If there’s something to know about food people, it’s that they have strong convictions regarding their favorite cookware and tend to develop steadfast preferences for particular tools and brands. As a result, the whole idea of a preassembled cookware set is a source of controversy here at the Bon Appétit offices. The consensus among our crew as to what constitutes the best cookware set has been a sort of non-consensus, because for us, the best cookware set is one you assemble yourself, over the years, that includes the cookware you use and love the most.
But that is easy for a bunch of culinary professionals with professional training to say. I know that there are a lot of people out there who don’t have the time, experience, or opportunity to experiment with different types of cookware to curate their collections of pots and pans just so. The most helpful advice for them will be to provide a strong starting point. So to put together this list, I encouraged our seasoned culinarians to look beyond their firmly held beliefs and really take a hard look at the cookware sets out there to determine which ones constitute the best “starter pack” for people building their home kitchen arsenal from the ground up.
Our top picks
- The best cookware set overall: All-Clad D5 7-Piece Cookware Set
- The best budget cookware set: Goldilocks Cookware Set 7-Piece Cookware Set
- Another good budget set: Ninja EverClad Commercial-Grade Cookware Set
- A favorite from our test kitchen editor: Fissler M5 5-Ply Cookware Set
- The best cookware set for tiny a** kitchens: All-Clad 5-Piece Cookware Set
- The best expanded cookware set: All-Clad D3 3-Ply Stainless Steel 10-Piece Cookware Set
- An affordable large set: Ninja EverClad Commercial-Grade Stainless Steel Cookware 12-Piece Set
A good cookware set should be the beginning of someone’s collection of pots and pans, not the final product. It will continue to grow and expand around your own wants and needs (you can always add the Le Creuset a bit later). All we think a cookware set should do is equip you with enough tools to cook through a majority of the recipes you can find in cookbooks and online.
To come up with this list, we approached things a bit differently compared to the way we do most of our product tests. We analyzed the most commonly available cookware sets online and determined which collections contained the pans that offered the most utility, filtering out items we felt were superfluous or unnecessary. Once we narrowed down the essential pieces, we cross-referenced our extensive testing of individual pieces and chose sets that included those lines. Check out our top picks of the best cookware sets below, and read on for more information on our methodology and reasoning.
New in this update: After a few additional months of testing, we found an additional budget cookware set to recommend from the DTC brand Goldilocks.
The best cookware set is a 7-piece cookware set
In the grand scheme of cookware sets, a 7-piece set is relatively small. But after much conversation and debate, we think it will cover all the most common cooking tasks. The specific pieces that make up a cookware set vary slightly from brand to brand—some include a steamer insert, while others have a second saucepan instead—but 7-piece cookware sets are generally consistent in what they offer. Most have a stockpot, a 2- to 3-quart saucepan, a medium- to large-size skillet (between 10" and 12" in diameter), and a sauté pan. The other three pieces are actually just the lids.
With these four tools, a home cook is able to accomplish a large swath of stovetop tasks in the kitchen: pan-frying, deep-frying, sautéing, boiling, braising, searing, stewing, saucing, melting, tempering, steaming, and the list goes on. As for specific cookware sets to buy, we picked out a few below. Two are top choices from our product tests and the third comes as a recommendation from deputy food editor Hana Asbrink.
The best cookware set overall: All-Clad D3 or D5 7-Piece Cookware sets
Pros and cons
Pros
- Excellent heat retention
- Even heating
- Durable
- Comfortable to hold
Cons
- Expensive
Specs
Material: Stainless steel with stainless-steel lids
Included pieces: 10.5" skillet, 1.5 quart or 3-quart or 4-quart saucepan (with lid), 3-quart sauté pan (with lid), 6-quart or 8-quart stockpot (with lid)
Induction compatible: Yes
Oven safe to: 600℉ (may change color with exposure above 500℉)
Warranty: Limited lifetime warranty
All-Clad has long been an industry standard for professional restaurant kitchens in the United States. Their brand has a strong and well-regarded reputation that stands up to scrutiny, as we’ve found year after year in our product tests for the best stainless-steel skillets, saucepans, and stockpots. The D3 line is a tri-ply clad stainless steel that boasts excellent heat distribution across the cooking surface with no cold or hot spots. The D5 set is more expensive but adds two additional layers of cladding for improved heat retention. We recommend them both here. The pieces are sturdy and comfortable to handle, making them easy to maneuver across a cooktop. All-Clad cookware is expensive, but it is high-quality cookware that will last you a lifetime with good care, which is why we feel confident in recommending it to people.
