Photo-Illustration: Courtesy of the retailers.
Owning a ton of pots and pans isn’t necessary, even if you cook a lot — but owning a mix of the right ones is. In my years of using and testing many different pieces of cookware in my own home, as well as talking to dozens (and dozens) of professional chefs, recipe developers, and cookbook authors about their own favorites, I have a pretty good sense of how to curate a well-rounded collection. The most important thing is to have a mix of shapes and sizes as well as materials (dependable stainless steel, decent nonstick, and workhorse cast-iron being the most important). The rest should be determined by how much space you have, how often you cook, and how many people you usually cook for.
If you want to go deep on specific categories, I’ve rounded up longer lists of the best skillets, nonstick skillets, Dutch ovens, saucepans, woks, and full cookware sets. Here, I’ve culled the top players from those stories, as well as added some additional enthusiastically recommended picks for good measure (like a rice-specific donabe and dedicated hot pot).
According to the many experts I’ve interviewed over the years, stainless steel is the best material for a saucepan. It conducts heat evenly and is sensitive to variations, plus it’s incredibly durable. And when it comes to stainless-steel pans, All-Clad really can’t be beat. The pots and pans should last you forever if you take care of them (and are the undisputed favorite of chefs, both at home and in professional kitchens) because they’re so durable and thoughtfully designed. When my colleague Rachael Griffiths spoke to experts to find the best-in-class saucepans, the top recommendation was this 1.5-quart model from the brand. Recipe developer Lili Dagan describes it as a gateway piece into nicer cookware, saying “it’s reliable and sturdy, and it will show your parents that you have decent taste.” Patch Troffer, chef and a recipe developer at Row 7 Seeds Co., is a fan of the pour lip, which allows liquid to flow “without any annoying drip,” he says. “I know it’s not a particularly riveting choice, but it will get the job done, always and forever.”
This saucepan from Cuisinart has the same makeup of the All-Clad above: a stainless-steel finish and aluminum core. But it’s markedly less expensive. Strategist senior editor Winnie Yang has owned hers since 2017 and says “the quality is exceptional for the very reasonable price.” She uses it at least five times a week for cooking grains or heating soup and just sticks it in the dishwasher afterward for easy cleaning.
Cast iron can get really hot and retain that heat, go from stove to oven, and even has some nonstick properties if seasoned correctly. And Lodge’s skillet — perhaps the most-known and most-beloved on the market — is just $20. If you only had to cook with this single one for the rest of your life, you’d be pretty okay: You can sear, sauté, braise, fry, and bake in it. (And if you’re unsure of how to keep it in top shape, I wrote an entire guide to cleaning and maintaining it.) I’ve been using mine since I’ve had a kitchen, and Strategist writer Liza Corsillo even declared it the best thing she bought in the last decade. Alon Shaya, a New Orleans–based chef and restaurateur; Daniel Cutler, co-owner and chef of Ronan in Los Angeles; and Lani Halliday, founder and owner of Brutus Bakeshop all sing its praises, too.
Sometimes cast-iron pans can feel heavy. Carbon-steel pans, however, are much lighter — and otherwise behave similarly. (This is the material most woks are made out of, too — much more practical for maneuvering around the stove and picking up and flipping ingredients). “I use mine for everything from paella to pressing Cubanos,” says chef Jordan Wallace. “And over a coal or wood fire camping, these are clutch.”
I’ve used my Zwilling Madura every day for the past several years — and it’s still in great shape. This is huge for a pan that’s made of a material that isn’t built to last forever, like cast iron and stainless steel. I think it hits the perfect sweet spot of being affordable (not the cheapest on the market but also not prohibitively expensive) and still incredibly well made.
Recipe developer and writer Rebecca Firkser says that despite the finish, “when I’ve scraped the pan accidentally, I’ve never seen a scratch on the surface.” It’ll even survive the dishwasher, says recipe developer and cookbook author Molly Baz, who has cleaned hers this way for five years and says it has shown “no signs of degraded coating.” Baz says she also loves how ergonomic the handle feels, noting she “can hold it in one hand without it hurting my wrist or flopping over to the side.”
For half the price of my Zwilling Madura, you can get this eight-inch Cuisinart nonstick pan, which I owned and used regularly for a full three years before I finally said good-bye. For a cheaper pan, that’s a great lifespan. My main qualm is that the handle isn’t quite as comfortable for holding and flipping in comparison to the Zwilling Madura — but it never actively bothered me. And otherwise, the smooth, easy-release surface really works.
If you’re cooking larger quantities of food, like a risotto or seafood pasta, consider a saucier, which is slightly taller than your standard frying pan with sloped sides. Chef Tony Cacace of Long Island City’s Jackson’s Eatery believes it’s the most important pan you should own, “perfect for almost anything that has a longer cooking time but needs a gentle hand,” he says. “It will handle everything from oatmeal and black-rice porridge for breakfast to risotto for dinner and ice-cream bases for dessert.”
For a stainless-steel skillet, I’m once again recommending All-Clad (no surprise). Matt Rodbard, food writer, editor, and cookbook author, notes that the handle is so “iconic” that if you flip through “most cookbooks of the last 20 years, you’ll spot it.” And Robert Guimond, the chef and owner of restaurant Public Display of Affection in Brooklyn, swears by his. “It’s durable and it’s beautiful,” he says. “I often find myself daydreaming about sautéing some gnocchi or scallops with it right after I’m done washing it.”
