Once you've bought the commercial pots and pans needed for your restaurant, catering or food service business, you still need commercial cookware supplies to help guarantee success in your kitchen. Whether baking, roasting, sautéing, frying, steaming, simmering or boiling, you won't get very far without the proper supplies for commercial cookware.

Although most cooking utensils, accessories, cleaners and other supplies you'll need cost less than the cookware they'll support, don't discount their importance. The right commercial cookware supplies will help you cook smarter, safer and more efficiently. Remember the following when you buy commercial cookware supplies:

1. Ensure a long life for supplies and cookware for restaurants by training those cooking with and cleaning your cookware proper handling and cleaning techniques/procedures.

2. Buy commercial grade cookware supplies that match your cookware and cooking methods; don't buy metal spoons and whisks to use with nonstick cookware or potholders not designed for high heat if that's how you frequently cook.

3. Save money by finding restaurant cookware supplies that can pull double duty -- potholders that work as trivets or spoodles that serve as ladles and portion control tools.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find cooking accessories that make restaurant cookware safer and easier to handle

Simple items like oven mitts, cool handle sleeves and even pie markers can speed up your process and/or enhance the safety of your operation.

I recommend: Find fabric fire resistant/retardant oven mitts, silicone oven mitts, cool handle sleeves and more at KitchenandRestaurant.com. Kitchen Supply Direct has Lincoln Wear Ever Cool Handles to keep cooks from burning themselves.

Stock your kitchen with the right industrial cookware utensils

With pots and pans for restaurant cooking, you'll need spoons, ladles, flippers, whisks and other utensils. If you're frying or baking, don't forget tongs and spatulas.

I recommend: Choose from a variety of spatulas, turners and scrapers at Wholesale Foodservice Equipment and Restaurant Supply. Order Vollrath high-temperature cooking utensils from Hubert Company. With nylon handles and silicone blades, they remain heat resistant up to 500 degrees. Find just the right tongs from Able Kitchen Restaurant and Kitchen Supplies. Look for all kinds of utensils and cooking tools at CPAPC Restaurant Design & Supply. They even carry spoodles, utensils combining the best features of spoons and ladles for functionality and portion control.

Expand your menu selection with the right commercial cookware accessories

Commercial cookware providers offer all the accessories you'll ever need.

I recommend: Purchase strainers/colanders at Bridge Kitchenware to promptly strain or drain your pan's contents. For single servings of pasta, order the 20-quart pot with pasta inserts from ServU-Online. These inserts let you cook four different pastas simultaneously in the same pot. Find the right sized steamer basket from the Food Service Warehouse. Basket diameters range from 8.5 inches to 22.9 inches; sizes run from 20 to 120 quarts. Order a thermometer like the one at Select Appliance to ensure dishes come out perfectly. The Comark NSF approved-thermometer works up to 550 degrees F, and includes a water-resistant protective rubber boot.

Maintain commercial cookware and bakeware with the right cleaning products

With the right cleaning products, the kitchen staff can keep your industrial cookware and pots and pans for restaurant use clean and grease free. Keeping your kitchen and commercial grade cookware will keep you in good favor with the health department.

I recommend: Find cleaners for commercial pots and pans at AceMart. Keep metal pans looking new with Carbon Off heavy-duty grease/carbon remover from Zesco Products. For information on how to care for/maintain kitchen cookware and supplies, use websites of suppliers of commercial cookware like Food Service Warehouse for tips on cleaning and caring for stainless steel, aluminum and cast iron cookware for kitchens.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If your restaurant or food service operation uses an automatic dishwasher, look for dishwasher-safe commercial cookware supplies. Double check with the company if you don't see that information in the product descriptions.

Commercial cookware is the backbone of any restaurant or other industrial kitchen. Good quality industrial cookware will last for years. Commercial pots and pans are available through restaurant supply vendors. Even though many retail companies, such as Target or Macy's, carry lines of "professional" cookware, this is not the same thing as commercial-grade cookware.

Restaurants use a wide variety of commercial cookware, including sauté pans, baking sheets, pizza pans and soup pots. Along with restaurants, many companies and organizations use commercial cookware, including:

1. Schools and universities

2. Bakeries and other specialty shops

3. Grocery stores, using it to manufacture their own baked or cooked food items

4. Churches, utilizing cookware for fundraisers and community dinners

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Choose the right kind of restaurant cookware for your needs

The type of commercial-grade cookware you buy for your restaurant will depend on the type of food on your menu. If you are offering a lot of pasta dishes and sautéed foods, then you will need to stock up on shallow sauté pans. If you plan to bake all of your own breads, then have plenty of sheet pans handy. Making desserts? Then, you will need mixing bowls, cake pans and custard cups, just to name a few items.