The best budget cookware set: Goldilocks Cookware Set
Pros and cons
Pros
- Affordable
- Designed like higher-end pans
Cons
- A little volatile to changes in heat
- Finish prone to slight discoloration over time
Specs
Material: Stainless steel with stainless-steel lids
Included pieces: 10" skillet, 1.5-quart saucepan (with lid), 3-quart saucepan (with lid), 8-quart stockpot (with lid)
Induction compatible: Yes
Oven safe to: 550℉
Warranty: Limited lifetime warranty
As far as affordable picks go, the Goldilocks cookware set impressed us quite a bit in recent tests, and we now consider it a favorite to recommend as a budget alternative. In terms of the shape and design of each piece, the cookware strongly resembles products made by All-Clad. Are the pans a little thinner and a little more volatile and scorchy in comparison to All-Clad? Sure, but for the price they’re about as good as you can get. The set comes with two different saucepans and doesn’t include its sauté pan—the budget pick in our product test. Unfortunate, but we still think it’s worth recommending this set due to the quality it offers, and if you really want the sauté pan, you should just add it to your cart when purchasing the set.
Another good budget set: Ninja EverClad Commercial-Grade Cookware Set
Pros and cons
Pros
- Affordable
- Good heat retention
Cons
- Not entirely even heating
- Relatively heavy
Specs
Material: Stainless steel with stainless-steel and glass lids
Included pieces: 12" skillet, 1.5-quart saucepan (with lid), 3-quart sauté pan (with lid), 6-quart stockpot (with lid)
Induction compatible: Yes
Oven safe to: 600℉
Warranty: Limited lifetime warranty
Ninja is newer to making stainless-steel pans, but this set impressed our tester Allison Robicelli in a recent review of the best stainless-steel cookware test. We consider Ninja to be a quality budget choice compared to the higher-end options above. These pans definitely have some shortcomings; they don’t have quite the even heating of a pricier All-Clad set, and they are definitely on the heavier side. But at a fraction of the price, they are a good, affordable alternative. You also get glass lids rather than full stainless steel, which let you see the food more easily, but are more fragile. They are tempered glass, which means you can put them in the oven, but some people may choose not to.
A favorite from our test kitchen editor: Fissler M5 Pro-Ply 5-Ply Cookware set
Pros and cons
Pros
- Strong 5-ply construction
- Even heating
- Relatively light (for 5-ply)
- Easy to clean
Cons
- Expensive
Specs
Material: Stainless steel with stainless-steel lids
Included pieces: 10" skillet, 3-quart saucepan (with lid), 3-quart sauté pan (with lid), 6-quart stockpot (with lid)
Induction compatible: Yes
Oven safe to: 450℉
Warranty: 15 years
Deputy food editor Hana Asbrink has an affinity for German-made cookware brand Fissler, which has become more readily available in the US in recent years. The brand’s pans can go toe-to-toe with All-Clad in terms of quality, design, and reputation. Like All-Clad, these are multi-clad stainless-steel pans with an aluminum core (this particular set is 5-ply, which means it has two additional layers of metal on top of the three the All-Clad D3 has). They heat evenly and are lightweight and comfortable in the hand. Unlike All-Clad, Fissler cookware has a welded construction instead of riveted handles, which makes it easier to clean up. It’s also got cool to the touch handles and sealed edges. This is definitely a premium cookware set, but it’s one that will stick with you for life.
