21st Guru

Would you expect the top chefs to use low or high quality cooking equipment? My bet is you answered ‘high’ quality. And you’d be right. Many TV chefs use their familiar faces to market and sell their own brand of cooking equipment. Jamie Oliver springs to mind straight away. And you’d be right in thinking that Jamie’s own brand of cooking equipment is top quality.

His cooking equipment has to be of the highest quality. He is a brand. He sells his shows, his recipes, his cooking style through the quality of what he produces. So the quality of his cooking equipment has to match the quality of the rest of his brand. Chances are, you wouldn’t think much of your Jamie Oliver deep frying pan if the handle came off while you were following Jamie’s show, frying up the perfect English breakfast.

OK, so much for celebrity chefs. Their life depends on preparing food and cooking it, so of course their cooking equipment is going to be good. What about the rest of us? Is there a significant difference between the best quality and the cheapest cooking equipment? Does the law of diminishing returns apply to kitchenware?

The short answer is: cook a lot? Then buy the best. Good cooking equipment lasts a lifetime. It’s something you forge a relationship with. Your cooking pots are your tools. They can become an extension of your body, even of your self. for example, a good quality iron frying pan will never let you down. It is a heavy piece of equipment. It’s solid. You really feel it’s power every time you wield it. And there’s research to suggest that cooking slightly acidic foods such as tomatoes in ironware will have a beneficial effect on your health. Traces of iron are released into your food, contributing to your daily iron intake.

Cheap cooking equipment, on the other hand, can only let you down.