From Wedding Registry to All-Clad: My Cooking Love Story
- Steve Fiore
- Nov 2
- 3 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
"All things being equal, my French Toast tasted better when I cooked it on my All-Clad pan. But more on that in a bit".
Mary Beth and I registered for our wedding 29 years ago. Surprisingly, we were getting instructed by my New York/New Jersey Italian family that we weren't putting enough expensive things on the registry.
The reality was, we were being practical and honestly, didn't know the value between most of the expensive items vs. the less expensive items. To us at the then age of 22, our $100 set of 10 pots and pans selection was more than sufficient. This cookware cooked the food the same way an expensive pot would (or we naively thought). Plus, how cool was it that we had 10 different sized pots and pans!
For years, these pans worked just fine for what we were doing. We cooked and the food tasted good.
As we got older and we would window shop at the retail stores. We always thought it would be cool to get the really nice sets but didn't think much of it. We had other priorities like paying for diapers when the kids were little. Extras and nice to haves were put on the back burner (no pun intended).
There was a point in time when we did upgrade but it was based on a sales contest my company was running, and I got to choose from a selection of products. We did upgrade and most of our original pots and pans got relegated to a box in the basement for when the kids got older (which Michael is now using now in college). Even with the nicer set, I always wanted the best pots and pans, and that was All-Clad. They were the featured products in all of the nice stores we went to visit and as we got older, some of our friends had them as well.
As I learned over time, if you enjoy cooking, having a great set of pots and pans is just as important as a few other key items like your kitchen knife and your butcher block.
So, after lots of research, I opted to purchase from All-Clad but even then, there were so many options. I chose for the Copper Core set, but there was a learning curve. Unless you are cooking with a liquid, like boiling water, they recommendation is to heat up the pans on a low temperature and only increase it to medium on occasion. Most of your cooking is between the 3 and 4 range (out of 10) on the stove. I believe this is for most pans, but these were specific rules for cooking with the Copper Core set.
Over time, we did augment our original set with two non-stick Copper Core pans for cooking eggs and other items that are a bit easier with the non-stick. I know you can cook eggs on a traditional pan, but we haven't perfected it, and I have ruined too many eggs trying.
We have had our pans for about 3 years now and I can share with you that this was well worth the investment.
As a point of reference, as you may see, All-Clad is not manufactured by a small company or individual like the rest of my product recommendations. However, to elevate your sensory experience, I highly recommend them.
Separately, if you are the type of person who wants the best of the best, check out this site from Duparquet Cookware. These are all handmade silver pots with one of them going for as much as $16,000. I saw him featured on a local tv program and was fascinated.
Home and Cook Store (All-Clad owned Company) * Please note you have to agree to the terms and supply your email address before entering the site. I have used this site on multiple occasions to buy my All-Clad products.
For cleaning, you can use the following products based on recommendations from All-Clad.
For Transparency: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products I truly love and use myself.
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