30 Famous People on Their Favorite Cookware

Naomi Watts
“I recently got into Our Place cookware. Its Always Pan is amazing — it does it all. You can use it to fry and boil, and you can even put it in the oven. It’s also super-easy to clean. I actually bought this for a lot of friends for Christmas. One pan that handles everything means fewer dishes to clean and less crap in the cupboards, so it’s a win-win in my book.” —April 2025

Sarah Hyland
“It has a little holder for the spoon, and the spout makes it easy to drain things. It cleans so easily and cooks so evenly. I don’t have to use a lot of oil, which makes my food a bit healthier. ” —January 2022

Halle Berry
“A friend of mine told me about this pan, and she said, ‘Your life will be changed with this Always pan.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t think a pan can change my life, but okay, let me try it.’ And you know what? It changed my life. It revolutionizes the time it takes in the kitchen. I’m one of those people who eats to live; I don’t live to eat. So I’m really only eating when I’m hungry, and when I’m hungry, I want to make something fast. This really keeps things moving. ” —October 2021

Kim Chi
“I saw advertisements for it all over social media before I bought it. At first, I was like,Another product they’re trying to force me to buy.Then one of my friends posted about cooking with it, and I was like,I guess I’ll give it a try. It has been the best investment, and I actually threw all my other pans out. I cook a lot of Korean stews with it, like kimchee stew and miso stew. It’s also really good for tossing pasta. ” —May 2021

Hilary Swank
“Some more environmentally sound pans will lose their nonstick quality, and that’s been really frustrating for us — as well as really expensive — because then you have to go buy a new pan every six months. Our SearSmart pans have never lost their nonstick quality, and supposedly it will last forever. Plus they’re not overly expensive, so you can buy, like, ten and still be okay.” —November 2022

Editor’s note: Swank owned an older version of this pan that’s no longer available, so we linked to the newest version.

Chef Mina Stone
“About 15 years ago, one of my best friends, who used to work at Housing Works, got me a used set of these pans in three different sizes. I still use them every single day. They are very straightforwardnonstick frying pansthat you can use for absolutely everything. This is the size that I use the most, and it’s one of those things where I look at it and I’m like,You are so worth it; you have lasted for so many years.” —September 2021

Chanel Iman
“I love cooking. This skillet is the perfect size to make a full meal for my family. I can cook pretty much anything I’d get at a restaurant on this skillet.” —April 2024

Sohla El-Waylly
“I had cast irons for a long time and didn’t use any of them. I thought you couldn’t wash it, couldn’t cook with acid on it, you had to scrub it with salt. Turns out all of that’s a lie. I didn’t actually know how to take care of a cast iron until I worked at Serious Eats, where they’re all about fact-based research. It’s really quite simple. When you first get one, you rub it down with a really thin layer of oil, as if you’re putting moisturizer on. (You don’t need to fill it to the brim with fat, which is another thing I had heard before.) Then put it upside down in an oven and bake it at, like, 450 degrees until it stops smoking. Just repeat that with multiple layers. And once you do that the first time, you’re pretty much set for life. After every cook, all you gotta do is wash it with soap and water, dry it thoroughly, heat it up on the stove until it’s really hot, and do a really thin buffing.” —November 2023

Justin Peck
“Like many people, I started to cook a lot during the pandemic. During that time, I started researchingcast-iron skilletsand found this brand. They’re a U.S.-based company out of Charleston, South Carolina, and they care so much about their craft. This one did not disappoint. It’s a pillar of my kitchen. And I’ve since ordered their wok and a couple other pieces from them. It’s worth the investment because they’re pieces that will last a lifetime and ones I’ll probably pass down.” —June 2023

Eddie Yarbrough
“I’m a grilled-cheese connoisseur. If a restaurant has a grilled cheese available, I’m not ordering anything else except that. At home, I’m a very classic kind of guy, so I make my standard: butter, cheap bread, American cheese. I have my little cast-iron skillet. It’s been passed down from my grandma to my dad. I’m pretty sure my dad didn’t give it to me, but I stole it from him.” —November 2019

Restaurateur Emily Hyland
“My very first job when I moved to New York 15, 16 years ago was as a gift-wrapper during the holiday season at Williams Sonoma — I’m excellent at wrapping gifts to this day. You got an employee discount, and so on the last day I bought my first Lodge pan. It’s just such an easy cooking tool. And it’s so nice to season and have that history of all the dishes that are cooked in there and that perpetual seasoning going on.” —October 2019

Amanda Chantal Bacon
“I’ve had one of these for the entire time I’ve lived in Los Angeles, and it’s all I need. You can cook anything in that thing — spaghetti, lentils. And it’s a great way to add a little iron to your diet; every time you cook in that pan, it puts a little iron in your food. So if you’re cooking something a few times a week, just do it in that pan.” —November 2018

Tituss Burgess
“So my grandmother and mom were the cooks in the family, and there was no kitchen that I walked into among my aunts and uncles that didn’t have a cast-iron skillet. You can bake in it; you can fry in it; you can sauté things in it. And it sort of retains the flavor — that’s not to say you don’t wash it, but it retains the seasoning of the past meals.” —June 2018

Lisa Ann Walter
“I’ve had pans over the years that I’ve worn out because the coating comes off. I’ve tried expensive ones — coating still comes off. But I’ve got a couple of All-Clad pans that I got when I married my first husband, and they are still going strong. We’re talking about 35 years later. I’ve got an All-Clad pan that was my nana’s saucepan. She got them when people were selling them door-to-door. To this day, that’s what I use to make my red sauce, because it’s got a heavy bottom and doesn’t scorch. None of them show any signs of wear.” —June 2023

