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Ever wondered what pans top chefs swear by? Bon Appétit asked 10 of NYC’s best chefs to share the pans they can’t live without–from stainless steel saucier pans and carbon steel skillets to cast iron, nonstick frying pans, braisers, and sheet pans. Learn why these kitchen tools are essential, how chefs use them in restaurant kitchens, and which pans work best for home cooks.

Chef Atsushi Kono / Kono - All Clad Stainless Steel Pan https://cna.st/st/sabujn1
General Manager Tania / Veselka - Non-stick pan https://cna.st/st/6FFoEBQ
Executive Chef Jackie / Kellogg’s Diner - Made in saucier pan https://cna.st/st/wCkbVN3
Chef de Cuisine Neel Kajale / Adda - Le Creuset Signature Braiser https://cna.st/st/chNa4lW
Chef Nhu Ton / Bánh Anh Em - Bánh Xèo pan https://cna.st/st/08A99QW
Former Exec. Chef Alec Horen / St. Anselm - Non-stick pan https://cna.st/st/kJZ28Il
Chef de cuisine Maria Barriga/ Oxomoco - Cast iron pan https://cna.st/st/rlywqQn
Chef Fredrik Berselius/ Aska - Kama Asa Carbon Steel Pan https://kama-asa.co.jp/en/collections/tool-fryingpan
Chef Mary Attea / Musket Room - Hotel pan https://cna.st/st/jNyvbMb
Chef Miro / Hani’s - Sheet pan https://cna.st/st/6wlhrdK
Transcript
00:12My favorite pan is the Maiden Saucier Pan. A saucepan has straight edges and like hard
00:19corners at the bottom of the pan versus a Saucier Pan which has these like sloped edges
00:23which make it easier to get around the pan. It's great for items that you might have to whisk so
00:29like a caramel or anything that you might need to use a rubber spatula to get around the edges of
00:33the pan and really like want to keep stuff from sticking to the bottom and burning and it's great
00:38for you know tossing because of the nice sloped edges and because it's relatively lightweight it
00:44makes it easy for flipping. This Saucier Pan is made out of stainless steel. I really prefer to
00:50cook with stainless steel because you get an even disbursement of heat. They heat up really quickly.
00:55You can use it for you know a lot of high heat cooking which a lot of the times is
00:59what I'm
01:00doing even at home. I have had this Saucier Pan for almost three years. I got it in a breakup
01:04and so I highly recommend in a split take this one with you.
01:10So I love this Kamalsa Pan which is a good quality carbon steel pan that's very well balanced. If you
01:17use these right they turn into a nonstick pan. You can use them for anything from making pancakes to
01:23roasting fish or vegetables. They are heavy but the long handles makes it very balanced and you can
01:30even use it to sort of anchor it on your arm if you need to saute something or walk something.
01:35The
01:36pans have great heat retention and I love cooking with that retention. I like turning my pan on, keeping
01:42it hot, putting something inside and then often I like to turn the heat off or down depending on what
01:49I'm
01:49cooking. So these pans you can really go crazy and then you can just go back and fix it if
01:53you have
01:53to. You can always wash them out. You can always bring it back to basics and re-season them. Go
01:59over
01:59that first step again so you can't really screw up so you don't have to be intimidated. You can just
02:03go
02:04full force. It's a cool pan. It makes you feel, makes you feel alive.
02:11This might not necessarily be what you think about when you think of a pan but my favorite pan is
02:16a hotel
02:17pan. A hotel pan is a pan you'll find in each and every kitchen in any restaurant across the world.
02:24It's a really lightweight but very sturdy, very resilient. You can use it for cooking at lower
02:30temperatures, for slow cooking, braising meats, cooking rice, starting that on the stove. And I also
02:37love to use it for doing some simple smoking techniques. I think the idea of smoking something
02:44on your own seems like a very overwhelming undertaking but it's actually a really simple
02:49task that you can do with just a few simple tools at home. It does create some smoke but you
02:55really
02:55contain it within the pan being covered so I think it's a really great simple easy method to do at
03:01home
03:01if you want to create some additional flavors, additional depth to the dishes you're making.
