The 12 Best Cookware Brands Worth Investing In
It's time to live out your Michelin-starred fantasy.
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Cookware has an ancient history—like everything else: Pottery was used for cooking in ancient China, and the Greeks were already using casserole to make moussaka in the fourth century BC. However, the Vikings changed the game when they made a pot for cooking over the fire. Then pans and skillets started coming into play just about everywhere in the Middle Ages. Creating new types of cookware then seemingly came to a halt, and all that was left for innovation was the material. Royalties certainly used the lavish copper, but for commoners who simply wanted to cook better food, aluminum, stainless steel, and cast iron were added to their kitchen shelves over the centuries. And today, some brands are leaning in the direction of non-stick ceramic that's easy to clean, and we're not mad at it.
We hope you enjoyed that nice little chronicle of cookware, and now for the fun part (we think): shopping. You'll need to start with the right types and materials of cookware for your own kitchen. You’ll want pots and pans that can stand the sizzling, last the long haul, and elevate your recipes. By extension, you’ll want the best cookware brands on your stovetop, not the ones you snatched on sale at Amazon or Target simply because you needed a skillet or oven at the time.
However, you don’t need to hoard a dozen pieces of cookware, just the right ones. Below, we’ve got 12 best cookware brands that produce the right stuff, from D2C viral newbies like Caraway and Our Place to old monies like Le Creuset and Lodge to cookware titans like All-Clad. Whether it's a cookware brand for professional-grade chefs or nifty new inventions for your modern cook, your road to a chef starts from here.
Le Creuset - Best for Dutch Ovens
Where to Buy: Le Creuset, Amazon, Williams Sonoma, Sur La Table, Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Wayfair, Bed Bath & Beyond
Price Range: $$$ to $$$$
There's something about Le Creuset's colorful, sheeny dutch ovens—a je ne sais quoi quality, as the French would say—that have made the brand a staple at bakeries, cafés, weddings, or even upscale retailers like Bloomingdale's or Saks. Maybe it's because of its almost a centennial's history in manufacturing enameled cast iron cookware. Maybe it's because its pots and ovens are actually high-performance in durability, shock-resistance, and heat retention. Or maybe it's just because of how adorning its cookware looks on stovetop, and hence every course that comes out of these jewelry-like crafts taste like heaven on earth.
Caraway - The "I Went Viral" Cookware Brand
Where to Buy: Caraway, Bed Bath & Beyond, Nordstrom
Price Range: $$ to $$$
Caraway goes big on the easy-to-organize attitude and the Instagrammable allure. Besides smart organizational feats like magnetic-bottom racks and smart handles that'll keep the cookware tidy in the cabinet, Caraway also makes its ceramic pieces in bright arresting hues that have earned them the "I went viral" insignia on social media. But the brand is not without substance; it boasts itself as a healthy nonstick alternative that isn't tainted by chemicals or toxins. Its line of products, however, is rather limited, since Caraway is about the essentials only lifestyle.
Our Place - Best for Small Kitchen
Where to Buy: Our Place
Price Range: $$
Editor's Choice: The Beautiful, 4-Piece Pan That You'll Use for 95% of Your Meals
Our Place is another rather Instagrammable brand whose cookware really went viral. It's one of the newest players on this list, so it doesn't offer a lot—only two products, a pot and a pan. But they pack some of the newest, niftiest feats out there, so you won't need anything else. Its thing is multitasking. Take its signature, cult-fav Always Pan, e.g., an all-in-one marvel that can replace eight other cookware products and do braising, searing, steaming, sautéing, frying, boiling, and even serving in one. Its latest Perfect Pot is just as ingeniously versatile, if not more. Thus, should you find yourself dwelling in a dense apartment or dorm or simply not having enough space, Our Place is right for your place.
Made In - The "Bang for Your Buck" Cookware Brand
Price Range: $$ to $$$
Editor's Choice: Give Your Microwave a Rest and Cook Everything—Yeah, Everything—in This Perfect Wok
If you're looking for a cookware brand trusted by chefs and restaurants, then something from Made In is not only recommended, but required. For starter, its pieces—including all different kinds of pans and pots known to mankind, as well as cookware sets— seem surprisingly reasonable considering the quality and durability they offer. They're also made to professional level—meaning chefs in restaurants actually use them—in materials from carbon steel to stainless clad. (And then there's the wok that we just had to endorse.) Really, even if you're a budding home chef, Made In will make you feel like you've made it.
Material - Best for Essentials
Where to Buy: Material, Nordstrom, Bespoke Post, Huckberry
Price Range: $ to $$
Editor's Choice: The Cutting Board That Brings Honest-to-Goodness Excitment to Prep Work
Here's a way of stocking up kitchen cabinets you'd appreciate: Only buying cookware based on intention and necessity, not because you feel like it. Material tends to this essential-only, excess-averse way of cooking: If you need to make gravies or meat sauce, Material offers a saucepan and sauce pot; you can also use them to stir-fry ground beef or make omelettes. And, yes, Material offers a coated non-stick pan too, that you can use to chop a chicken breast or flip a pancake. And at Esquire, we especially love its colorful, sustainable cutting board that makes prepping something to look forward to.