Missy Robbins
“The shape of this saucier is great for poaching eggs or sweating garlic in small batches. After I got it, it quickly became my favorite pan. I only need to cook for two at home, so this is a really great size for me. I also just love the brand. I have All-Clad pots and pans in every style: stock pots, smaller braising pans, sauté pans. I have a lot. They’re all really durable. I’ve probably had this specific pot for five or six years.” —December 2019

Leslie Bibb
“I am a cook. It’s one of my love languages. I make homemade veggie broth and chicken broth, and I spent all last weekend making soup for Sam and me. I’m very lucky to have a nice kitchen in our apartment in New York, and I love cooking with my Le Creuset. I really treasure it. I would rather buy a piece of cookware than a purse, as corny as it sounds.” —March 2024

Dominique Ansel
“I have one that’s yellow. I also have red, gray, and brown. I like to use a big one when I do a cassoulet for the holidays and we invite friends over. It’s probably at least 20 inches wide and pretty deep. You know, if you buy this, you keep it for the rest of your life. It’s unbreakable, it’s sturdy, it’s strong, it’s heavy, but it’s something that you don’t replace. You keep it with you for the rest of your life, and I’m probably going to hand it down to my kids. You can cook pretty much everything — anything that’s a stew, any French dishes.” —January 2024

Kyle MacLachlan
“I appreciate the flexibility of being able to start something on the stove and move it to the oven and vice versa. I remembered that Julia Child used them, and when I Googled it, it turns out that the Dutch oven was one of her favorite things. She loved the flame-colored one, which is the exact one I have.” —December 2020

Kristin Cavallari
“You can use a Dutch oven for pretty much everything. My kids love when I make them Dutch babies, which are sort of like pancake-crêpe things, for breakfast. I’ll also sauté chicken in my Dutch oven. If I could have only one kitchen item, this is what it would be.” —October 2020

Brian Baumgartner
“Saying I can’t live without chili is sort of a half-joke that anyone who watchedThe Officewill find funny. Kevin’s Famous Chili is all you need to know. But yes, I do actually have a specific pot that I use for chili. It’s a very lovely pot from Le Creuset. I’m not like Angela Kinsey — I’m not a major cooking expert — but I do like this pot. I honestly don’t think I made chili before the show, but now I make it fairly often, mostly during football season. Every time I make it, I post a picture of me with the chili on Instagram, and every time 100,000 people like that picture because they think it’s so funny I’m actually making chili.” —July 2020

Angela Kinsey
“Most nights, we make dinner together. My kids really love to help, so I have them wash and peel the vegetables. I’m not supercomfortable having them wield a big knife yet, so I put them on the safer tasks. We make a lot of soups and stews, which are what we mostly use our Le Creuset for, especially in the winter.” —March 2020

Corky Pollan
“It just works beautifully, and it cleans beautifully, too. It can sometimes get a little discolored, but you can use Bar Keepers Friend on it and get rid of any stains that you might have.” —June 2019

Elvira
“They’re handmade from clay, and they have been around forever. You can even set them directly on a fire if you were going camping. And they’re gorgeous. I keep them displayed on my dining-room shelves, but they’re also extremely useful for cooking. My favorite thing to do with them is cooking beans.” —October 2022

Meena Harris
“I have a Le Creuset Dutch oven, which is great. But what I like about this Great Jones one is that it’s longer and shallower, which makes it easier to cook stuff more evenly and takes less time because everything is more spread out. It’s great for when I’m making gumbo or defrosting okra or cooking shrimp.” —March 2021

Chef Angie Mar
“I personally love a really good beef bone broth. I start out with just lots of really beautiful roasted bones and then cold water. And then I just bring it up to a simmer and let it go for hours so it can really extract all of this beautiful collagen out of the bones. And then I season it with salt. A lot of times, you’ll catch me running out of the restaurant with one of those to-go coffee mugs, and it’s actually filled with bone broth. So when I make it at home, I have this one pot that I just love. It was given to me by my father. And it’s just really old and beautiful.” —August 2019

Andrew Kuo
“This carbon-steel wok is light. The maintenance is kind of tricky, but it became a new obsession. And if you’re into cooking, cleaning and seasoning yourwokcan be a real peaceful experience and process. If you’re not into it, it’s annoying. It’ll rust, but all you have to do is scrub the rust off.” —November 2023

Jessica Alba
“I make a lot of crêpes. It’s a really fun thing to have for breakfast or dinner. And my kids love it, regardless if I make savory or sweet ones. They’re easier to make with a crêpe pan than a regular frying pan or whatnot, because you can get the size and consistency just right.” —December 2021

Taraji P. Henson
“These pots are nonstick — and I meannonstick. Yes, you can burn something in it, but they make it hard for you to do so. Like, if you burn something in these pots, you really don’t know what the hell you’re doing.” —February 2021

Tayari Jones
“I believe I can cook an entire Thanksgiving in this one dish. You can cook in it; you can bake in it. You can do everything from scramble an egg in it to cook paella. It’s easy to clean and naturally nonstick. I use it every day. The people fromFood & Winemagazine wanted to cook with me in my home, and they had ordered a special pan to cook in. But it didn’t arrive, and they were like, ‘How are we going to make the pineapple cornmeal upside-down cake?’ And I said, ‘We can use my Le Creuset braiser.’ They were skeptical, but it came out like a dream.” —September 2018

Julia Turshen
“I’m always reluctant to recommend anything that’s really expensive, but this is a pan I use on a very regular basis. It’s the kind of thing you can buy and pass down for generations. They last forever, and it’s super-super-sturdy, and because it’s so thick and heavy, things cook so evenly and beautifully in it. I just use the base and put it directly on my grill, and I cook things like fish and shrimp in it. And because it gets so, so hot, you get a beautiful sear or crust on whatever you’re cooking.” —September 2018