Commercial Cookware

Stainless is the one for stock, sauce and anything acidic, because it doesn't react with wine, tomato or vinegar, it takes a hard deglaze, and it will go through a dishwasher for years. Aluminium is much lighter and heats faster, which matters when a chef lifts the same pan two hundred times a service, and it costs less.

Cast iron holds heat, so it is the choice for a hard sear where a lighter pan would drop its temperature the second the steak hits it. Carbon steel is between the two and is what the woks and paella pans are made from. Non-stick is for eggs, crepes and delicate fish, and it's bought knowing it's a consumable.

Put a fridge magnet on the base. If it grabs firmly the pan will work on induction, and if it slides off it won't, whatever the pan is made of on the inside. Plain aluminium won't work on its own, and some stainless won't either, which is why the pans built for it say so in the name — the Tri Wall induction frying pans, the non-stick induction pans and the Benchstar induction wok are all made for it.

Buyers often find this out after the cooktop is already installed. If you are putting induction in at the same time, Silverchef Rent-Try-Buy lets you rent the cooktop instead of buying it outright, so your cash stays in the rest of the fit-out and the rental payments are an operating expense. You can buy it out later or move up to a larger model as the venue grows.

A thin base warps because the metal heats unevenly and pulls itself out of flat. A burner turned up hard under an empty pan will do it, and so will cold water going into a hot one. Once a base has domed it never sits flat again, and on a flat top or an induction hob that means half the pan is no longer touching the heat.

Buy a thicker base up front. A sandwich or tri-wall base has a layer of aluminium between stainless, so it spreads the heat instead of heating one patch, and it is much harder to distort. It costs more, and it is the main reason a good pan outlasts a cheap one by years. Let pans cool before they go near the wash-up, and never preheat a non-stick pan empty.

Treat it as a consumable. Months to a couple of years depending on how it is used, and a busy breakfast service will get through them faster than that. The coating goes because of metal utensils, high dry heat, and repeated commercial dishwasher cycles with strong detergent.

Use silicone or nylon tools only, never preheat one empty, and hand wash where you can. Coloured handles help as well, because if the egg pans are all green nobody takes one for a steak. Keep a couple of spares in the storeroom, because a non-stick pan that has started to lift is a food safety problem and it goes straight in the bin.

Match the pan base to the burner or the induction ring. A pan much wider than the flame cooks hot in the middle and cool at the edge, and a pan much smaller than the burner wastes gas and heats the handle instead. On induction, a base smaller than the ring often won't be detected at all.

For pot sizes, work from your batch size. Sauces and small batches want 1.5 to 3 litres. A service-size batch of stew or curry wants 7 to 9.5 litres. Stock or a large braise for the week wants the 12.5 or 18.5 litre stew pans.

A tall narrow pot holds more with less evaporation, and a wide low pan reduces faster, so buy the shape that suits what you cook most. Order lids for the pots that will be covered.

Stainless can, and that is one of the reasons it stays the default for the pans that get hammered. Non-stick survives it, but the coating goes off much faster, so hand washing pays for itself. Bare aluminium doesn't take it at all, because commercial detergent is harsh and it will dull and discolour quickly. Cast iron and carbon steel should never see a machine, since the seasoning comes straight off and they'll rust.

Check riveted handles if pans go through a machine daily. Rivets can work loose over years of hot cycles, so test them now and again and tighten or retire any pan with movement in the handle.

Buy it if you have a job that needs heat held. Cast iron is the choice for searing steaks and for anything that has to stay hot on the plate, which is why sizzle platters are made of it. Carbon steel is lighter and comes up faster, which is why woks and paella pans use it. Both are heavy, both take a while to heat through, and both will rust.

The care is the same for either. Season them, wash with hot water and a brush instead of detergent, dry them on the heat straight away, and wipe a little oil through. If one does rust, scour it back and season it again. Left wet overnight, either of them will be orange by morning.

Usually, but fit across brands cannot be guaranteed. Gastronorm is a standard size, so the outside dimensions are the same across the trade. The difference is in the lip, the corner radius and the flange, and two millimetres is enough for a pan to sit proud in a well, catch on the runners of a prep fridge, or fail to seat on an oven rack.

Buy the pans from the same supplier as the appliance they go into, whether that is the oven, the fridge or the bain marie. The gastronorm pans and containers sit with the food storage equipment. Tell REO the make and model of the appliance and we will match the pans to it.

High density boards are harder, they resist deep scoring and they suit heavy chopping and butchery. Low density boards are softer, kinder to a knife edge and better for lighter prep. Both come in the six food safety colours plus white, and in thicknesses from 10mm up to 25mm. The thick boards do not slide about and they last much longer under a cleaver.

Buy a set with a rack and the wall chart instead of loose boards. The rack stands each board on its edge so it dries properly, which a stack never does, and the chart puts the colour coding up where the staff are. Boards are a consumable, so once the surface is scored deep enough that it won't clean back smooth, replace it.

Lids, and more of them than most buyers order, because they are sold separately in matching sizes and an uncovered pot takes much longer to come up to temperature. Then mixing bowls in a few sizes for prep, a spaghetti or pasta basket if pasta is cooked to order, and silicone handle sleeves if pans go in and out of an oven.

After that it is the tools that touch the pans. Silicone spatulas and spoonulas for the non-stick, stainless tongs and turners for everything else, and a set of colour coded boards with a rack for the prep bench. Baking pieces such as loaf tins, muffin pans and quiche tins with removable bases suit a pastry menu. REO prices on all of it are sharp, and putting the whole pan list on one order gets you a better number than replacing pans one at a time across a year.