I recommend: Find all the restaurant cookware you need to outfit an entire kitchen at The Restaurant Source and ABestKitchen.com. They carry everything from pots and pans to serving utensils and tablewares.

Know the difference between commercial-grade cookware and everything else

There are many companies that carry cookware which is marketed as 'chef's choice' or 'restaurant quality.' While these pots and pans are more durable (and expensive) than their cheaper counterparts, they are not suited for the heavy-duty wear and tear of a busy restaurant kitchen.

I recommend: BigTray.com carries the real deal. Their commercial cookware and bakeware is made of heavy-duty cast iron and aluminum, guaranteed to stand up to whatever a professional chef might throw at it, or in it.

Buy used commercial-grade cookware with confidence

Commercial pots and pans are pretty hard to break. Therefore, they are an ideal candidate to buy used. You can save hundreds of dollars on used restaurant cookware. The pots, pans and baking sheets may have some scuffs and dings, but they will work just fine.

I recommend: Find plenty of used cookware for restaurants at Business.com. Also check out local auction houses in your area and local restaurant supply houses for used small wares and industrial cookware.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  When you are getting ready to open a restaurant, make a list of each station in your kitchen (sauté, grill, pizza, etc...) After doing this, fill in all the kitchen cookware each station will need to operate. This will help you to remember everything.

Commercial cookware is completely different than their "at-home" counterparts. From the commercial pots and pans to the massive refrigeration machines, to the powerful ovens, commercial cookware is made to cook large quantities of food in a short amount of time. This keeps the customers happy, and the profits high.

Because the functionalities of commercial cookware are so drastically different than what most home chefs are used to, it's important to receive proper commercial cookware education and training. There are plenty of sources of information to help you through the process. Here are a few ideas.

1. Read up on the commercial cookware you'll be using most.

2. Find seminars and lectures provided by the manufacturers of the commercial cookware.

3. Go to school or take classes to learn both basic and advanced operations on your industrial cookware.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Seek out the instruction manual for your industrial cookware

One of the best ways to train and educate the staff on your restaurant cookware is to read the accompanying manuals. If they are not easily at hand they can be either ordered from the commercial cookware manufacturer or downloaded from their official website.

I recommend: Check out the Amana website which is a subsidiary of the Maytag Corporation. Simply select the model number of the commercial cookware and you will be taken to its instruction manual. Also, Wells Bloomfield, which manufacturers the Wells brand of cookware offers a similar feature on its website. Select the name of the appliance and you will be prompted to download a pdf of the instruction manual for the correct kitchen cookware.

Attend seminars for commercial cookware education and training

Many companies offer seminars scattered throughout the nation where their cookware will be used and demonstrated by real chefs and company representatives. Attending these seminars will allow you and your staff to receive an in-depth training on all of the functionalities of a given machine.

I recommend: Check out the official website for Turbo Chef Technologies. They offer training seminars several times a year for their commercial grade ovens. Eloma is another manufacturer of commercial cookware such as ovens which offers training seminars. Click on their "Chef's Cooking Demo's" section and send them an email. You will receive a response of their upcoming events.

Attend culinary school or classes for practice with commercial grade cookware

Attending a culinary school, or restaurant quality culinary classes will not only allow you to become a solid chef, but it will also teach you how to work with a myriad of commercial cookware machines by a myriad of manufacturers. During school, you'll be able to apply the methods and techniques you learned from reading the manual and attending seminars, by actually cooking and baking on the equipment.

I recommend: Check out the Culinary Institute of America for information on attending their training classes. Another top-notch training in how to use cookware for restaurants is the Le Cordon Bleu Schools. Le Cordon Bleu offers an in-depth training program that boasts excellent training that will prepare you for commercial cookware and bakeware in any restaurant.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Stay up-to-date on the latest commercial cookware by constantly attending trade shows, seminars and culinary classes. Technology is constantly pushing the envelope of commercial cookware's capabilities. Keeping well informed will place you a step ahead of your fellow chefs or restaurateurs.