Freedom Day has officially landed, and while much remains uncertain (whether lockdown is *actually* gone for good/how many people will continue to wear face masks), one thing’s for sure: our lockdown-induced obsession with cooking is here to stay. If you’re anything like me, investing in fancy cookware, serving up meal delivery service creations on pretty dinnerware and dressing your dining table within an inch of its life (even for breakfast) were the mainstays of your lockdown routine. And the things that just about kept you sane.
You can relate? Then during your virtual culinary travels through Instagram and TikTok, you likely stumbled across cult and female-founded American cookware brand Our Place. You’d have stopped to admire how damn photogenic their famed Always Pan is – (and how nifty it sounds – eight kitchen utensils in one?!) – before letting out a huge sigh of disappointment upon realising you couldn’t get it shipped to the UK.
Well today, fellow foodies, I greet you with some EXCELLENT news: the Our Place Always Pan UK launch has officially happened. Yep: you can now get you mitts on the Always Pan in the UK. Why should you care? It claims to do the job of eight pieces of kitchenware in one, has sold out 10 times over and racked up a 50,000-person waitlist. Plus, it looks so damn pretty.
In true GLAMOUR fashion, we decided to test the Always Pan ahead of the UK launch to see what all the fuss was about. Here’s everything you need to know.
What is Our Place?
Our Place is an American-born cookware brand marketed as “Le Creuset for millennials” (you bet we’re all ears already). It was founded Shiza Shahid who has built a leadership team composed primarily of women and people of colour after little over one year in business. Our Place stocks ethically-made and stylish cookware that is designed to be fuss-free for home cooks of every level, and it has some epic sustainability credentials to boot. In fact, Our Place has already reached carbon neutrality and is committed to non-toxic products, sustainable packaging, and working with eco- and socially-conscious factories across the world. So. Damn. Cool.
What is the Our Place Always Pan?
The Always Pan is perhaps the product Our Place is best known for: an all-singing-all-dancing non-stick frying pan that was recently nicknamed the “kitchen magician” by Oprah Winfrey. We say frying pan… but that actually doesn’t do it any justice. The Always Pan promises to become your frying pan, saute pan, steamer, skillet, saucepan, spatula and spoon rest in one, braising, steaming, boiling, storing and searing your culinary creations without the need for 74822 different kitchen gadgets. Impressive, right?
The Always Pan has been designed to be deep enough to cook pasta, but shallow and wide enough to fry an egg. It comes with a removable steamer basket and includes a nesting spatula so that you don’t need to dirty another plate with a messy spatula. It also includes a pour spout to easily pour out excess grease or transfer a sauce, comes in six very chic colour-ways (from blush pink to a muted beige hue and powder blue) and is stylish enough to leave out on your stove – or even your table.
Always Pan, £140, Our Place
Is the Our Place pan worth it? Our Place Always Pan review:
As expected, the Always Pan is quite spenny, coming in at £140. So is it worth the hype? Should you add to cart immediately along with every other influencer in the land? In short: yes. The Our Place Always Pan is really, *really* good.
First impressions: the pan arrived with all of the parts slotted neatly inside the pan base itself. Very on brand. It also came with a natural sponge to “scrub away at the dishes you ‘left to soak’ in the sink” – you just have to soak it in water to activate it – and a wooden spatula which, ingeniously, slots onto a built-in spoon rest on the handle. It saved a tonne of mess when I was cooking.
Made from aluminium, the pan is pretty heavy – but not so heavy that you wouldn’t be able to easily cook with it, and definitely lighter than my Le Creuset stoneware casserole dish. It’s just heavy enough to feel sturdy and really durable. And to be honest? I’d question its quality if it wasn’t. As for the finish, it’s matte, oozes Scandi appeal and the pastel pink hue is very aesthetically pleasing. I’m not at all surprised that Instagram is obsessed.
Top of my criteria when it comes to judging good cookware is whether it actually lives up to its non-stick claims, and the Always Pan definitely does. I cooked a few different meals in it: spag bol, scrambled eggs, stir fry… and I didn’t struggle with food burning to the bottom on any occasion. The pan heat up quickly and evenly on my gas hob. As such, the pan was easy to wash up afterwards, no rigorous scrubbing required if you’re on dish duty. Top marks.
Size-wise, it’s the perfect depth for searing, sautéing, and frying without any mess. I cooked enough broccoli for myself and three friends in a single layer with room to spare, as well as five portions of pasta in one go on another occasion. Sure, if I had six(+) people round (I never do – my flat is tiny), I might want to whack out another casserole dish… but for cooking for myself and a few others? The space offered is plentiful.
That takes me onto the steam feature, which worked like a total dream. I steamed broccoli, carrots, green beans… the lot, and they were all cooked to perfection with a little bit of a crunch. If you want to mix things up, you can snap-up the brand’s bamboo steamer, which has also been designed to fit comfortably inside the pan. I haven’t tried it myself, but can’t imagine being disappointed.
Other features worth shouting about? The pouring lips on both sides of the pan enabled me to pour sauce without any spills and the handle stayed cool at all times. All-in-all? I’d urge you all to hop over to the Always side. I use mine everyday, and while I won’t be ditching *all* other cookware anytime soon (I might put on an actual dinner party one day… and you can’t cook up too many components to a dinner simultaneously), it’s versatile, easy-to-clean and a joy to use. Run, don’t walk, if you want to avoid potential waiting lists. If its launch in the States is anything to go by, this bad boy will sell out.
After more kitchen content? Head this way for the best coffee machines, over here for the best juicers and in this direction for kettles that are just as stylish as the rest of your home. We’ve also got bread makers for some deliciously doughy goodness, cutlery sets to elevate mealtimes and drinking glasses for your dinnertime bev.
For more from Glamour UK Commerce Writer Sophie Cockett, follow her on Instagram @sophiecockettx.