Would you expect the top chefs to use low or high quality cooking equipment? I would expect you to answer ‘high’ quality. And you wouldn’t be far off the mark. The faces of well-known TV chefs are often enough to sell the brand of cooking equipment bearing their name. Jamie Oliver springs to mind straight away. And you’d be right in thinking that Jamie’s own brand of cooking equipment is top quality.

His cooking equipment has to be of the highest quality. He is a brand. He sells his shows, his recipes, his cooking style through the quality of what he produces. So the quality of the rest of his brand has to be matched by the quality of his cooking equipment. Chances are, you wouldn’t think much of your Jamie Oliver deep frying pan if the handle came off while you were following Jamie’s show, frying up the perfect English breakfast.

Right, that’s enough about celebrity chefs. They make their living from chopping up, mixing and cooking food, so they are only going to use the best cooking equipment. What about the rest of us? Is there a significant difference between the best quality and the cheapest cooking equipment? Does the law of diminishing returns apply to kitchenware?

The short answer is: cook a lot? Then buy the best. Good cooking equipment lasts a lifetime. It’s something you forge a relationship with. Your cooking pots are your tools. They can become an extension of your body, even of your self. you. It is a heavy piece of equipment. It’s solid. Its power can be felt evey time it’s used. And there’s research to suggest that cooking slightly acidic foods such as tomatoes in ironware will have a beneficial effect on your health. Traces of iron are released into your food, contributing to your daily iron intake.

On the other hand, cheap cooking equipment is very likely to let you down.