Cooking great meals requires not only your favorite recipes and fresh ingredients, but also the right equipment. And few tools are more important to your culinary success than reliable, high-quality cookware. As a food writer, pastry chef, and home cook, I've spent a lot of time in various kitchens. That means over the years we've worked with almost every brand and material of cookware imaginable. My own kitchen cabinets are a bag of pots and pans, from leftovers from my first starter set to things I've acquired through various upgrades and household consolidations.
Made In is one of the few cookware brands that offers a variety of materials in one set.
Illustration: Forbes / Image: Made In Cookware
Having gained hands-on experience, I am often asked which cookware sets I recommend. This is a seemingly difficult question. Most cookware sets consist of a single material type, so you'll need to choose between stainless steel or nonstick pots and pans. I think both ingredients have many uses, but my honest recommendation for most home cooks is to mix them both. Well, I'm happy to report that I've finally found a set that offers the best of both worlds (and more): Made In Sous Chefs.
most popular
11-piece set includes:
Stainless Steel: 10-Inch Frying Pan, 2-Quart and 4-Quart Saucepan with Lid, 3.5-Quart Saute Pan with Lid, 8-Quart Stockpot with LidNonstick: 10-Inch Frying PanCarbon Steel: 2-Piece 12-Inch Carbon Frying Pan – Ounce of Carbon Steel Seasoning Wax
material:
Stainless steel: 5-layer cladding, made in the USA and Italy Non-stick: PFOA-free PTFE non-stick coating, made in Italy Carbon steel: Made in France
Care instructions:
Stainless Steel: Dishwasher safe, hand wash recommended Non-stick: Hand wash only, avoid using metal utensils Carbon Steel: Hand wash only, seasoning required, avoid using metal utensils
I found this set when I was looking for the best stainless steel and best nonstick cookware set on the market. Of the dozens of brands I researched, Made In was the only one that offered a variety of materials in one set. The company first made waves in 2017 when he introduced competitively priced, direct-to-consumer cookware with professional-quality specifications to the internet for home cooks. However, competitive pricing doesn't mean cheap. Priced at $699, the Sous Chef was definitely an investment and had to meet some pretty high standards to be worth the price. Naturally, I had to try it out and see what it could do. The answer is virtually everything.
Made-in using multiple materials
If you ask most professional chefs what they think the ultimate cookware material is, they'll likely say stainless steel, in recognition of its versatility. Turn up the heat, cook with your favorite fat or acid, and scrape the surface with a metal utensil, scrubbing often. Additionally, it has the right balance of surface adhesion and thermal conductivity, allowing you to brown and caramelize foods in ways that non-stick coatings cannot. Made in stainless steel, it has a 5-layer cladding and is designed to heat and cool quickly and evenly while being warp-resistant and long-lasting.
Just because professional chefs prefer stainless steel doesn't mean other materials have no time or place, and Made In acknowledges that with this set. Non-stick processing is very convenient. Easy to clean and perfect for cooking eggs, pancakes, and dishes with melted cheese. It's also a perfectly acceptable option if you're cooking something that doesn't require browning or cooking at very high temperatures. In addition to stainless steel parts and a nonstick pan, this set also comes with a carbon steel skillet that offers the benefits of cast iron without the weight.
How to test a made-in cookware sous chef set
At a minimum, a good cookware set should cover the sizes and shapes needed for most standard home recipes. Ideally, you'll need a 10-inch frying pan, a 3-quart sauté pan with a lid, both small and medium saucepans with lids, and a large stock pot with a lid. Everything else is considered value added. When looking for the ideal set, it can be difficult to get all the sizes and shapes you want, but Sous Chef ticked all those boxes.
All pots have a hollow handle that arches sharply away from the pot itself, giving it an ergonomic and balanced shape. The handles on the pot and lid are large and wide, and curved for a firm and comfortable grip, even when your hands are in the potholder. These details bothered me (literally) so I stacked them in a cabinet to assess storage space before using them. It fits comfortably in the lower cabinet like the previous cookware, but it's definitely designed with stove functionality in mind first. If you have shallow cabinets or drawers, or are simply short on space, you may want to consider a set that is designed to nest.
To thoroughly evaluate sous chefs, we knew we needed to perform different cooking tests for each material and pan shape. For each of the following, we evaluated whether the food was prepared within standard time frames and according to recipes and industry standards for color, texture, and temperature.
