Congrats on your remodel. I have always loved my All-Clad pots and pans (still holding up perfectly after 25 years of hard use). I celebrated the arrival of my new pro-style range last winter by buying one of the new All-Clad D5 pans from Williams Sonoma. It distributes the heat produced by my more powerful stove beautifully. I couldn't be happier with it. I also have a few De Buyer steel skillets that I love. They "season" very well, almost like cast iron.

All-Clad is very good.

I think Fissler is the best.

As far as learning about rotisserie I suggest grilling/bbq forums.

Such as

Here is a link that might be useful: BBQ Source Forums

Personally I don't like the handles of the All Clad pans. They are not very comfortable. I know others feel the same way. I have read here on GW and on Chowhound the rave reviews of Tramontina, from Walmart. It is tri-ply, just like AllClad, made in the USA. Perhaps you can check out a piece and see what you think. If you do a google search you will find the information, also do a search on GW, there was a long thread about it too.

I love using Le Crueset on my Capital. I also love my Sitram pans (they are used at Le Cordon Bleu), I didn't buy them at regular retail prices, I found them new at a consignment store (deal of the century).

Look how nice the Le Crueset looks on the Capital:
{{gwi:1424082}}

I like any good 18/10 tri-ply stainless pan. Make sure the inner layer goes up the sides, though. Tramontina is good IF you get their top line, I have heard their other lines are junk. I just ordered a stainless pan designed by Marcus Samuelsson. I felt it fitting since I ordered a bluestar. The price was right, too.

http://www.marcuscookware.com/

I have done years of the non-stick pans, mostly calphalon, and the non-stick comes off. Also they are not oven safe to a high degree like the stainless. Hot pan, cold oil, no stick on the stainless pan. Barkeepers friend cleans the pan to a new-like shine. I like to use metal utensils to cook, which you can use on the stainless.

I agree that All-Clad cookware is good, and agree with Beekeeperswife that the handles are uncomfortable, but I understand the brand-new AC line called "D4" sold only at Williams-Sonoma has a much improved handle.

If you want to spend $$$, the Demeyere (either their Apollo or Atlantis lines) leave the rest in the dust. I've also cooked with the Fissler that Deeageaux mentioned--it's very good, but Demeyere still leaves it in the dust, particularly on those pans that have a disk bottom. Be prepared to pay for Demeyere, no discounting.

I love the Tramontina that MoeLarrycurly mentioned. You won't believe the quality for the price. It's also a favorite of Cook's Illustrated. To be more specific than Moelarrycurley, you can only get the good Tramontina, which is the "Triply", at Walmart of all places. Really, this stuff is great. I particularly like the 5 qt. dutch oven and the 12 qt. stock pot. The Tramontina 12 qt. stock pot is triply all the way up the high sides--even All-Clad's 12 qt. stock pot doesn't have the triply go all the way up.

Get at least one Le Creuset dutch oven (they call it a french oven), either the 5.5 qt. or 7.25 qt. Buy it at a Le Creuset outlet store; you'll save hundreds and you won't be able to see why the pot is at an outlet store.

I switched to All-Clad and Viking a year ago and couldn't be happier.

Both brands are moderately expensive but you'll love it. One warning, it doesn't matter where you purchase, the price will be the same.

Viking would be my 2nd choice.

Both a manufactured in the United States and offer superior results. Because both are so well constructed you will find you have to turn down heat on a stove top once the contents have come up to temperature.

I own a cheap 12 quart stock pot for mostly cooking things like artichokes and seafood (live lobster and crab) and also deep frying. For the things I prepair I wouldn't waste money on anything expensive.

The """ D5 """ sold by Williams-Sonoma is 5-ply and is available either polished or brushed finish stainless-steel, while the standard All-Clad is 3-ply.

IF YOU NEED ANY NON-STICK COOKWARE GO FOR SCANPAN OR SWISS DIAMOND brands (available online from various cookware sites). Both stand up to metal utensils.

Don't fall into the trap of purchasing a matched set of cookware. Purchase by the piece to fit your needs.

Happy cooking

Kat

Just looked at Demeyere cookware. Hmmm.

I hope that the day I decide to spend $350 on a skillet is the day my wife "kisses me upside the cranium with an aluminum baseball bat," heaves me into a shopping cart, wheels me to the front stoop of a culinary school and leaves me there with the $350 stuck in my shirt pocket.

Any pro chefs out there? How many TOP NOTCH restaurants really use cookware that costs in the 3-digits apiece? If I'm wrong I'm wrong and I'm fine with that. But I'd be shocked.