This is the Dutch oven I’ve owned for seven years — and the one most experts told me is their favorite. Although the Le Creuset model is a classic and popular choice, Staub offers a couple standout features. It has a black interior instead of Le Creuset’s white, so it “looks great with age and doesn’t discolor as easily,” says Colin Wyatt, executive chef at Twelve in Portland, Maine. Recipe developer and food writer Grace Elkus, as well as recipe developer Tara O’Brady are both fans of Staub’s darker color, too — specifically for baking bread, since it helps bread get “that chestnut-brown shade, which lighter interiors aren’t able to achieve,” O’Brady says. The Staub also features a lid with concentric dimples on the bottom. Meherwan Irani, owner of Chai Pani in Asheville, North Carolina, and founder of Spicewalla, likes that these indents promote even condensation inside the pot, saying that “when it’s in the oven for a long time, the Staub seems to keep meat particularly tender and prevents it from drying out in any spot.”
For a fraction of the price of a Staub or Le Creuset, Lodge’s enameled cast-iron Dutch oven is an affordable and well-made favorite of both Irani and Todd Pulsinelli, executive chef of The Chloe in New Orleans. Both chefs say they’ve had theirs for about eight years and still use them all the time with Irani saying that the Dutch oven is “pretty damn near indestructible.” Although he acknowledges that the Staub looks a bit more refined, Irani says he appreciates that the Lodge comes in multiple colors.
If you already own Lodge’s skillet, consider stocking up on its equally beloved cast-iron griddle. It “lives on top of our stove nonstop,” says Gracie Nguyen, the chef and owner of East Side Banh Mi in Nashville. “Bacon, eggs, hash browns, handmade tortillas, pressed sandwiches, searing meat and fish. It gets so hot and cooks super-even.” While I have a flattop from a different company, I can attest to the joy of using this particular piece of cookware: It makes me feel like I’m running a diner, in the best way. One piece of advice: Get yourself a heavy press to go with it.
Joyce Chen is one of the most widely known and trusted names in this category, according to all the pros I’ve talked to, and it’s no surprise: The company introduced flat-bottomed woks to American households, now the norm for what you see on the market here. (This is opposed to rounded models that need a special burner to sit upright.) The one I have — our best overall pick — is made of carbon steel (as many others are, too), which means it’s super-sensitive to heat fluctuations. This is what makes it so ideal for stir-fries and fried rice: It gets blazing hot when the flame is strong but cools down when needed, or when new ingredients are added to the mix. (To paint the picture more vividly: It works beautifully when I want to get a quick sear on a protein and then add vegetables and reduce sauce without burning anything.) It’s not too heavy, but it sits on my stovetop sturdily all the same.
While you could use a shallow stock pot or Dutch oven for simmering broth at a hot-pot party, Strategist contributor Natasha Pickowicz says this double-chambered hot pot “is useful for vegan or vegetarian guests” because the divider keeps their broth separate from the meat eaters. It’ll serve three to four guests, Pickowicz says.
This Toiro donabe is a favorite of Jing Gao, the founder of Strategist-favorite brand Fly by Jing, who says the manual method makes rice taste better. That’s because Toiro’s owner and donabe expert, Naoko Takei Moore, says, this model’s thicker shell provides even and steady heat distribution, while the double lid increases pressure and prevents overboiling. The rounded shape also allows for “the most ideal circulation of water and moisture and steam during cooking,” Takei Moore says. Whereas traditionally shaped donabes require paying more attention to heat levels, this version was designed to be as convenient as an electric model — simply set your flame high for 15 minutes, turn it off, and let it all sit for another 20 to steam. If you’re interested, Toiro also has some of the most stunning standard donabes (meaning, not rice-specific ones) around, which you can shop here.
Chef Brandon Jew of Mister Jiu’s and Mamahuhu loves the Kamacco, which has been produced in Japan by Tsukamoto Pottery since 1864 and is half the price of the Toiro. “It has a double lid that helps concentrate steam to cook rice better,” Jew says. “The pot can go over a low flame on the stove, but recently I took it camping with me and was able to cook rice over an indirect campfire. It can be used for heating things up, like stews, and retains heat really well, so serving food in this vessel will keep food at the table hot longer as well.”
While some people might prefer to build their cookware collection in bits and pieces, if you’re shopping for an entire cookware set, it doesn’t get better than Made In’s, which allows you to choose from three different makeups that include pieces in various sizes, made of different materials. The smallest has a few essentials, the middle one only features stainless steel (but will have you supremely well covered with the assortment), and the largest features every pot and pan you will need to cook any meal you could possibly dream up.
While I won’t detail each and every one, I will say that Made In’s stainless steel works phenomenally well (on par with All-Clad in my opinion), as does its nonstick (again, on par with the Zwilling Madura). And each grouping features one piece I didn’t specifically call out earlier in this story: a fantastic stock pot. It fits a ton but isn’t too large for storage, is durable as can be without being heavy or cumbersome, and has comfortable handles.
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