03:09The pan I use the most is the Le Creuset one and a half quart signature braiser. Best part about
03:15this
03:15is it could sit on your flame and because it's completely metal it could go in your oven 250, 300,
03:214 hours, 5 hours, whatever the protein is. It's just super versatile. It's cast iron so it gives you a
03:25really
03:25nice sear. It holds the temperature really well and just gets the job done. The cast iron really helps
03:31keep the heat inside. You could go to the table 20 minutes later and you could still see that the
03:35pot's
03:36really still hot. We really care about the temperature of which the food goes out to the guest. The best
03:41part about these pans is also that they come with these magnetic coasters and they literally clip on and
03:48they go to the table just like that. It doesn't slide off, it's never going to come off. They have
03:53this coating
03:53which is an enamel coating which makes it really easy to maintain. You don't have to season it.
03:59We use these night after night and we do the craziest cooking in this. Very easy pan to use.
04:05The bánh xèo pan is one of the most useful pan in my kitchen. So bánh xèo is a turmeric
04:12Vietnamese pancakes. The great thing about this pan is it heats up really fast. It has to be light enough
04:19so we can move so the batter can move or I can adjust the heat easily. If I use non
04:26-stick or
04:26cast iron pan the bánh xèo pan is going to be extremely thick and I can really create the shape
04:32that I want. With other pan you can really get this kind of like crispiness. It's super thin.
04:39I don't really use soap to clean this pan. If you try to like scrub it or you don't clean
04:46it properly,
04:47the better it will stick to the pan and I cannot make bánh xèo anymore. I have it since college,
04:55which is over 10 years. And when I came to America, this is the only pan that I brought it
05:01with me.
05:03My favorite pan is the cast siren. It's a pan you can have I think for generations. The cast siren
05:10is a
05:11very durable material. You can use like any type of tool. If you scratch it, it will be fine. So
05:18you
05:18can cook with it like a low, medium heat and you can bring it up to really, really high temperatures
05:23for an amazing siren and then you can have it on the stove and then put it directly on the
05:29oven to finish.
05:30Okay, so it's been only like, I don't know, probably like 15 seconds and it already has a crust.
05:37For those people that are scared of like using a cast siren because things can stick to it,
05:41it's actually like pretty easy to season it. You just need to use a little bit of salt and then
05:47a
05:47little bit of fat and then the more you use it, the more seasoning it will become and then it
05:53becomes
05:53nonstick, which is perfect for like even frying eggs. The sheet pan is one pan that I highly recommend
06:02for every cook and a baker especially. It is the workhorse of every restaurant and a bakery. Usually
06:08the lower the gauge, the better quality, more durable, thicker aluminum it is. I suggest either 16 or 14 gauge.
06:16Sometimes they're labeled as a heavy duty. They don't warp, they last longer, they don't scratch as easily
06:23or get damaged. These sheet pan dinners are becoming very popular so you most definitely can, you know,
06:30make the whole dinner and whole meal using a sheet pan. We definitely do that with our family meal.
06:35Family meal is a meal that we cook for ourselves, for the staff and you know something like a sheet
06:41pan
06:41comes very handy because we can easily cook larger quantities and faster without requiring too much effort.
06:50My favorite pan is old crab, stainless steel classic pan. So first of all, it's not too heavy,
06:57also very strong. It's heated evenly. I usually cooking the meat and vegetable. So I use for the chicken,
07:06seared like duck skin. Also cook with a seasonal vegetable. Any situation, it's always together.
07:13It already looks good. This is so hot, so that's why you're gonna be careful. But when you
07:20understand how to use this, it's gonna be your right hand. Once you understand heat, everything you cook
07:28tastes better.
07:32So here at St. Anselm, our most used pan is the non-stick pan. Non-stick frying pan is worth
07:38having
07:38in any kitchen. There are some benefits of cooking in a non-stick frying pan. Food is not overloaded.
07:45When I cook or fry potato pancakes, there is a space for deep frying. So it's a great pan for
07:51that.
07:51We make about 60 to 70 pan-fried mashed potatoes a night and without these pans, we would never be
07:57able
07:57to do it. So just the constant flipping will give it a nice oval rounded shape on it. It is
08:02one of those
08:02pans that can do it all. I've definitely worked in the past at restaurants that use this actually to
08:06cook piece of black bass. And you can get a super crispy skin as long as you just held the
08:10weight
08:10down while it was cooking. So it actually is made out of aluminum. So it's very light. So in your
08:16hand,
08:16it actually flips it very easily. Maybe non-stick pan doesn't have the best reputation, but if you treat
08:22it well, it's going to work well for you. If you use silicone or wooden tools, it's going to work
08:29very
08:30well for you. Sounds good.
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