Joanna Blythman

BACK in the day, you bought pots in sets, or so it seemed to me until I consulted chef Andrew Radford, founder of Timberyard in Edinburgh. Chefs select different pots and pans for different tasks, he explained. No single brand does everything well. This was revelatory for me, and liberating.

A homogeneous batterie de cuisine is for prettying up the kitchen pictures in estate agents’ brochures. Serious cooks tailor their equipment to a specific purpose.

Andrew’s advice was to treat each pot and pan you use as an investment item. Enduring, well-designed cooking kit is generally pretty expensive, so keep your collection lean, build it up gradually, and go for the best you can afford at the time.

Cheap fixes are a waste of time and ultimately money, he warned.

Plastic handles, for instance, are a no-no: it’s only a matter of time until they they break off. Choose steel handles instead. Apart from anything they give you the option of starting off something on the hob – a thick fish like cod or duck breast, for instance, then finishing it off in the oven, all using just one pan.

Stainless steel pots are useless for anything other than boiling unless they have a thick aluminium (cheaper), alloy, or copper (more expensive) ‘sandwich’ between the layers of steel at the base; food sticks to them otherwise.

You’ll know the sandwich is thick enough by the weight of the pot; heavier is better. Non-stick – those light metal pots and pans with a black coating – can scratch and flake toxins into your food almost the minute you use them. Steer well clear.

Over the years I have built up my collection following Andrew’s principles, but experimenting with newer technology as it appears.

What works for you is an individual thing, and for most of us there will always be competing factors: design, function, weight, and ease of maintenance. So here are a few of my star acquisitions.

For indestructible pots, I wouldn’t look past Le Pentole, a time-honoured brand that is made in Italy. Their stainless steel pans have great lids that fit snugly on the rim, and solid aluminium, steel and alloy bases that conduct heat evenly.

Gary Townsend is head chef at One Devonshire Gardens by Hotel du Vin, Glasgow. See www.hotelduvin. com