(Yes, I do realize there is good cookware and bad. And at $125 I do own a 3-digit All-Clad skillet which I enjoy. But seriously.)

"...All-Clad and Viking a year ago and couldn't be happier.
Both brands are moderately expensive but you'll love it. One warning, it doesn't matter where you purchase, the price will be the same."

At full retail, yes. My favorite sources for All Clad are Bed, Bath and Beyond with their ubiquitous 20% off coupons, and eBay.

I use all-clad. The only time I find the handles awkward is with something like the 15" saute pan. You can buy it discounted at the link below. They are factory seconds, but you'd be hard pressed to find the deformity. They also have sales twice a year at even bigger discount.

Here is a link that might be useful: cookware-n-more

Foodonastump - I warned clearly in my post that Demeyere is very expensive. I also offered excellent less expensive alternatives. Your contempt was unwarranted, as I was offering both high and low end cookware alternatives. It seems you don't understand what are the merits of cookware such as Demeyere, and therefore summarily dismissed it.

Your question, "How many TOP NOTCH restaurants really use cookware that costs in the 3-digits apiece?" is misguided. Actually, I have a good friend who is a professional chef. He went to chef school in Switzerland, apprenticed for years at restaurants in Paris, and now works in a high-end french restaurant in New York. Cookware in restaurant kitchens get so used, banged around, and abused, and are exposed to much higher btu's than cookware in homes. They are on the fire or in the oven for 6-8 hours a day, cooking multiple dishes. Consequently, restaurants need to buy new pans every 3 or 4 months. "3-digit" cookware as you put it would have no place there. So they buy inexpensive pans, often made of cast aluminum instead of stainless steel. Foodonastump, you too can buy inexpensive cookware at any restaurant/professional cookware website like wasserstroms.com. My friend uses the cheap pans in the restaurant, but at his home, he uses Demeyere.

Most residential cooks want their cookware to look nice in their kitchen, be easy to clean, even dishwasher-safe. Also, most home cooks do not have the professional ranges found at restaurants, and many home cooks do not have the skills of a professional chef. It helps a lot to have really good cookware that will prevent burning, cook the food evenly, retain heat properly, be a nice weight in the hand, and not warp. Furthermore, while Demeyere and Le Creuset are expensive, they will last likely your lifetime of cooking. $350 over a lifetime is a good investment. Also, you shouldn't buy a set of Demeyere, but one or two key pans, like a fry pan, saute pan, or 4-qt. saucepan. Fill out the rest of your cooking needs with less expensive cookware like the Tramontina Triply I mentioned.

My advice is to figure out which size pans you use the most and buy the best quality you can swing for those few pans and keep and re-use what you have in the other sizes and kinds. Put your money in sauce and saute pans/skillets where you use higher heat and fats rather than tall stockpots where you're either simmering something or just boiling water for pasta. I know I use the same 3 or 4 pans every day, and then the rest of them might get between one use per week to one per month.

I had an OK-to-pretty-good stainless European cookware set before I got my higher-BTU range. It was quickly clear that I didn't need to replace the Volrath stainless stockpots as the ones I had worked just fine> But sauce and saute pans were a different story. I bought a couple of W-S on-special All-Clads (this was 20 years ago) and quickly found that they made a big difference in my (amateur cook's) control of the higher fire-power. Since then I've added some more AC (usually at sales or the good deals at W-S outlets). Truthfully, I don't actually use all of them equally. I find my 2 1/2 qt windsor pan, a 1 1/2 qt sauce/saute pan, 4 qt sauce pan and the big, 6 or 8 qt saute pan are all I really need.

I think they have made a change in their handle design or finishing standards. I find the older handles to be better fitting (and smoother) than the newer ones, so I'm glad I'm not in the market for more.

Aside from the AC, I use a range of 2 or 3 ancient cast iron skillets/chicken fryers and a dutch oven (inherited). I fequently use my beloved Pyrex glass double boiler (I can't the hang of the D-B insert that came with one of my AC sauce pans - I really need to see the water.) And I have a group of big to really, really large (I am a home canner) stainless Volrath stock pots (purchased at restaurant supply house). I have a few 50+ year old Revere Ware sauce pans that I grew up with that I occasionally fish out for old times sake. (But you have to watch'em like a hawk if you've got your cook-brain programmed in AC mode.)

Cookware is something that's so tempting to me - and I find it hard to resist buying other pieces in the line as new ones are added. But I try do so since when I have bought extra pieces, they usually don't get as much use as I thought and then I kick myself for spending so much $$. And you definitely should avoid buying a full set of any one line.

