I enjoy my Calphalon – coated big pot for soups, stews and anodized aluminum medium saute pan for everything but omelets. I’m an omelet junkie and so have a special omelet pan — but I can do the omelets in my saute pan.

I love my knives – most useful are Santoku 8″ full tang riveted; my 3″ Twins paring knife, and an amazingly inexpensive Chinese cleaver (takes an edge and keeps it forever!).

Yes, I have other pots, pans, knives, gadgets — but these are the everyday usefuls – 2 pots, 3 knifes does 90% of my kitchen prep.

2. If you’re really just starting out and not sure about this whole cooking thing, you don’t want to spend $300 or more outfitting your kitchen. 1 12 inch nonstick skillet (preferably fairly deep, with lid) 1 large pot (5-7 quarts) one small pot (2 or 2.5 quarts) both with tight-fitting lids, a 9×13 Pyrex baking pan, a colander, a cutting board (bigger is better), a vegetable peeler, a spatula and a slotted spoon (both not metal) 2-3 knives (chef’s knife, utility serrated knife, and paring knife) and a set of measuring cups and spoons should be able to be ordered off of Amazon for less than $150 at a perfectly acceptable quality level. At those price levels, you may only get 5-10 years of use out of your pots and pans, but you’ll also have a much better sense when you finally buy the expensive stuff which pieces fit into your cooking style and which you’re really going to use.

3. Specialized tools. No, you don’t need a garlic press, or rice cooker, or waffle iron or whatever. But if you’ll use them frequently, they usually make sense in terms of the time savings. My garlic press gets used 3-4 times a week, but a rice cooker would get used once a month at best. Just depends on the sort of stuff you cook.

Better to learn with the basics – two knives, two saucepans, frypan and a casserole of some sort. And a small collection of tools: spoons, slices, rolling pin, strainer, sieve, manual can and bottle openers.

Spend money on heavy, classic pans and knives. I do like no-stick frypans, but good ones are not cheap and yet are still easily, irrepairable damaged.

Learn how to put an edge on your knives – a steel would be my “knife” number 3, followed by a small stone.

Bargains are often hiding in “ethnic” (for want of a better word) grocery stores – chinese claypots for the cost of Big Mac Meal, for example.

Finally, if you’re going to cook, make every ounce of fat count – use fat with flavour (butter, duck, goose, beef dripping)!!!!

I got a serrated small knife, large knife and some scissors. I haven’t felt the need to upgrade yet as between them they cut everything. When I do upgrade, I’ll just get one really good knife and a sharpening steel.

I’ve got exactly two pans which I’ve had for 9 years and they were an expensive gift and are still going strong, one small one and one big shallow one. I’m planning on getting a small casserole dish to complete my cooking set. I have got more baking tins and so on but they are basically just for making cakes and biscuits (a favoured hobby).

“Aluminum is established as a neurotoxin, although the basis for its toxicity is unknown. It recently has been shown to alter the function of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which regulates exchanges between the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral circulation.”

http://www.familyhaven.com/health/alzheim.html

That’s a pretty balanced overview of it arguing that aluminum isn’t really worth worrying about.

really, you don’t “need” anything fancy at all. i’ll stick with what i wrote before: riveted handles, thick ply metals, and long lasting non-stick coatings. i’m not sure if you can really say one product is better than the other, it’s really personal preference. although i’m simply not a fan of aluminum and prefer something with a copper core lining. but again, that is really personal preference. cast iron like creuset has its uses, but it is not for everyone and you can get same results with a cheapo standard cast iron pan, so does anyone really “need” creuset? i have a cuisinart multiclad pan, no frills, nothing special, same as any other muli-ply stainless pan. Anyways, again it’s really personal preference.

That is true if you actually need and/or use all the items in the set; otherwise, you’re simply trading quality for quantity and acquiring more stuff you then have to store. For example, the Calphalon set linked in the original post contains both a 3-qt casserole and a 2.5-qt saucepan, which are basically the same thing.

My suggestion is first to peruse a book like “Alton Brown’s Gear for Your Kitchen”, which though not perfect should give you a better idea of what’s critical and what’s fluff (adjusted for the kinds of things you like to cook/eat). Then, join cooksillustrated.com for a 2-week free trial and read the equipment reviews to see what are good buys and what you should avoid. (Hint: You don’t need All-Clad; some less expensive products are just as good, if not better, such as the Sur La Table house brand and Cuisinart MultiClad.)

I’m not a fan of the aluminum calphalon line, but that is personal preference. I’m an all-clad copper core fan. I also will double what Kate says about Revere copper core pots (i thought they were limited edition runs). My parents, thus I, grew up with the Revere copper core and perhaps the best deal out there. But in the end, what you are looking for are pots and pans with strong rivets holding the handles and with thicker metals. The major problem with cheap to mid-grade stuff is that they tend to be thinner, cheaper plys of metal and will warp and are held on by screws rather than rivets. There are plenty of midgrade stuff out there that have all the bennies as the higher priced. just focus on strong rivets, thick metals, and long lasting non-stick coatings.

Although I would recommend buying a knife set, vice open stock, because you will end up buying cheaper in the end if you are planning a whole set, you really do not need all those knives as Kate wrote. A small set will probably suffice for the vast majority of the people. I’m a big fan of Santoku Oriental cook knives (this is a style, not a brand) and use it more than a the standard cooks knife. Basic set would include a good scissors (you’d be surprised how much a scissors comes in handy in the kitchen), cooks knife or the like, paring knife, and a serrated knife long blade knife (like a bread knife, which i use for more than just bread), and a sharpening steel. Key though, is to find something that is comfortable in your hands and will maintain its edge. you really do not need a 9″ cooks knife if you have small hands or big hands for that matter. people cut themselves more b/c of dull blades rather than b/c of sharp blades (they over compensate b/c it is more difficult to cut). if the blade doesn’t integrate into the handle, then the handle will eventually come loose from the blade.

Better yet…how about a garlic press. It’s only used for crushing garlic, something you can do with the flat edge of a good wide butcher knife and some pressure from your hand, and the knife can also do many other things.

When you buy your kitchen tools, aside from a very few minor exceptions (like maybe a corkscrew), buy them with the idea that you want something you can use to do more than one thing in your kitchen. It saves you money in the long run, because you don’t have to buy 3 utensils to do 3 different things when you can buy one utensil that will do them all!

I agree that someone new to cooking should buy middle-quality and middle-price knives. I also agree that one should upgrade to the high-end stuff slowly, one knife at a time, perhaps over years. Based on my own experience, (with professional training and work as a chef) the chef’s knife and the utility knife are the two most important knives in a home kitchen. You might think a paring knife would be a higher priority than the utility knife, but I haven’t found that to be the case. In any event, high-quality knives are good things to ask for for holiday or birthday gifts (so long as you’re not Japanese – bad cultural significance). Yes, they are expensive, but a good Wustof or Henckel knife will last you a lifetime. They are good investments.

I also like the Revere Ware copper-lined pots. They stand up well to years of hard use and are sized appropriately for the home cook.