kitchen workshop: the well-equipped cupboard

Part Two: Pots & Pans & Everything Else…

Now that I’ve given you some ideas about which tools you might like to have in your kitchen drawers, here are my thoughts on pots and pans, et al. This category, more than any other–except maybe knives–is where you really want to make a good investment. A good set of pots and pans should last you about a lifetime. So it pays to spend the extra bucks to get the best quality you can afford. I’ll also offer some advice on bowls, boards and small appliances. Get out your pens and paper, boys and girls… I hope this info is helpful.

Cookware

In my opinion, All Clad is the gold standard for pots and pans. Their cookware is multi-ply, with a solid aluminum core which best conducts and evenly distributes heat. Your food will cook evenly and won’t burn. The stainless steel exterior is easy to clean and maintain. If you can spring for it, the best way to purchase cookware (and knives too, for that matter) is to buy a prepackaged set. You certainly get more bang for your buck that way, but you have to be careful that it has pieces you’re truly going to use. These are my suggestions…

Saucepans are great for boiling potatoes, rice, heating up sauce, blanching vegetables…get the idea? Great to have both the 2 quart and 4 quart sizes.

My 6 quart saute pan is the workhorse of my kitchen. Its high sides make it perfect to use for pasta sauce, and of course, any time I saute meat or fish. The smaller 4 quart is better suited for vegetable dishes, but, honestly, I don’t use mine that much.

You’ll need fry pans to brown and flip: 12″ and 10″ are great sizes to own, but if you had to pick just one, I suggest the 12″.

I’m not a fan of nonstick pans–there’s been too much controversy about the chemicals they’re made with lately. And I really don’t see the need for them, except for cooking one thing: eggs. Try to cook eggs in anything but nonstick, and it’s a mess. I use my 8″ nonstick skillet just about every day to cook my egg whites; you’ll want a 10″ one too if you cook eggs for more than one person. But be sure to replace these as soon as you see any damage to the nonstick surface–not worth the risk of exposing yourself to anything.



To make stock and cook pasta, you should have a nice size stock pot–mine is 7 quart. I like to use this stainless dutch oven (5 1/2 quart size) for boiling ravioli, creating soup or stew. Of course, I also have a 12 quart stock pot that I use to cook up big batches of chicken stock, and it also comes in handy when we make lobster (yum!).

Have I mentioned how much I love my cast iron pan? I really love my cast iron pan! A well-seasoned one like mine is pretty much nonstick, conducts heat like no other, and gets an amazing sear on anything you want to saute. Maintenance is a little different than other pans: you don’t want to use too much soap on it, just use a Scotch Brite sponge, dry well with paper towel, and season by pouring in a drop of vegetable oil (not olive oil, which can turn rancid) and coating the inside surface well.

Speaking of cast iron, there’s nothing like Le Creuset. I know these are a splurge, but you will treasure them as I do mine. This porcelain enameled cast iron cookware cooks beautifully and cleans up even better. The piece that gets the most action in my kitchen is my 5 1/2 quart white dutch oven. I use it to make osso buco, chili, soups, any recipe I can think of. My lime green 5 quart braiser is the perfect shape to braise chicken with 40 cloves of garlic or even a paella.

And you gotta have a roasting pan. Mine is actually the small size, which I find is more than adequate for roasting chickens, rib roasts, or even a 16 pound turkey.


Grill pans are great for indoor grilling fajitas, burgers and vegetables for paninis. The double burner size does double duty, and it’s good to have a grill press too. And, yes, this is nonstick, but I’d prefer if it weren’t. It only comes this way.

To clean all of your cookware, I highly recommend Barkeeper’s Friend. It will remove any food residue with little elbow grease, especially if you use it with my fav Scotch Brite sponges (by 3M)–yellow with the green scrub pad for heavy duty work, and blue on blue for non-scratch.

& Everything Else…

More necessary tools in the kitchen: rimmed baking sheets do multiple tasks. I use them for roasting vegetables, broiling fish, baking cookies. Make sure to get the heavyweight versions to last. I like to have a variety of cutting boards, mostly polypropylene, which I can throw in the dishwasher to sanitize. My big wooden board has a well around the perimeter to catch juices when carving meats.

There never seem to be enough mixing bowls when you’re cooking up a storm. 

My go-to set are these green melamine bowls, which have a silicone ring on the bottom to keep them steady and a handy pour spout. A graduating set of glass bowls are perfect when doing “mise en place” (prep everything in advance) for a recipe with a lot of ingredients; stainless bowls work great when baking and using a hand mixer.

For straining and draining, there’s all sort of colanders and strainers to choose from. 

But the queen of all strainers, the chinois, is a true luxury to own. If you make lots of soups and stocks, you’ll bless the day you bought it. Make sure to include the wooden pestle, which  helps squeeze out every last drop.

And speaking of luxury, here are a few special pieces that I use once in a while. True splurges for sure, and not really necessary, but they do dress up my kitchen even when they’re not in use. A copper double boiler gently melts chocolate; this copper saucepan makes the perfect risotto (with a little help from me).

Finally, a few small appliances no cook should be without. Food processors are life savers when you have big jobs to do: great for chopping, grating, pureeing. Love my mini processor for whipping up pestos, salsas and dressings. Can you believe my Osterizer blender is 25 years old? It’s still going strong!

I have a coffee grinder that’s used just for spices–grinding toasted spices is great to release their essential oils. And there’s nothing like an immersion blender when you have a big pot of soup to puree, if you want to avoid a lot of muss and fuss.

Questions, comments? Please feel free to use the comments section below, which has been amended to make it more user-friendly. I love hearing from you. Now that your kitchen is well-equipped, you have no more excuses…get cooking!

Coming soon in the Kitchen Workshop Series: The Well-Stocked Pantry