What's in the chef's pantry at home?

What's behind the doors of a chef's home pantry? One imagines a cornucopia of fancy ingredients: jars of colorful exotic salts, nun-massaged pastas, and the handpicked stamens of rare plants.

In reality, the professional chefs you know and love probably cook with Morton's Kosher, De Cecco spaghetti, and Hellman's mayo when they're off-duty.

The irony is that consumers are heading in the other direction. With so much attention being paid to every detail of our restaurant meals, and food celebrities pointing out the merits of gray salt and pomegranate molasses, consumers are looking for the same quality at home, shelling out big bucks for international preserves, artisan condiments, and heirloom grains. Americans spend more than $720 million a year on olive oil alone, according to the California Olive Oil Council.

Yet in the quest for better home cooking, amateur chefs tend to forget the amazing potential in ordinary, affordable pantry items.

"Great ingredients will always make a great product. But you can still make a great product with simple ingredients - it's what you do with them that matters," says Mark Tropea, chef/owner of Sonata, a BYOB in Northern Liberties.

The secret to maintaining a smart, serviceable pantry is keeping versatile, affordable items on hand. Chef Terence Feury of Fork has a supply of Wegman's unsalted butter in the freezer. Hellman's mayonnaise and a few types of mustard ranging from coarse to Dijon to good old French's yellow are required keep-arounds for adding to dressings, sauces, and sandwiches. There's nothing fancy about them, but they do the trick.

For his house olive oil, Feury prefers Trader Joe's. "For the money, it's the best extra virgin oil out there. I use it for everything, whether it's to finish a potato puree or to fry an egg as a quick snack."

Chef Erin O'Shea of Percy Street Barbecue also buys a budget olive oil. "I might spend more in the restaurant kitchen, but I definitely have lower standards for myself at home. You can pay a lot of money for olive oil, and I don't need that in my salad," she says. She might pay a bit more for her other staples, which include good cheese and salted almonds - these get tossed together with Olivia's organic greens for an easy weeknight meal.