Hardware That Cooks

Thirteen Trade Secrets From Food Pros Who Use Pliers, Saws and PVC in the Kitchen

Practicality rules in the restaurant galley, where some tools come straight from the hardware store. A putty knife can make perfect chocolate curls, and simple polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe can mold an elegant appetizer. Chefs find such items are often sturdier or less expensive than the designer widgets sold in kitchen stores.

"So many things you find useful are not necessarily designed for a cook," said Palena restaurant owner and executive pastry chef Ann Amernick. "No matter where you go, your mind says, 'Wouldn't that be neat for [project] X ?' " Amernick and her colleagues pick up pliers, paintbrushes and cans of compressed air at Lowe's, Home Depot and Duron stores.

There are rewarding precedents for cooks who can think inside the handyman's toolbox. After all, today's indispensable stainless-steel Microplane grater morphed from a carpenter's tool; in 1994, a Canadian home cook named Lorraine Lee used her husband's wood rasp to grate orange zest. "Whoever thought of using the wood rasp, you just want to kiss them," said Ris Lacoste, chef at Washington's 1789.

Not every experiment works. Signatures Chef Morou Ouattara tried using chicken wire to create a pattern in chocolate and jellies for presentations -- only to discover that the food stuck to the metal and couldn't be separated without ruining the effect.

But Ouattara is undaunted. "I am still working on it," he said.

Cathal Armstrong, chef and owner of Alexandria's Restaurant Eve, thought he could build a better gingerbread house display (not for eating) using a hot-glue gun. The next morning, he found a collapsed roof -- the warmth of his dining room had kept the glue from adhering to the cookie surface. "It looked like Dorothy's house [from 'The Wizard of Oz']," he said. After that, icing was the gingerbread house's only adhesive.

We asked chefs to suggest a few of their trade-secret favorites, along with how they use them. They were happy to share, but cautioned against adapting tools already in your workshop. Tools for the kitchen need to stay in the kitchen, perhaps in a box of their own:

1. Two- or four-inch-wide boar's hair paintbrush.

USES: Applying egg washes, oil, butter, barbecue sauce and glazes to meat; dusting excess flour off fresh pasta.

WHY CHEFS LIKE IT: Easy to find, generally higher in quality than their made-for-the-kitchen counterparts, according to Jeff Tunks of DC Coast, Tenpenh and Ceiba. He said natural-bristle brushes work better than synthetic because they won't tear phyllo, for example.

CARE AND CLEANING: Wash thoroughly with warm, soapy water.

2. Needle-nose pliers.

USES: Removing stubborn fish scales and pin bones in filleting; placing matchstick potatoes or julienned vegetables.

WHY CHEFS LIKE THEM: David Craig of Black's Bar & Kitchen in Bethesda said pliers from hardware stores are hardier than those from restaurant suppliers. Roberto Donna of Laboratorio del Galileo said pliers make it easier to place small elements on the plate exactly where he wants them.