Knowledge Base > Char Nolan - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Char Nolan - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

This event was on Tuesday, May 02, 2023 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern

Join Chef Char Nolan in her virtual office as she welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to ask anything – from cooking techniques to cou… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

What are the best (least toxic) pots and pans to use?

— Loretta Mae Escasa

Answer:

And you know everything that's old is New Again my mother. Gave me her now 75 year old Revere where stainless steel was copper bottoms and I use them a lot. And when I got married my mother gave me a set of Farberware pots and pans, which I still use today. They have no coding. They have nothing on them. They're just basic Basic Metal. You can pick up a stainless steel saute pan like this. This will be great for your mushroom to oil saute assignment. Go to a place like Marshalls or TJ Maxx or home goods and they run around $15. But I do want to point out one very important thing when you're shopping for pots and pans for those of us who quote teach on the road. I use an induction stove top. I have my own portable and the Charlie cart, for example, which you've heard me speak of they also have an induction stovetop and you have to check the bottom part. I don't know if you can see that or not, but on the bottom of the pan that will be these little incantation. So I know that this is good on flame. I know it's good on electric. I know that it's Good on induction stovetop and that's what I want to look for because I don't want to show up to a place to do a cooking demo and realize that I brought the wrong pot with me. So I think stainless steel is the winner. When I read about things like Teflon or other things like that even using the correct utensils to stir them with can sort of help to for lack of a better word debride some of the coding and having it get into your food. I also like to use Up, excuse me. I have a cast iron pot that I use it's also compatible with induction stovetop that works very very well. And also I have a couple of ceramic pots which I love but they I always cook with skepticism when I use them. So I think that you have to look at what you're cooking needs are and see what your storage is like because you want to make certain that you can fit all 87 pieces of a pot set or whatever. I have a rather eclectic pot set because sometimes I'll see a pot on sale and think oh my gosh, how could I ever live without that but I'm gonna give my big votes to stainless steel for today and shop around, you know, start out by one that Marshall's Forever and work with it and see how you like it. Now. I will say that cleaning. It has a little bit more of a challenge. And if you Google the method to clean stainless steel pots with a dryer sheet vinegar and soap. This is when you have really burnt the pan terribly with a terrible crust that method really works very very well for getting all of that stuff off of your pots. I think there's a chemical reaction with the vinegar to the soap some people use baking soda. So think of how the relative a relatives before us clean their pots and pans and they used a lot of scrubbing so I think that's the other important ingredient to cooking with stainless steel. Well, right that's a great question and I'm always happy to answer it and let us know if you begin to experiment using a stainless steel pot or pan. Very very good.
Char Nolan

Char Nolan

Chef Instructor

@char_nolan