The best cookware set for tiny a** kitchens: All-Clad 5-Piece Cookware Set
Specs
Material: Stainless steel with stainless-steel lids
Included pieces: 10.5" skillet, 1.5 quart saucepan with lid, 6-quart stockpot with lid
Induction compatible: Yes
Oven safe to: 600℉ (may change color with exposure above 500℉)
Warranty: Limited lifetime warranty
Living spaces are getting smaller, meaning that more people are using kitchenettes or similar reduced set-ups to prepare their meals at home. I'm talking efficiency apartment renters, van life people, tiny home dwellers, and steadfast minimalists. The question is then, what is the smallest arrangement of pans that allows for the greatest variety of meal preparations? Or in other words, what's a set that takes up little space, but is versatile enough that you never feel like you're missing a tool when cooking a typical meal?
"Typical" is obviously relative here, but for this exercise, I'll use the classic tripartite assemblage of a protein + carb + vegetable. In order to execute this genre of meal with a great deal of versatility in preparation, you need three pieces of cookware. A decent-sized skillet, a saucepan, and a high-sided pot like a stock pot.
- The skillet has you covered for searing, sauteeing, and shallow frying, and it will be the most frequently used pan out of the bunch. It's versatile to the max, and its only limitations are when a large amount of liquid gets involved.
- The stockpot or similar high-sided pot will serve you well for so much more than stock. This is what you'll use to boil pasta, make rice, cook stews, or mash potatoes. It can serve as the “one pot” in one-pot meal recipes, and is practical for any high-volume, high-liquid project. For super small set-ups, a stockpot might be too bulky, so sometimes a larger volume saucier works here as well.
- You might think the saucepan is the third wheel here, but I disagree. Principally, a saucepan is useful for preparing side dishes and sauces. Its size helps those restricted to small cooktops or standalone burners. I'd argue that the saucepan is actually the most important piece of minimal cookware, because it is the go-to tool for so many types of solo meals. Think about it— ramen, boxed mac and cheese, reheated soup that your auntie froze for you—for so many people, the saucepan is the first piece of cookware (on the stove top) that they cook with. Essential!
You'll get all three of those pans (plus lids for the pot and saucepan) in All-Clad's 5-piece set, which is a smaller version of our top pick.
The best expanded cookware set: All-Clad D3 3-Ply Stainless Steel 10-Piece Cookware Set
Specs
Material: Stainless steel with stainless-steel lids
Included pieces: 8" and 10" fry pans, 2- and 3-quart saucepans (with lids), 3-quart sauté pan (with lid), 8-quart stockpot (with lid)
Induction compatible: Yes
Oven safe to: 600℉ (may change color with exposure above 500℉)
Warranty: Limited lifetime warranty
This is a larger set that we know will deliver on quality and performance, and is still practical for larger kitchens. If you're going to add on more, we'd say having two saucepans and two skillets of different sizes is useful for less intensive cooking projects.
All-Clad makes an extended version of our favorite cookware set above that includes an additional, smaller frying pan and an additional, smaller saucepan.
An affordable expanded set: Ninja EverClad Commercial-Grade Stainless Steel Cookware 12-Piece Set
Specs
Material: Stainless steel with stainless-steel and glass lids
Included pieces: 8" fry pan, 10¼" fry pan, 12" fry pan (with lid), 3-quart sauté pan (with lid), 1.5-quart saucepan (with lid), 2.5-quart saucepan (with lid), 6-quart stockpot (with lid)
Induction compatible: Yes
Oven safe to: 600℉
Warranty: Limited lifetime warranty
This is an extended version of our top budget pick with two additional smaller skillets and two smaller saucepans; this version comes with a 1.5-quart and a 2.5-quart instead of a 3-quart saucepan.
How we picked the best cookware sets
We had a big conversation on staff about what the most necessary components of a basic cookware set are. There were a lot of opinions and hot takes, many of which resulted in fantasy cookware sets that aren’t actually available anywhere (much to a couple of enthusiastic staff members’ chagrin, there are no stainless-steel cookware sets that feature rondeaus or Dutch ovens). We analyzed the available assortment of cookware sets online, taking note of the most common assemblages, and tried to identify redundant or unnecessary pieces. We came to the conclusion that it would be best to start with the fundamental pieces of cookware you’d most likely use, and encourage expanding a collection based on your needs on a piece-by-piece basis.
