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Non-Sticking High Quality Cookware

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

Today we live in a convenience world. Everything should be as easy and convenient as possible – it’s one of the reasons why our society is so successful because we often make the most efficient use of our time. Non-sticking high quality cookware fits right in.

We used to be bigger families a hundred years ago, with several generations living under the same roof. So each meal was cooked for a dozend people and afterwards there was a long cleaning procedure, scrubbing pots and pans for hours.
But today we are often single households, or a family with one or two kids. The old tools of the kitchen chef just don’t make sense anymore for most of us. We need something that is easy to use and easy to clean. All you need to clean nonstick cookware is a soft sponge and warm soap water. You shouldn’t put it in the dishwasher (even if the manufacturer says you can – it will definitely shorten the lifespan of your nonstick cookware).

While there are some cheap nonstick cookware items around I would strongly advice you NOT to buy them. Instead either go for a cheap aluminum pan or be ready to invest more money in your kitchen equipment and get a really good nonstick cookware set. That’s the thing with nonsticking cookware: either expensive quality or not at all! Cheap cookware won’t do you any good, believe me. Currently I don’t know of any kind of nonstick cookware that will last nearly as long as for example stainless steel cookware, but a good set will still last you for many years if you take good care of it. A cheap set however won’t be usable for a long time, often already wearing off a couple of weeks after you first used it.

Another benefit of nonstick cookware is that you will need much less oil. This also is a good accomodation to our modern lifestyle. We used to be hard physical workers, but nowadays we are what Peter Drucker called “knowledge workers” – we work with our brains, not our muscles. This caused a change in our dietary needs, specially we need much less fat.

So the point I really want to make here is – if you choose nonstick kitchen equipment then be ready to spend more and invest in a good high-quality cookware set.
 Non-Stick Cookware for your healthy low-fat cooking experience [2:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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High Quality Cookware

Friday, April 4th, 2008

There are all kinds of high-quality cookware sets – most commonly stainless stell (which is my favourite), non-sticking, cast-iron, copper, titanium, enamel, hard-ionized, etc.
In another article I wrote that in my personal opinion you will probably want one-size fits all cookware – that is, you don’t want to have to have several different pans for several different dishes. My choice is stainless steel cookware, because of my personal cooking preferences and the fact that I am quiet often on the move, so I don’t want to have to deal with schlepping around a lot of stuff – and I still think that way, but a friend of mine pointed out that different cookware materials are very well justified for some people. If you specialize in low-fat cooking a non-sticking cookware set might be right for you (most often teflonฎ coated cookware).

Cast Iron is also great because you it’s basically a “do it all” kind of cookware – it too will last you a lifetime long, you won’t ever have to worry about scratching it like with coated cookware that can release toxins in the food once the coating is damaged, etc. Yes, cast iron has to be pre-seasoned, but nowadays you won’t have to do that yourself anymore because most of the high-quality cast iron cookware companies pre-season the cookware for you and when you get it it’s already ready to use.
Price can be an objection when buying cookware. For me, I happily shelled out more than $200 for my stainless-steel copper-core pan from Williams Sonoma, and I’m still happy about that purchase. I use this pan almost every day and I enjoy it every day! Putting it all together, on knives, pots, etc. I spent several thousand dollars on my current cooking equipment, but it’s worth it. Almost every day when I’m spending my one or two hours of cooking in the kitchen I feel like I’m on vacation and it really is a luxury to be able to spend this kind of time on cooking.
I used to be resistant to buying high quality cookware because I had so much great, delicious and healthy food when I traveled through Thailand, Vietnam and China and the street vendors there used the cheapest kinds of cookware available. But I found that while I don’t mind eating delicious food that comes from $10 wok, I do mind cooking my food in a cheap pot, having to deal with it when it starts to show signs of wear and tear, replacing it with yet another cheap pot again and again. In the end my “expensive” high quality cookware is probably gonna be cheaper than any kind of discount cookware.

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