Lodge - Best for Cast Iron
Where to Buy: Williams Sonoma, Amazon, Sur La Table, Walmart
Price Range: $ to $$
Editor's Choice: The Upgraded Lodge Cast Iron Skillet With More Character
Cast iron is legendary for its low melting temperature specs, which makes it superb for heat retention. Many cookware brands on this list make cast iron, but none do it fairer than Lodge, which does affordable cast iron—like Quentin Tarantino does barefoot shots. First, there's Lodge's 120-years-experience that renders each of its piece an heirloom-worthy cookware. Then, there's the uniformity: Lodge's pans, griddles, dutch ovens, pots, grills, skillets, sets, and beyond all come in a trademark glossy cast iron black. But there's also the versatility that comes naturally with the material: For grilling steak over a campfire or baking cornbread in the oven. Anything goes.
HexClad - Best Celebrity-Endorsed Cookware Brand
Where to Buy: HexClad, Amazon, Walmart
Price Range: $$ to $$$
Gordon Ramsey personally uses HexClad at home. And Oprah has its stainless steel pan as one of her favorite things. And we—Esquire—consider it as one of the best cookware brands ever, with the limelight going to the brand's technology-backed, patented laser-etched hexagon hybrid cooking surface that's both nonstick and stainless steel. Yes, you heard that right: Stainless steel can be nonstick now, made possible by HexClad. This is some serious stuff that even Gordon Ramsey was impressed—after some yelling, of course—and called HexClad "the Rolls Royce of pans”.
Abbio - Most Durable Cookware Brand
Price Range: $$ to $$$
A dedicated home cook will want cookware that can even last the Last Supper, and they can find it over at Abbio. The best way to exemplify the Abbio robustness is through its pan which features a fully-clad stainless steel and aluminum construction, or its nonstick, four-layer coating. Everything you put in it will get heated up fast, cooked evenly, and slide out smoothly. Abbio's cookware is also professional-grade, as well as a breeze to clean.
All-Clad - The "I Have Everything" Cookware Brand
Where to Buy: Williams Sonoma, Amazon, Sur La Table, Bed Bath & Beyond, Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom, Food52
Price Range: $$$ to $$$$
The most famous one is always the hardest one to write about—we're, unfortunately, not an encyclopedia. But we'll do our best, which is to call All-Clad, the 51-year-old Pennsylvanian cookware maestro that's now a giant in the market, the have-it-all one-stop-shop brand. While All-Clad is known for its stainless steel pots and pans—it's perhaps the best fully bonded stainless steel cookware brand out there—there's also ceramic, nonstick, and hard anodized, available in sets or à la carte, from kettles to 12-quart stockpot. Its pieces are on the pricier side, so consider every All-Clad you purchase a lifetime investment, because they are—long-lasting, high-performance, and classic investment for cooks of all levels.
Ayesha Curry - Best Celebrity Cookware Brand
Where to Buy: Amazon, Wayfair, Bed Bath & Beyond
Price Range: $ to $$
Ayesha Curry—the cookbook author and cooking television personality, plus Stephen Curry's wife—makes a case for why celebrity-worship can turn out quite conducive, in the kitchen, at least. Her kitchenware brand puts form like enamel on steel, and function like enhanced nonstick together. And its roster is not short of stuff for stocking up, from pots to ovens to grills to bakeware to cast iron to bacon grease jars—the last of which is super gifty. The Hard Anodized Collection is a standout because it makes cooking rather effortless.
Smithey - Best-Looking Cookware Brand
Where to Buy: Smithey, Food52, Huckberry
Price Range: $$ to $$$
Editor's Choice: A Cast Iron Skillet That Will Last Generations
There's cookware, and then there's cookware that also looks good. Most brands on this list checks the latter box, but Smithey is truly a knockout beauty, courtesy of its association with ironware and craftsmanship from the 19th century. Each cast iron looks vintage and unique; specifically, its cast iron skillet, when seasoned correctly, will make even the most conservative cooks think out of the box on grilling up broccolis or pork chops for once. Better yet, Smithey now carries carbon steel cookware that looks, well, idyllic. And you can add custom engraving to every piece. Truly heirloom-worthy.
Sardel - Best Italian Cookware Brand
Where to Buy: Sardel, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom
Price Range: $$ to $$$
Editor's Choice: Sardel's Italian-Made Pots and Pans Are So Elegant You'll Be Passing Them Down for Generations
Sardel's story is very ciao bella. The family business is founded by three brothers who were united and given the entrepreneurship dosage by their childhood memories at the kitchen table. Everything is carefully sourced, selected, and made in Italy—including a multi-generational steel manufacturer there, bringing about a line of mean stainless steel cookware. Ergo, Sardel's pots and pans—all reasonably priced, thankfully—in their five-ply build for better heat distribution, have rightfully earned our endorsement.
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