Cookware Used At Home?

[alanryder]

Watching the food shows on TV, I see the most wonderful meals come from the most beat up, grungiest cookware used in restaurant kitchens. Don't see much shiny All-Clad used there except when it's provided for the show. For the chefs on the board, what cookware do you prefer, and use in your own home kitchens?

[mudbug]

Hello alanryder, and welcome to Cheftalk!

I believe you'll find a good response to your questions at the following post Buying Cookware. If you have further questions or comments, just ask!

[Suzanne]

Hi, AlanRyder! The restaurants I've worked in mostly used **** because the people buying were not the people cooking. At home, I use LeCreuset and AllClad, because nothing stands up as well. Read through the threads here, as mudbug linked, and you'll see what we like .

[kuan]

Like Suzanne, AllClad and Le Creuset and Le Creuset knockoffs with a smattering of Magnalite anodized, Mauviel, and "restaurant quality" aluminum pans thrown in. I also have some blue steel pans. They're great for searing and actually, making crepes.

You don't need million dollar pans to cook well, and many restaurants, if they're halfway concerned with the cookware go with a sandwich bottom only pan like Sitram... and even then only in the prep kitchen Stainless and copper is real difficult to maintain in a restaurant. You should see the abuse that these pans take, sometimes they can fly halfway across the room into a sink, or they get plunged into cold water as soon as they come off the fire smoking hot. They sit on a burner stacked four high and the bottoms and sides get all scraped up when the cooks start juggling for space on the range. The outside is often a layer of carbon but who cares, you don't cook with the outside part of the pan. You don't want to do that to your $100 pan do you?

Kuan