Knowledge Base > Dan Marek - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Dan Marek - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

This event was on Tuesday, January 31, 2023 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern

Join Chef Dan Marek in his virtual office as he welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to Ask Anything – from cooking techniques to cours… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

I am wanting some direction in buying some stainless steel cookware. If I only buy one good fry pan to start how to determine quality, size, suitable for pan tossing. Where to purchase.?

— Susan Ryan

Answer:

if you're buying just one good pan. A fry pan is a good one to be able to do you know, so it's really kind of depends on what year your big purposes are, you know, so size wise you don't want to go any bigger than 12 inches, you know pans are typically like the 12 when I say 12 inches that's actually the base of the pan. So it's gonna be sitting in your burner and most stoves like home stoves at least not gonna hold a bigger than a 12 inch pan. Um, at least the cooking surface on it, not so so much bigger than that. So I would say anywhere from 10 to 12 inches kind of depending 12 is pretty big though. So I might even just be at 10 inch pan, you know, if you're looking to be able to do stainless steel. There are a lot of different options out there like if you're looking for kind of you know, Some higher end, you know all clad is definitely a brand that I actually love where you know, it was like every year or two. I would get a new pan because it's expensive, you know, so basically save up and get a new pan and that was years ago. So now I have a whole set of all clap that you know, I purchased a long time ago, but they're lasting 20, you know, 25 years for me and I still have the exact same stainless steel pans. There's a new brand called made in It's supposed to be a really good quality one. But again kind of a higher price one of the big things if you're just looking for stainless steel make sure it's a solid stainless steel that the you know, the handle is connected to the pan and a you know, typically in a way that is not going to move. I've seen some pans where you hold on to as like like a plastic handle. You don't like a plastic handle if it's like screwed on you can see like a you know, where it's screwed in typically not the best pan. But um really as far as going, you know be on the 10 inch looking at the the stainless steel, there's a lot of different brands out there and really picking out what works for you especially to price point. It's really that's the really the best way to be able to start with it. Try out a couple in you know, go look at a couple in the story that you're going to where to purchase there could be all kinds of ways. I definitely recommend going to some of the higher-end stores to look at them, but maybe not purchase them all the time, you know, so there are different places like, you know homes home supply places that are they're great for those from Sur La Table to you know, the there are a lot of different specialty cook stores. You can go and look at things and actually have them in your hands be able to look at all the creases the quality of them and then also ask somebody about them and what makes this $250 pan different than this $30 pan, you know finding it stainless steel sauté pan and 10 inch might be a little hard at the $30 price range, but the $50 price range. You could probably find a couple different options that would work for you. I hope that helps a little bit. I don't want to zero like here's the perfect pan because there is no perfect pain. It's really about what feels good in your hand will works on your stove and how big you want something as well. I think a 10 inch saute pan. It's probably gonna fry pan. That's good for those too. Just the only difference between saute pan and fry pan is the lip a fry pan as like a rounded lip or edge around the outside and I saw tape pen is more of like a scoop on it. So you can like actually, you know toss something on it. So if you're looking to do pan tossing a saute pan that work for you as well, too.
Dan Marek

Dan Marek

Director of Plant-Based Culinary & Dev

rouxbe.com