SpiceLines

E. Dehillerin's signature copper rooster stands proudly in the window of this
venerable cookware store. Parisians have been buying their copper pots and
pans, pastry molds and other kitchen tools here for almost two centuries.

Making bouillabaisse for your 50 closest friends? That heavy-duty 50-liter traditional copper stockpot would look just great simmering away on the back burner of your sleek Viking cooktop.

Or maybe you only want to braise a single lamb shank for your supper. Wouldn’t a chic black Staub cocotte be perfect on a table for one?

And do the warm madeleinettes at Café Daniel in New York make your heart flutter with remembrance of things past? Here’s the very mold you need to make 20 equally tender little memories.

Ah, Dehillerin. Everywhere I turn, there are pots, pans and tools that I never knew I needed. Certainly you can find some of what Dehillerin sells in Paris at home in the U.S. And what you can’t locate—say, that handsome copper turbot kettle--the store will be happy to ship to you for a monstrous price. The downloadable catalogue on its website is chock full of knives, pastry molds and copper kitchenware in enough sizes and shapes to set any cook’s imagination spinning.

But then you wouldn’t have the pleasure of strolling down la rue Coquilliere on a sunny spring day for a personal visit to Paris’s famed temple of cookware, family-owned since 1820. You would entirely miss the store’s emblematic copper coq, perched proudly on a golden orb, beak in the air. (Definitely not for sale.) And you would certainly not have the fun of dealing with the persnickety smock-clad middle-aged clerks. One of them has just burst into an aria of his own invention, and is now hovering at my elbow, breathing wine fumes at 10:42 A.M.

I love to go to Dehillerin for the sheer pleasure of trawling its dusty shelves for the odd and unexpected kitchen tool. I’ll never need an expandable five-wheeled pastry cutter, but I am sorely tempted by the hatelets, or decorative skewers (even at 23 euros each). I especially like the silvery ones with the leaping hare and the scaly fish. A copper paella pan for 100 is probably not in my future, but down in the dimly lit basement, I’ve found those black single-serving Staub cocottes (45 euros each). I’m imagining a dinner party, six of us simultaneously lifting the self-basting lids to reveal perfectly braised lamb shanks with cinnamon and preserved lemon peel…

But what I’d really love is a beautiful copper tarte tatin pan—no doubt, inspired by the delectable, caramelized upside down apple tart Odile served at dinner the other night. Just as I’m reaching for my Visa card, I remember her husband’s comment: “Ce n’est pas la poele, madame, c’est la technique…” ("It’s not the pan, but the technique…")

OK, I’m settling for an Inox whisk. Not exactly the stuff of dreams, but very, very practical.

E. Dehillerin, 18 and 20, rue Coquillière - 51, rue Jean- Jacques Rousseau - 75001 Paris. Télephone : 01 42 36 53 13. Fax : 01 42 36 54 80. Website: www.dehillerin.com