What’s the difference between “Kitchen gear” and “Kitchenware”?

What’s the difference between “Kitchen gear” and “Kitchenware”?

Are they synonyms?

Yes, there are a couple of differences.

1) "Kitchenware" is a more well-recognised term: a separate word, with its own entry in the dictionary. eg https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/kitchenware . "Kitchen gear" is not a widely used phrase and thus is more ambiguous.

2) "Kitchenware" generally refers to utensils (bowls, cutlery, plates, spatulas etc), rather than kitchen appliances (toasters, microwave ovens, blenders etc). The meaning of "kitchen gear" is ambiguous, as I said earlier, but I think that most people would take "gear" to mean either "special clothing" or "machinery".

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/gear

Thus, "kitchen gear" could be taken to mean "the special clothes you wear in the kitchen", which is more applicable for professional chefs but could arguable apply to an apron, for example, or "kitchen machinery", such as toasters, food processors, blenders etc.

"Kitchen gear" could apply to kitchenware (eg a wooden spoon) too, because, as I said, it's very ambiguous. So there's a potential crossover, but the two things are not the same.