I’m a fan of Wolfgang Puck’s kitchen wares. It started around seven years ago when I found a nice set of Puck-ish mixing bowls with lids. Mixing bowls are always an issue around here–having enough, appropriate sizes, etc. No more. That the set included some whisks and such and was at a “fell-off-the-truck” price was just lagniappe I couldn’t pass up.
Since then, various Puck-ish wares, such as his 10-cup rice cooker (ours is actually an older model, same essential features, though), have found their way into our kitchen and proved themselves useful, durable and versatile. The most recent addition came because of the ongoing deterioration of our once top o’ the line “waterless” cookware. Oh, the pots n pans are still in fine shape, but, over the past 30 years, the Bakelite handles have slowly gone the way of the dodo. Yes, I have tracked down a source for replacement handles (and lid knobs), but the total cost would’ve been around what it cost to buy this:
No, the set’s not “waterless” and only the bottoms of the pots n pans are multi-clad, but with very little adaptation of my cooking habits, the past six months’ use of them has been positive, without exception.
I saw a FB comment a while back panning *heh* the set because the user said the handles got too hot and the pans were not “no-stick”–even hard to clean. Bushwah. Someone didn’t RTM (“read the manual”–bowdlerized for those folks who’re too prissy for “RTFM” :-)). Instructions for the set say explicitly to use them on NO HIGHER than medium high heat. That and the old rule that any cook worth his salt knows for keeping pans “unsticky”–“hot pan, cold oil: food won’t stick”–has meant I have experienced neither of the issues the person who DIDN’T “READ THE MANUAL” had with the pans.
To be fair, after 30 years of using “waterless” cookware that was also designed for the same heat range as this set, that wasn’t an adjustment for me. But, no. Paying $100 for a bunch of pots n pans and then not even reading the little one-page instruction card that came with ’em is just stupid.
So, in a very, very (very) inexpensive set of pots n pans (with some nice lil tools as well–minimalist spats n spoons, useful meat fork, another nice whisk), I have found some surprisingly advanced features and decent build quality, and so I’m pleased. Heck, my cheapo set of six stock pots (found at another “fell-off-the-truck-pricing” store–six, admittedly cheap stock pots in graduated sizes for $25? Yeh, even for cheap stock pots, that’s really cheap) even has lids that can double up on some of the pots n pans when I do not want to use the glass lids, for whatever reason.
I have my eye out for more Puck-ish wares…
Have never used waterless cookware. I’ll have to give it a try. I generally don’t buy the big name celeb stuff – tried a few and they were all not worth the extra money for the name. I think I have a hand held WP mixer. It looked like a great idea at the time but it is almost useless for doing anything but whipping cream, egg whites, etc. It has 3 wire beaters rather than bladed beaters so anything like cookie dough just makes the poor thing grind like crazy. Also, with the 3 beaters, you pretty much have to use a bowl with a good size flat bottom part. For whipping stuff it’s a champ though, I’ll give it that. And it may be that I was one of those people who didn’t read the box carefully enough or the instructions that came with it…:)
Oh, I never use a “mixer” for anything. *heh* Well, I do have a hand crank mixer I use for a few things. It was my grandmother’s. 🙂 I do have one of those lil one-hand mini-food processors, but the only thing I’ve really found it to be useful for ism “grinding” a chai mix into powder or mixing (with the stainless steel bladed wand) cocoa mix into hot milk and getting a real good froth going.
The kinds of things I’ve really appreciated from WP have been just what I described: the rice cooker (use it ALL the time–it never gets put away off my countertop–a nice set of stainless steel mixing bowls, the whisks and such like and this set of cookware. You know, apart from the rice cooker, just standard cooking utensils.
But as for “extra money for the name”–well, the WP things I’ve bought so far just haven’t been “extra $$” in pricing. In fact, the pots n pans were priced so low–at $100 for the set–I really had to look at ’em closely, thinking the quality had to be low. Not so. YMMV. Changes in manufacture (or where manufactured) could make a difference. WallyWorld now carries “Sabatier” knives, but they’re NOT AT ALL of the same quality as mine, made some 20+ years ago, and NOT in China. *heh* Kinda wish I could find some more of the genuine article, reasonably priced (“reasonably priced” to a tightwad like me translates to “a steal” :-)).