Dalstrong

Founding story

Built by people who take real work seriously

In 2014, I founded Dalstrong with a single mission: Craft high-performance culinary tools that ignite imagination and out-perform anything you put to work. Today, headquartered in Tampa Bay and Toronto, and partnering with world class local and international makers, we keep pushing the limits of design and manufacturing, so you can push yours at the cutting board, the grill, and beyond.

Dalstrong tools are built by chefs, pitmasters, designers, and engineers who take real work seriously — and believe our tools should excite, empower, and perform under pressure, every single day.

For too long, culinary products have grown sterile, generic, and disconnected from the feeling of real cooking. We’re changing that, one tool at a time.

CEO and Founder Dave Dallaire spent a lot of time working in professional kitchens and restaurants in his youth, watching and feeling the passion, excitement, and uncompromising drive for perfection. He watched line cooks and sous chefs break their backs, covered in grease and blisters, with no rest and no glory. Where were the exciting culinary tools to match their spirit?

Dalstrong was born from this insight, to better serve the modern needs and tastes of the men and women who are the heartbeat of the industry. To give culinary artists tools that take them to places beyond their imagination, to inspire limitless creativity with their cooking, and have more fun while doing it. We gather inspiration from things around us that fuel our spirit and sense of adventure, things like ancient warrior cultures, fantasy weapons, and fighter jets. We searched the globe for the best materials and manufacturing partners to execute on this vision and have never stopped raising the bar in this quest.

Dalstrong believes in the power of cooking to unite us and bring out the best in people. To break barriers and build community. The tools we create are made to empower your creative journey and, in some cases, take your professional career to the next level. In product innovation, in beauty and functionality, in unlimited culinary creativity and self expression, in professional and recreational pursuits, in the love that is felt when we feed ourselves and our family … There Are No Limits.

That same energy that ignited our company — scrappy, unrelenting, hungry, laser-focused — is still what fuels us today. What started as a one-person show funding our first knife orders on credit card debt has now grown to a fierce global team, relentlessly driven to make a mark in the culinary world. People who believe in their ability to shape and change the world around them through our products, our creativity, and our community. It’s never being satisfied or content with what we’ve done. We don’t pat ourselves on the back. We don’t rest. We’re never done learning, growing, optimizing, pushing the boundaries on design and functionality. We’re always planning our next move.

Professional kitchens are hidden spaces filled with passion, rage, pain, euphoria, and innovation that few people ever see. There’s a fire that burns within chefs, pitmasters, and line cooks as they try to keep pace with relentless demand, always pushing themselves and each other for greatness. No part of the team can lag or falter. Each plate has to be better than the last one. Nothing less than the best is acceptable.