Review of Chantal cookware
Thursday, May 31st, 2007
Not many stores carry Chantal cookware anymore, except for the teapot. Chantal manufactures a complete line of cookware in Germany. It used to be a staple at Williams Sonoma along with Caphalon, All-Clad and Le Creuset, and at every other gourmet cooking store. Somewhere along the way the brand fell out of favor, maybe because it isn’t expensive enough to compete with the All-Clads of the gourmet world.
I think the brand deserves a second look. I’ve been using it for almost 20 years and it’s still going strong and looks great. The best news is it’s inexpensive. You can get a 7-piece set (which really means 4 pans with lids) for just $249.00. This set includes the most basic sizes and shapes that will pretty much cover most of what you want to cook. The set includes a 2 qt. saucepan with lid, 3 qt. saucepan with lid, 6 qt. dutch oven with lid and 10″ skillet.
The cookware is made of solid steel with an enamel coating. This combination has several advantages over the other more expensive brands. The carbon steel core heats fast and evenly all the way up the sides. The enamel coating is non-porous so it won’t interact with food and can go from freezer to oven. The enamel also has naturally stick-resistant properties, which means you can use less fat. The lids are made of tempered glass and almost impossible to break.
How many of you have used a “non-stick” pan for a few years only to find that the “non-stick” coating begins to chip away (and possibly into your scrambled eggs). The other alternatives, stainless steel and aluminum, are impossible to clean up and require LOTS of fat to keep the food from sticking. The enamel isn’t non-stick, but it is the perfect middle ground. It doesn’t require as much fat when you’re cooking as stainless and doesn’t chip away over time.
Why the 7-piece set is a deal - The 2 qt. saucepan and the 10″ skillet are the workhorses that you will use every day from heating up soup to sauteing chicken. The 3 qt. saucepan is what you need for slightly bigger jobs like making a mornay sauce for your mac-n-cheese, or steaming vegetables. Yes, I did say steam. Despite what the food network and William Sonoma want you to think, you don’t need a separate pan to steam things. There are these wonderful inserts that hold your food up out of the water at a fraction of the cost. The dutch oven is for big jobs like pot roast, soup or a large pot of pasta.
You can buy the 7 piece Chanta cookware set here online for $249.00.
I highly recommend Chantal cookware. It’s the perfect combination of high quality, endurance and low-maintenance.
