Stanley Tucci once said, “If you find that thing you love, it doesn’t necessarily matter whether you do it well or not, you just need to do it.” For me, that something is cooking—heavy on the “love doing it,” with a dash or two of the “not doing it well.” Yet, each night, I pull out my pots and my pans and give it a go—and these days, those pots and pans include the GreenPan Stanley Tucci Ceramic Non-Stick cookware.
Though I learned to cook a long time ago from my grandmother, I didn’t fully realize until recently that the hardware you’re working with makes a big difference in the outcome of your dish. But any professional chef will tell you that using the right cookware at the right times is vital to the success of a meal. Like when James Beard-award-winning Chicago-based chef Paul Kahan told us that you never want to cook tomato sauce in a cast iron pan (the metal reacts to foods with high acidity and can ruin the flavor.)
Given that Tucci is fueled 90 percent by tomato sauce, this is valuable advice that I figured I could put to good use when testing out his line. “My new collection combines modern design with effortless performance,” Tucci says in a video on the Williams Sonoma site. “This is cookware that makes cooking easier. It looks great. It performs beautifully. It…will help you enjoy your life through food.”
Colors: 3
Made from professional-gauge, five-millimeter aluminum, these pans are meant to heat what you’re cooking evenly so that you’ll get high performance on any cooktop you try. They have one of the GreenPan brand’s most technological PFAS-free nonstick coatings, which means that you’re getting technology and design all in one.
Pros:
- Beautifully designed and modern-looking pans that come in a range of color options
- Able to go from the stovetop into the oven, up to 600°F
- PFAs-free, which means that you don’t have to worry about your dinner being season with toxic materials
- Truly non-stick—try to fry and egg in these puppies, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results.
- Woven induction—the way that the pans heat up—means that these work well on all stovetops
- Multiple sizes and shapes of cookware to meet all of your kitchen’s needs
- Incredibly easy to clean
Cons:
- Dishwasher safe, but the brand recommends hand-washing to prolong the life (I can’t be bothered.)
- The line only has ceramic, non-stick options at the moment so if you’re looking for something that’s stainless steel only, you won’t yet find it
- Some reviewers have said that the paint on their cookware has chipped, but that’s not something I’ve yet experienced
- Compared to a pan like the Our Place Always Pan, these run a little bit higher on the pocketbook
Created exclusively for cookware retailer Williams Sonoma, the Tucci line is crafted in Italy using quality materials that stand-up to the heat in the kitchen. This includes an aluminum range, which consists of black, ecru, and teal-colored pans, and a stainless steel range. Tucci collaborated with a designer from GreenPan—a brand known for creating some of the best non-toxic, PFAs-free, non-stick cookware—to create the sizes, textures, and colors for each piece in the line. The pieces are based on Tucci’s modern, minimalist design aesthetic, and each is made with technology that performs in the kitchen—they can also go into the oven up to 600°F.
Greenpan Stanley Tucci Cookware: My Review
Though I’m not the best cook, I also wouldn’t consider myself a novice—I’ve taken my fair share of pots and pans for a spin, so I feel like I can speak truthfully on where these stand. I tried the 8-inch fry pan, and when I had it in my hands, it felt an awful lot like an All-Clad non-stick pan that I used to own, which many chefs consider to be the crème de la crème of fry pans.
The Greenpan Stanley Tucci pan, in conjunction with being way better looking than any other cookware I own, is very sturdy and the handle is nice and grippy. It feels like it was engineered to toss stuff high into the air on camera. However, when I put the pan to the test, I picked the least camera-happy, hardest-to-clean-up option I could think of to cook: scrambled eggs for my twin babies—with no butter or good stuff to help them from sticking.
Remarkably, the Tucci pan didn’t even sweat it. My old pan would’ve had a thin layer of egg hugging the surface, but this one responded with perfectly scrambled eggs and little mess. I let it cool, then ran it under some dish water and was done with baby food prep for the morning. Am I sold? You’d better believe it. If making the world’s blandest eggs can be this easy, making actually delicious things with little cleanup will bring me big-time joy.
After going on to test the rest of the entire line, I’d say that it’s best for beginners looking for a non-stick ceramic option. Because of the non-stick coating, you don’t have to fear that your dinner will singe the second you step away. It’s also priced relatively well for a higher-end non-stick, so you’re getting a lot of value for what you’re paying for. In other words, if you love the Our Place Always Pan, a similar ceramic non-stick option, then Tucci’s line is for you.
Shop the Rest of Tucci’s Cookware
Tucci’s answer to the Always Pan has a leg up on its candy-colored competition: the tight-fitting glass lid that the Essential Pan comes with. I like to be able to see what I’m cooking and how it’s looking and this pan allows me to do just that. Plus, and I say this completely truthfully: The nonstick coating is infused with diamonds to help maximize performance. Gird alllll kinds of (tender)loins in this puppy.
Whether you want to boil eggs to make marinara sauce, this saucepan will make everyday kitchen tasks a breeze. The small but versatile vessel has a rounded shape allow for easy access to all your ingredients while whisking or stirring, and the nonstick coating prevents anything from getting stuck in the pan’s corners.
This Dutch oven is one you would be proud to display on your stove top. Besides its obvious beauty, it is also ergonomic. It has a capacity of 6 quarts with high walls that is perfect for whipping up hearty soups or baking sourdough (It’s oven-safe to 350 degrees Fahrenheit!), and it comes replete with a tight-fitting lid. To top of it, the nonstick interior cleans easily between uses. *Chef’s kiss*
This 11-piece cookware set is where it’s at, if only for the amazing pasta pot with a built-strainer that makes cooking up noodles so easy. It’s presently only available in the set, but the ease of use, coupled with the soups, stews, and all other kinds of set-it-and-forget-it dishes is worth the investment.