For selecting specific lines of cookware, we used our testing data for previous product tests to inform our recommendation choices, as well as the industry expertise of the professionals in our Test Kitchen. For the tests and the methodologies we used to select our winners, check out our tests for the best stainless-steel skillets, saucepans, and stockpots.
FAQs
Why are stainless-steel cookware sets the best?
Stainless steel is the standard material of choice for professional kitchens due to its versatility, longevity, and durability. You’ll also find more types of cookware fabricated in stainless-steel than you would in any other type of material other than nonstick (but we’ll get to why we don’t recommend that in a bit). We still appreciate cast-iron skillets, enameled cast-iron Dutch ovens, carbon-steel frying pans, and woks, but they seldom feature in preassembled cookware sets, and so we consider them to be add-ons.
Stainless steel has low thermal conductivity, meaning it holds on to heat rather than letting it escape, leading to great heat retention while cooking. Stainless-steel pans with aluminum cores, which all our top picks have, are more responsive to changes in heat as you cook. Most stainless-steel collections are induction compatible (all our recommended sets are), and they can withstand a high range of temperatures, making them suitable for stovetop and oven-cooking. While many cookware lines purport to be dishwasher-safe, we generally suggest hand-washing all stainless-steel cookware, as dishwashing detergent can be quite corrosive.
Why shouldn’t I buy a nonstick cookware set?
We are not big advocates of nonstick cookware in general, and thus we do not think there is a “best nonstick cookware set.” When we say nonstick cookware set, we mean all types of nonstick cookware, including the self-purported, non-toxic, PFAS, PFOA and PTFE ceramic coated cookware sets that are available these days. We know many people love their nonstick frying pans and nonstick skillets, but there are a few reasons why a full pan set with nonstick coatings is not the best idea.
First and foremost, nonstick coatings—regardless of how tough and oven-safe some hard anodized lines claim to be—have serious longevity problems. Ceramic nonstick coatings are the worst by this measure, as they scratch easily and their nonstick properties gradually degrade over time. However, Teflon-based pans won’t fare much better, as scratches are pretty much inevitable even with proper care. Pans with nonstick coatings also generally can’t handle high heat or metal utensils and are seldom oven-safe. There are more brands that claim to be, but we are ever skeptical of these claims. As for nonstick pots, they’re a bad idea all the way around. You will often need to subject your pots to extended time on heat when making a stock (bad for nonstick coatings) and you may want to scrape up fond (also bad for nonstick coatings if done with enough vigor).
Ultimately, we think it's worth recommending the types of cookware that will last you a lifetime. Nonstick cookware sets will hold you over for a couple of years, but eventually you will have to chuck them in the landfill and replace them. That’s why we think that if you are into the idea of nonstick, you should keep it to a single skillet.
What's the problem with larger cookware sets?
Listen, we wont stop you from buying a 10-piece cookware set, a 14-piece set or even a 20-piece set if your heart is truly set on a particular collection. The reason we don’t go out of our way to recommend them is that a lot of times they include pieces that we feel are a little superfluous and underutilized in our own kitchens. They typically consist of different size variations of a single pan type—two saucepans, frying pans, or sauté pans, for example. If you’re already familiar with the range of cookware you want, and you know you’re going to utilize these things, then we encourage you to go for it. But if you’re really just looking for a core collection of cookware to build upon, we say start with the basics and add from there.
Round out your cookware arsenal with some of our other favorite pots and pans:
- Dependable, reliable, and virtually indestructible, these are the best cast-iron skillets for a lifetime of cooking.
- Carbon steel is tough and durable, compatible with induction cooktops, and can withstand high heat. (They're all over professional kitchens for a reason.) These carbon steel pans are our favorites.
- Nonstick pans are an indispensable cooking tool for making omelets, browning salmon skin, and reheating leftovers.