Testing stainless steel components
For stainless steel, I wanted to focus on maximizing flavor (browning and caramelization) and versatility. Because these are his two big selling points for this material. With that in mind, I used a skillet to sear a 4-ounce 85% lean turkey burger over medium-high heat for 5-6 minutes on each side, and a large scallop over high heat for 2 minutes on each side. . This skillet produced turkey burgers that were evenly caramelized on the outside and juicy on the inside, and scallops that were crispy and tender on the inside in minutes. I cooked 6 ounces of chicken breast in a sauté pan for 5-6 minutes on each side, removed, and used the skillet to make a simple lemon and butter sauce. The protein was golden brown and juicy and the sauce was delicious.
In a stockpot, I made a batch of marinara sauce based on onions, garlic, and two 28-ounce cans of peeled tomatoes to test capacity and the development of flavor preferences. In a small 2-quart pot, I boiled four 12-minute eggs and reheated two portions of marinara. Make long grain rice in a medium pot with a 2:1 ratio of water to rice and boil for 18 minutes.
The stock pot was the real star, an 8-quart size perfect for making vats of marinara sauce, and with tall enough sides to avoid big splatters. The bottom is wide enough to create a delicious layer of deglaze fondo and fits snugly over standard stove burners. A 2-quart saucepan is perfect for reheating two tablespoons of sauce or hard-boiling eggs with perfectly yellow yolks. I'm not good at making rice for some reason, but nothing stuck to the 4-cup rice cooker, and the rice was cooked fluffy and evenly.
The Made In Stock Pot's tall sides make it easy to add ingredients like cauliflower or sausage and avoid splatters when making large batches of sauce.
Annmarie Mattila
Stainless steel can be used in the dishwasher, but I washed everything by hand. The turkey burger and marinara test required a quick soak in soapy water and a scrubbing section of the sponge and a small amount of elbow grease. Usually the discussion of non-stick comes up here, but non-stick coatings do not provide the same caramelization as stainless steel. This requires surface adhesion. For me, for most recipes, it's not worth the trade-off.
Overall, the stainless steel components provided excellent results. My only real failure was that when I squeezed the lemon for flavor, the inside of the medium pot I was making the rice in became discolored. This didn't affect the pot's potency at all, but it was worth mentioning. Also, after all the initial testing, I finally put the stainless steel in the dishwasher to check and it got dull. Again, this won't affect the functionality of the pot in any way, but if you're concerned about aesthetics, be aware that you may need to add a little extra elbow grease to get it sparkling again. please. A little scrub with Bar Keepers Friend or baking soda will help.
Testing non-stick components
The non-stick feature is most effective in everyday tasks where things naturally stick together like eggs. All you need is one reliable non-stick frying pan. In nonstick skillets, we tested fried eggs for 2 minutes over medium heat and scrambled eggs and shredded cheese for 3 minutes over medium heat.
The Made In bread cooked the eggs perfectly. My fried egg was lightly crispy on the edges and perfectly runny in the center, and my scrambled egg was light and fluffy. Of course, the real test was whether the food would stick to the pan. By the time the eggs landed on the plate, the pan was already clean and no sponge was needed. Please note that non-stick cookware requires special care. This means no metal utensils, no dishwashers, and no highly acidic ingredients. All of these can corrode non-stick surfaces and render them unusable.
By the time the sunny side eggs hit the plate, the Made In nonstick pan was almost clean…(+) No need for a sponge anymore.
Annmarie Mattila
Carbon steel component testing
Finally, carbon steel frying pans are very convenient because they usually don't come in sets. If you're not familiar with this material, imagine if stainless steel and cast iron had a baby. It has the thermal conductivity of cast iron, but is as light as stainless steel. Like cast iron, it requires a little TLC to season and maintain, but it can give an exceptional sear to fatty meats. I needed a little more fat for flavor, so I made a second batch of turkey burgers to test, and sure enough, they came out perfectly grilled.
Is Made in cookware worth the investment?
Small issues aside, the Sous Chef is a really great cookware set. It offers exactly what I would want if I were to build my own set, with top-grade stainless steel in the perfect size needed to make most home recipes, and a nonstick base for handling quick and easy meals. Provide one frying pan. We also provide a bonus carbon steel pan.
Quality cookware is worth the investment, and this set not only solves the stainless steel vs. nonstick conundrum, but also helps you avoid having to spend more money buying additional pots. Masu. If you're looking to upgrade or refresh your kitchen, want to spend more on your wedding registry, or just want to get a head start on your new location, consider becoming a sous chef.