Shop like a chef: Four restaurant pros on where they grocery shop and what they buy

If grocery shopping has ever been a hot topic, it’s right now. Everyone is buzzing about the Korean Jagalchi in Daly City’s Serramonte Center. Mi Rancho, a Mexican outlet that opened in the Bayview last fall, was hailed for availing a “food desert.” Tokyo Central Specialty Market is slated to open this year in Emeryville, and T&T Supermarket, a Canada-based Asian market going into the center at Geary and Masonic, should be ready to go by 2026.

These massive, regionally specific supermarkets, hawking everything from Sempio 701 soy sauce to chile rellenos, are great and all, but what if you want to support the mom and pops (or even the co-ops)? We asked some of the city’s best chefs where they shop when they want to support local businesses — and, more important, what’s in their haul.

Local grocery store: Battambang Market, 339 Eddy St., Tenderloin

Yun will release her first cookbook, “My Cambodia,” in September. If you’re planning on cooking from it (and you should), you’re going to want to follow in her footsteps by going to one of her favorite SF markets. The crammed little shop Battambang has been open since 1987, when a wave of Southeast Asian immigrants settled in the Tenderloin. Yun genuflects at the foot of Golden Mountain soy sauce and stops excitedly to do an impromptu infomercial about her love of shrimp chips. She zeroes in on the instant ramen of her childhood and gives a small lecture on the importance of prahok. “The most traditional Cambodian dishes use this fermented mudfish paste,” she says. “I use it for crudité with a fermented fish dip with pork belly, which is one of the most popular dishes at Lunette.” Read the full story, including Yun’s shopping list. 

Local grocery store: Kukje, 2350 Junipero Serra Blvd., Daly City 
Kapur grew up in Hawai’i, so he knows Asian ingredients. He also knows his way around Kukje, a 20-year-old Korean market. “First, I go to where the banchan and stuff is. And then I wrap around to the rice and grains, and then the meats,” he says. Considering Kukje has everything from banchan to kimbap to Korean fried chicken to rice cakes and noodles to rice cookers — all in a relatively unchaotic and civil setting, with parking — the burning question was posed: Is our hometown Kukje a better bet than H Mart? Kapur demures (but his eyes say it all). So, we’ll answer this for him: Yes, it is. One hundred percent. Read the full story, including Kapur’s shopping list.

Local grocery store: Samiramis Imports, 2990 Mission St., Mission 
The husband-and-wife chefs and owners of Dalida, the justly lauded Presidio-based Eastern Mediterranean restaurant, are willing to head all the way to the Mission to shop at this Middle Eastern mainstay. Founded in the 1950s, Samiramis is now run by brothers Anwar and Wael Hanhan. The smell of coffee beans mixes with the rattle of refrigerators containing the city’s best muhammara. The Ozyilmazes’ love for the market is on full display as they nerd out on the origins of ingredients, from hot pepper paste to pomegranate concentrate, and the qualities of Hamati pita bread. “It’s the best commercial pita bread in the region, in my opinion,” says Sayat. Read the full story, including the Ozyilmazes’ shopping list.

Local grocery store: Rainbow Grocery, 1745 Folsom St., Mission
It is no secret that Pruiett loves to bake. But to many, it’s surprising that the famous pastry chef has been gluten-free for years. (In fact, she has an excellent recipe-driven Substack on the topic, Have Your Cake.) This dietary restriction is just one reason Prueitt heads to Rainbow Grocery, the co-op known since the ’70s as a temple of counterculture food trends and for its amazing bulk bin selection. Today, however, the store is hippie no longer — the culinary world has finally caught up with it. And Prueitt, who’s been shopping there for more than 20 years, knows what to grab, including psyllium husk powder. “Yes, it’s essentially Metamucil — pure fiber,” she admits. But for gluten-free baking, when dough rises, psyllium traps the air and creates gluten-like structure. “People use it for things like pizza dough when they want stretch.” Read the full story, including Prueitt’s shopping list.