Cook’s Nook

If you can’t find it… this shop will have it! Best stock of everything you could imagine for your kitchen. Plan to spend some time there as so much to see. Service staff is really helpful and pleasant too. Highly recommend Cook’s Nook.

If you cook or bake and like excellent tools, this fabulous kitchen equipment store is for you.
A couple of weeks ago I went into the Norwalk Cook’s Nook looking for «The Chef’s Secret Weapon», an 11 and 7/​8ths inch carbon steel skillet. Lisa McManus had described the delights of this steel skillet, that is «so nonstick that fried eggs slip around in the pan», in the September & October 2015 issue of Cook’s Illustrated magazine.
After reading the article, I was convinced that I needed this amazing skillet. I charged up to the store and asked the knowledgeable owner if he had the Matfer Bourgeat Black Steel Frying Pan. I sort of expected a blank look, but the owner’s eyes lit up as he acknowledged that regretfully he hadn’t got that item, but did know about it. He immediately got on the phone and called the U.S. Headquarters location to see if he could get one. Oof! Sorry, not available to independent stores until the end of the first quarter of 2016!
I left a little deflated and disappointed, but consoled at the lengths the owner had gone to get one. How’d he know the phone number of the Van Nuys, California Mafter Bourgeat Headquarters for the Americas anyway? Impressive!
Wouldn’t you know it but my wife needed a turkey baster for our bird today. She’s very organized and is rarely caught short on cooking needs. But she’d forgotten that she had chucked her old baster after last year’s Thanksgiving. ‘Dear’, she said, ‘would you mind geting one for me?” Are kidding me? I leap at chances to get stuff for the kitchen, whether ingredients or equipment, especially if it’ll please my stymied wife.
After a quick check on the internet for store hours, I called the store. Sure enough, the owner answered. And it was still before store hours! «Yes», he said, «we’re open until mid-​afternoon». Now my eyes lit up, as I headed for the car.
I was mildly surprised to see the owner when I walked in. He immediately said «I got in a few of the pans you were looking for two weeks ago!», as he led me into the store’s depths to the area where he has skillets and high-​end enamel cookware. Yippee! Sure enough, I found the exact one I had been looking for and snatched it up so fast the breeze of my reach fluttered the nearby papers.
So here’re the positives: the owner recognized me, had the pan in the size I wanted (as well as several other sizes), and the price was only slightly more than the one described in the Cook’s Illustrated article, and substantially less (by hundreds) than anything I could find on the internet. Not even my mother-​in-​law could get the smile off my face today! Mission accomplished: I got the baster and my fry pan. Happiness!

I was in Norwalk for a weekend and I went for a walk (yes, I was the only one strolling through suburbia) and stumbled upon this GEM of a store. The labyrinthine boutique is filled to the brim with the best cookware out there, well selected and beautifully organized. I have a weak spot for beautiful bakeware and cookware and I’ve had the good fortune of shopping for my kitchen all over the world and this is one of the best places I’ve ever set foot it. They have the selection and quality of the finest stores in Paris but with lots of ingenious gadgets added it and very lovely people running the place. My shopping expedition was thwarted slightly by my lack of a car (I got here by train from New York) but I would go out of my way to come back to this lovely little establishment. If you want wide aisles and the cheapest things out there, you should stick with bed bath and beyond but if you want excellent quality at great prices and to be helped by knowledgable and lovely people, stop in!