Pots and pans available in Australia

[AdrianB]

Good day all

With more fiddly sauces and a requirement for better browning and deglazing I'm finally looking at new frypan and a couple of saucepans.

They need to be oven safe (220oC) with fast heat transfer and capable of browning/deglazing (which rules out non-stick).

Based on my research (thanks to some great articles here), it looks like the most appropriate is copper with stainless steel interior. The copper needs to be greater then 2mm+ for even heat spread. I have no qualms about petina effect on the copper - I won't be polishing these babies.

It looks like there are good pots and pans that meet my criteria in France, but having trouble tracking them down in Australia. So far I've only found the 'table presentation' (thin copper - as in not designed for cooking but presentation/serving) versions and extraordinarily high prices (and not disclosed as the 'table' version except on detailed inquiry). Thankfully, Australia seems well served with thick based aluminium pots good for simmering / stocks / braises... but copper frypans and saucepans !

Anyone with recommendations, advice or experience on Australian available products? I am getting close to importing them from France!

[Ylee]

Not sure about Adelaide, but in Sydney, you can get those types of copper pans from places like Chefs Warehouse in the city or Essential Ingredient (Crows Nest). They're so incredibly expensive these days that I haven't found a good enough reason to buy them.

[Kenny]

Adrian,

There's a very good kitchen shop in the Burnside Village on Portrush Rd, but the name escapes me.

However I have fallen in love with Demeyere cookware from Belgium which is stocked by the Bay Tree in Sydney and Kleenmaid (check yellow pages, but they have sites in Adelaide, one on Magill Rd). Bay Tree, Demeyere and Kleenmaid all have websites so you can do some research.

Cheers,

Kenny

Edited September 13, 2006 by Kenny (log)

[Taubear]

Hi Adrian, I have several Scanpan Copper/Stainless steel pots and pans which I would highly reccomend. They are very well made and no where near as expensive as the French made copper pot'n'pans. They are called "Scanpan Fusion CS5" Here's the link

http://www.scanpan.com/main/summary.aspx?id=5

Cheers Mark

[Shalmanese]

The scanpans are just copper coated. The copper is so thin it's essentially aesthetic. Simon Johnson have 2.5mm copper pans for an absurd amount of money. Something like $1000 for a saucepan. Peters of Kensington have 2mm copper Mauviel but not the 2.5mm AFAIK. Theres an ebay store called Lara Copper based in Tasmania which does tin lined copper for quite reasonable prices. Best however is to probably just buy them overseas and bring them back after a holiday.

[PCL]

What's wrong with cast-iron french skillets? If one is set aside simply for saucing after proper seasoning in the oven, you can brown and deglaze no problems and better than any stainless surfaced piece of tin-crap leftover recycled Wusthoff.

Everywhere I've worked where saucing and deglazing is the norm, which is most places these days, had only a couple copper pans and they were the domain of the dessert chefs... you know, them weird dudes.

I mean, if you wanna brown and get a decent fond leftover, good luck with stainless.. not to mention discolouration...

Only disclaimer is to remove said sauce from cast iron before adding lemon... some say white wine don't work, but I've made beurre blanc a hundred times and blah... all good... till you add the lemon... off the heat, in the serving bowl if you please.

copper is just pretentious and expensive and can be unhealthy... but no matter, each to their own...

it ain't the gear, it's what you do with what you got.. kind of follows on from Lance Armstrong's 'it's not about the bike'....

[Shalmanese]

Yeah, I had a feeling one of your type would show up. Some Vietmanese grandmother is producing the most amazing food you've ever eaten over a patch of beaten car radiator and so it therefore follows that any piece of kitchen equipment above $10 is pretention wank.

What's wrong with cast-iron french skillets? If one is set aside simply for saucing after proper seasoning in the oven, you can brown and deglaze no problems and better than any stainless surfaced piece of tin-crap leftover recycled Wusthoff.

Theres nothing wrong with cast iron except that it's heavy, takes ages to heat up, has low responsivity, can't be put in the dishwasher, needs about 5 years of regular seasoning to reach peak performance and has a black surface which makes it hard to judge browning. For the price, it's the best type to buy. But ignoring that there exists better alternatives for some purposes is absurd.

Everywhere I've worked where saucing and deglazing is the norm, which is most places these days, had only a couple copper pans and they were the domain of the dessert chefs... you know, them weird dudes.

Thats because restaurants are a business and every penny matters. Home cooks have the luxury of buying stuff just because it makes cooking funner. Restaurants have to turn a profit.

I mean, if you wanna brown and get a decent fond leftover, good luck with stainless.. not to mention discolouration...

Stainless produces perfectly good fond. It's only really teflon that produces awful fond.

copper is just pretentious and expensive and can be unhealthy... but no matter, each to their own...

Properly lined copper has no health concerns. It's only unlined copper and copper lined with tin that has worn off with which copper ions might leach into the food. Sure, $200 might seem expensive. But if it lasts you 10 years, then it's cheaper than that $20 teflon pan you have to buy every year because the old one wore out.

it ain't the gear, it's what you do with what you got.. kind of follows on from Lance Armstrong's 'it's not about the bike'....

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With all due respect the bike would beg to differ

[PCL]

teflon? oh, i have one teflon pan for doing fish fillets skin down... but then again i find myself using the cast iron more often than not...

fond ain't fond of stainless is all i can say!!

and re: copper, yeh yeh yeh...

[jango]

The scanpans are just copper coated. The copper is so thin it's essentially aesthetic. Simon Johnson have 2.5mm copper pans for an absurd amount of money. Something like $1000 for a saucepan. Peters of Kensington have 2mm copper Mauviel but not the 2.5mm AFAIK. Theres an ebay store called Lara Copper based in Tasmania which does tin lined copper for quite reasonable prices. Best however is to probably just buy them overseas and bring them back after a holiday.

←

Wow - thanks for this - I've been looking for a source to re-tin copper.

As for cookware here in Australia - what a ripoff. Luckily I brought back all the stuff I accumulated while living in the USA for a couple of decades, so I'll never have to buy any more. I agree with Shalmanese - get someone to bring some back from overseas if you can't go yourself. Or look into Amazon's shipping rates. Look for a brand called All-Clad. Fabulous stuff and you won't have to get a fourth mortgage.

[Shalmanese]

AFAIK, Amazon does not ship pans overseas .

edit: which is not to say you couldn't use a 3rd party service

Edited October 12, 2006 by Shalmanese (log)

[nickrey]

After using many frypans, including Scanpan (they don't last for me) and Calphalon (their browning and easy release function left me with little steak bits clinging to the pan and a poor aesthetic result), I was despairing of finding good pans.

Like a number of people here, I have purchased some really amazing Mauviel coppers pans, which work perfectly but as has been pointed out are very expensive in Australia.

However, I still needed a good non-stick pan. Searching around and after rejecting various options that looked like more of the same, I went to a local kitchen supplier where I am a fairly regular customer and found an Australian brand called Chef Inox. It has a metal handle and can therefore be used under the grill (broiler) and is working very well indeed (i'll get back to you about the longevity). Interestingly, this brand is noted in the credits after the Cook and the Chef so either Simon or Maggie must use them as well.

[Cadbury]

I have found these people very easy to deal with and reliable. They stock Chef Inox and many other brands. I will not comment on prices as I live too far from anywhere to do anything but shop online.