On the few occasions I’ve been in the kitchen areas of fine dining restaurants there’s no super thick Colophon type cookware, or top end Wusthof or Henckel knives. It’s all aluminum institutional type stuff, and lots of white poly handled institutional type chef’s knives.
Why don’t pro chefs use these implements that are touted to be real "pro’ cooking tools?
Too heavy? Seriously, if you’re slinging around dozens of pans all day long with loads of food in them, in a two hundred degree kitchen, that’s got to be a hell of a workout. My 15 inch (yeah, 15- wanna make somethin’ of it?) skillet must weigh well over 4 pounds empty, and while I love it for the one meal a day I make in it, I wouldn’t want to use it all day long. And it’s only mid-grade. Those thick bottomed “professional grade” pans would be even heavier in that size! Their stoves get much hotter than mine, and are better at even heating, so having a big thick bottom to absorb heat and release it evenly isn’t as critical.
The handle of a knife doesn’t say nearly so much about it’s quality as housewears stores want you to think. A plastic handle again, lightens the knife, and as long as the blade holds a sharp edge and is honed often, I’d want a lighter knife if I used it a lot (cleavers excepted, of course.)
The other thing about knives is that there are “Kitchen knives” which only the idjit who forgot his use, and then there are personal knives, which you bring in when your shift starts, defend with your life while you’re working, and take home at the end of the night. Knives, so my father tells me, are a personal item on the order of a tampon or jockstrap - you do NOT touch someone else’s knives at work! You might only be seeing the knives owned by the restaurant that aren’t actually favored by the cooks. (This paragraph may be outdated, as it’s based on my dad’s stories working in kitchens in the '70s.)
Can’t say about the pots & pans, but at the cafeteria at my workplace they rent their knives. They are replaced with freshly sharpened ones every week. Old ones picked up, sharpened, and brought back next week. Perhaps not the same ones, but another set at least.
I’ve seen the chefs on Iron Chef, and Iron Chef America opening sets of knives they’ve brought with them.
They’re very expensive, and restaurants need lots of cookware, plus cookware gets banged up and abused and needs to be replaced.
Instead, they go to restaurant supply stores, many which are open to the public. Excellent cookware much cheaper than department store prices. Unlike the Caphalon and other high-end cookware, it is built for durability and function, but not necessarily for show. Those white-handled knives are excellent (I have many at home), and unlike the Wustof and Henkel’s knives (which I also have), they’re inexpensive and dishwasher-safe.
Mmmm, nice…cookware.
Former chef speaking. This answer nailed it spot on, especially about the knives.
A point not mentioned thus far:
Health departments tend to be very picky about what is used in a resteraunt kitchen. Those white plastic handled knives can be soaked in sanitizer and have minimal crevases for “stuff” to hide in. Wood handles would probably be right out
Wrong. Wood is actually more sanitary than plastic. Have you ever cooked in a restaurant? Or given health Dept seminars? I have.
I have always believed this, but honestly, not sure why. Could you explain it?
You’re thinking of Calphalon.. Colophon is the name of a poster here.
Well then, since there are apparently experts here - my daughter asked me to get her a good set of knives. She’s not a professional cook by any means, but the knives she has are pretty much crappy.
Recommendations for good, not obscenely expensive knives for her?
A lady I know who owned a restaurant(not high-end professional, more of a neighborhood kind of place) said that she had to buy the cheepest stuff otherwise it would walk off. Her opinion was that cooking has a huge turnover, and that cooks were so high strung they would take stuff out of spite when they knew they going to be leaving.
What’s the price range you’re going for? Would $200 be obscene?
I am not an expert, but I know what I like, and I LOVE this set by Cuisinart. Granted, I paid about half that, but I didn’t get the steak knives with it. For me, they are the perfect compromise of weight and heft and balance and all that stuff that I’d like to pretend I know about but really mean, “Hey, this feels nice in my hand and doesn’t go all wobbly and stuff!” The edge is good and sturdy and just now after a year and a half I’m thinking about going to get them sharpened. I admit, I used to be better about honing them before each use when I first got them and was all enamoured, but I’ve gotten lazy about that, and I can tell the difference. Alton would be so ashamed of me. hangs head
And they’re awfully pretty on my countertop! 
The white-handled ones are typically Forshner or Dexter-Russell, and are specifically NSF certified. That’s probably the reason they’re used… that, and they’re not too expensive.
They make them with different colored handles so restaraunts can implement a food handling system so that knives don’t spread contamination.
http://www.dexter-russell.com/PDF/colorhandles05.pdf
I have a hard time believing that wood is more sanitary that plastic. Wood has uncountable little nicks and crannies for bacteria to hide in, while plastic is relatively smooth. Plus, you can usually use more caustic cleaners on plastic without degrading it, while wood knife handles go straight to hell if you wash them in a household dishwasher, much less an institutional one.
There’s a rule in homebrewing that you only use stainless or plastic after you boil your wort, because they’re the only ones that you can get sanitized well. I can’t imagine that things would be different in a commercial kitchen.
As for nice knives, these Mercer Genesis are very nice.
I have a few of them, and they seem just as nice as others’ Henckels and Wusthof knives, only they cost quite a bit less. At any rate, they’re razor sharp and keep an edge pretty nicely.
I like the Henckels ones I have; this site is throwing in a free wood block if you spend over $100, and there are discounts right now. They have a variety of other brands too, at reasonable discounts.
I’ve heard it said for wood cutting boards that they are more sanitary. There are compounds in wood that inhibit bacterial growth. Also (this is my personal take on it) water/debris will collect in the small cuts from your knife, wood is porous and will wick that moisture away, distributing it over a greater volume and letting it dry faster. Plastic is nonporous, the water will sit in those cuts and allow bacterial growth.
Wustof and Henkel knives are very nice and quite high quality. But, like many high quality things, they are old school in design, and take some care and feeding. If you beat on them, don’t use the steel properly every time you use them, and don’t sharpen them when necessary, they will suck toes.
I asked for a ‘nice’ set of knives last year with unfortunate results, so a word of warning:
Do NOT get the cheapie sets that have a sort of ground in serations along one side of each blade.
Supposedly they help sliced food ‘release’ from the blade, but what really happens is that the amount of ‘drag’ is drastically different between the two sides. You have to conscious battle to keep cutting straight or everything you slice ends up as a shallow arc. :mad:
I’m going to throw out all the knifes (well, I’ll keep the steak knives, the ‘drag’ rarely matters in cutting up your steak) and restock the fairly nice block with decent knives.
You say that like it’s a bad thing.