However, for my every day, core, AC pans, the $100-$300 -apiece! - they cost doesn't seem exhorbitant (in retrospect, I remember being pretty shocked at the time) because they are reliable, well-performing tools that rarely go a day without seeing some action. Aside from some evidence of use (a stirring patina and scratches on the bottom from burner grates) they look and perform as good as new. I can see no reason they won't give me another 30 years of service and then I'll leave 'em to somebody in my Will.

I don't own anything with a non-stick coating. I don't think the coatings are healthy (no matter what the manu. says) and, anyway, I've never seen the point since I do just fine with my plain stainless and cast iron pots, without any evidence of sticking problems. I don't have a DW, so I would definitely know if I had the stickies. If a pan has a crust on the bottom when I plate, I dump some hot water in the pot and let it soak while I eat, then a nylon, or worst-case, a stainless scrubbie takes care of it when I wash up. And believe me, I am certainly not an expert cook who never scortches or burns things. ('Course when you've got a couple of hundred bucks invested in the pan, no way are you not going to take the trouble to clean it up!)

Unless you exclusively use well-seasoned cast iron skillets (and will continue to do so), I think the first better-quality pot I'd suggest purchasing is a saute pan, or french skillet. That way you can try out the new cookware line with a pan that's intended to be used with high heat and a bit of fat. That's where I see the biggest difference in cooking technique and success among the different pans. The next would be a larger sauce pan where you'd be sweating some veg. or actually working with a sauce. You won't see to much of a difference with a "sauce" pan that's primarily used for boiling or reheating liquids or steaming veg. It's mostly where you're actively using heat in the transformational alchemy of cooking, not simply boiling fluids, where you'll see the biggest difference with your new range and better quality pots.

L

Ok Shannon, you're right, I shouldn't knock what I don't know. Just a word of caution though - Demeyere's use and care manual recommends against using the dishwasher, for long life.

What a great range of responses - thank you everyone! I have so much to research now.

I was interested to see the response about Swiss Diamond - I've often seen them advertised in catalogs, and they look really nice, but I've never heard anyone talk about them.

Tired

I have several stainless AllClad pieces. They cook well, look good, and clean up well. I would have preferred French copper for regular cooking but they look terrible when tarnished and can't deal with cleaning copper......
I do have one copper French pan, Mauviel?, windsor sauce pan style, which is a dream for doing reductions. (it always looks terrible) Stainless simply does not match the performance of copper.
I have too many (3) LeCrueset Dutch ovens. One of them is gigantic and I need to call in a hefty beefy strong arms to life it up the to the cook top.
I also have cheaper department store bottom clad SS pans. Good enough to boil pasta, and not so heavy to drain when getting over to the sink.
the extra weight is the downside of LeCruset.
My French blue steel crepe pan (De Buyer) is awesome for weekend crepes. I also make omelets on it and it does not stick.
I banned non-stick pans from my house.
Every kitchen needs a good seasoned cast iron skillet. I use Lodge for that.
Calphalons anodized aluminum all ended up in garbage cans or Goodwill over the years. They were good 20 years ago when there was not much else out there. I can't have non-DW pots and pans in my kitchen. Too much PITA.

They all function well enough for their intended purposes.

Cookware should be selected with cooking style in mind. For example, if you make crepes regularly, you need a good crepe pan. I would not get an AllClad or a nonstick. I would get a French one that have been made the same way for couple hundred years.... If you make braising type of dishes, again, you want the kind that know how to do it well, ie LeCruset.

Good luck.

What's great about both Swiss Diamond and ScanPan is neither uses Teflon.

If you are considering purchasing a magnetic induction cooktop (I'd love one) ScanPan came out this year with a new line that will work with it.

When I was in the Williams Sonoma store in Portland Oregon last year to 'acquire' some AllClad with gift cards received from credit card points (smile) another shopper complained to me that her 'non-stick AllClad' had been a real disappointment.

About discounted AllClad - the 5-ply cookware sold exclusively through Williams-Sonoma, is never discounted, unfortunately.

Demeyere is manufactured in Belgium. All Clad is mostly manufactured in the U.S., however, lids, stock pots, and certain other pieces are manufactured in China. Different pieces of Tramontina are manufactured in different countries. You have to look at the bottoms of individual pieces. Personally, I find Viking superior to All Clad, but the line does not offer as many different pieces. I suspect it's manufactured by Demeyere to Viking specs as it's made in Belgium. I still like my French copper pots and pans the best. My Viking fry pans and Le Creuset French ovens are favorites, too. I also like my Staub pieces, but they do not have the fabulous guaranty of Le Creuset and I have heard that their quality control is lacking, although I have not experienced this.