative and easy-to-browse organization to its website.
Drinks and Barware
Bar Supplies doesn’t have an impressive first page on its site unless you are going to college and like Jello shots, bomb shots, and tub shots, but they do have a great selection of bar equipment. Dig into the site and you will find reasonably priced bar supplies and a lot more such as classic bar stools and insanely cheap citrus squeezers.
Cooking Schools and Learning
Rouxbe is a really nice online cooking school. It has a great tips and techniques sections and many video recipes that are well made, informative, and fun. You can even join with a membership and get personal chef advice and access to their cooking school curriculum.
Eat Drink or Die has a good video section with several categories for recipes, techniques, and tips. There are many experts and chef stars who are contributers such as Tom Colicchio, Jamie Oliver, Paula Deen, Michael Chiarello, Art Smith, and Gary Vaynerchuk in addition to sommeliers, bartenders, a green expert and nutritionist.
The eGullet Culinary Institute (eGCI) has a lot of useful information on their forum. There aren’t videos, but they will have pictures to help with the instruction.
Chow Tips from Chowhound has an excellent section on everyday tips for the kitchen. You can learn everything from secrets of the cooking trade, getting stains out, cutting techniques and a lot more. They are very short and informative.
King Arthur Flour is a great baking resource. Not only do they have forums where you can ask baking questions, they also offer in-person and online baking courses. Their shop is also a good place for kitchen items and baking supplies.
Specialty & Gourmet Foods
D’Artagnan has is a common go-to site for specialty meats and meat products. Of course, ordering meat online can be really expensive once shipping is factored in, but if you need to buy a lot or just can’t find it locally then D’Artagnan is a good option. But, of course, you should buy locally whenever possible and investigate local suppliers first.
The Gourmet Food Store is a great resource for gourmet foods online. They have truffles, caviar, and a range of Spanish, French, and Italian gourmet foods.
Formaggio Kitchen has a very good site for cheese and other specialty gourmet foods. It is often mentioned in cooking magazines as a place to buy exceptional and hard-to-find cheeses.
Zingerman’s out of Ann Arbor, MI is a great place to shop for online gourmet food. They describe themselves as a ‘community’ of businesses, and they offer a great range of goods and peripheral services. This online retailer often gets recommended as a good online food source.
iGourmet has an extensive selection of online gourmet food, and is often a first stop if you want to find something unique or special. This online resource is also mentioned quite often in cooking magazines.
Marky’s out of Miami, FL has a good selection of gourmet foods, but if you want caviar, smoked salmon, foie gras, or truffles this is the place to look.
Gourmet Library out of New Jersey isn’t as extensive as some of the other online sites, but they have a nice cheese selection and the site is clean and easy to navigate.
Cooking Forums
eGullet is one of the best forum resources on the web. You can read it for free, but if you want to contribute on the forum you will need to become a member. Just search for a kitchen item that you are thinking of buying and read through the threads. Though this might take you a while, you will ind a lot of good advice and probably come to some conclusion.
Chowhound has a very active forum, though it isn’t as good for kitchen supplies as others. It is very good if you are ever visiting a place and want to find a restaurant. Search the site first, and if you don’t find anything, just post a question and people will often respond with very good restaurant suggestions.
Chef Talk is one site that has a forum where professionals and non-professionals can solicit advice about a number of cooking issues.
Cook’s Illustrated has a very good and active bulletin board/forum. It is a good forum and will have a lot of home cooks and foodies contributing.
Foodie Forums is another very good forum for people who enjoy all things food. It isn’t as extensive as eGullet or Chowhound, but they do have dedicated members and the cutlery forum is usually quite active.
Cutlery
Ok first of all, JapaneseChefsKnife.com is not a great looking site nor very functional, but they have an excellent selection of Japanese knives and extremely reasonable shipping.
Knife Forums has the best discussion board about knives on the web. The knife enthusiasts that participate are knowledgeable, helpful, and passionate. If you have a specific question or just want to read the previous posts, you will likely find your knife answer on this site. The best board to go to is the “In the Kitchen” board.
Mad Cow Cutlery has very, very inexpensive knives that are used in the food service industry. Whether you are looking for the Cook’s Illustrated Forschner chef’s knife or other brands, you can find them here. They are quick with shipping and the shipping costs are reasonable too.
Epicurean Edge is one of the go-to sites for a person who needs a knife-related item or otherwise cares about knives. In addition to the usually knives and accessories, they carry a nice selection of corkscrews too.
Japanese Knife Sharpening is run by Dave Martell who is a bit of a legend in the knife sharpening world. He offers some of the best knife sharpening tools on the market and has a great knife sharpening DVD. His company D&R Sharpening Solutions also performs knife sharpening through the mail at very reasonable rates.
Chefs Knives to Go has an extensive selection of knives and sharpening accessories.
Japan Woodworker sells a range of Japanese knives and sharpening tools as well as other gardening and woodworking supplies.
Korin Japanese Trading Company has a very good selection of Japanese-style knives and accessories. They also offer a knife sharpening service and have a popular knife sharpening DVD.
Baking
King Arthur Flour is one of the go-to sites for bakers. There are a lot of services on offer through the site and its store also sells quality baking equipment.
The Fresh Loaf is a great site for bread bakers. Check out the blogs, instructional material, or just browse for inspiration.
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