This afternoon, I realized it’d been months since I’ve heard or read anything about this maker or its lines. So I went to it’s website…
I saw no new products or lines, with the possible exception that A-C may have expanded its offerings of the G5 graphite line. Everything else looked the same.
Anyone here still buying (or interested) in All-Clad in late 2024?
I think I own enough of it. Been acquiring probably since its inception. Anything new I’ve acquired in the last 2 decades has been from their seconds sale. Glad to have snagged some copper core.
Actually, I don’t want to buy any more cookware, period.
I am with you, @Meekah. In fact, I am considering thinning what I have. The other day I met a guy who really had no dishes or cookware. He had moved here to take care of his grandmother. It felt great to share a couple of knives, a steel, a cutting board, a couple of pans, a baking dish, and some dishes and cutlery, snagging the last few items at Goodwill for great prices. My kitchen is not going to grow!
Good on ya 100%. I have too much stuff and I love outfitting people’s kitchens who need things. I still keep things I’ve snagged for ridiculous prices in my storage cage ready to be dispatched to folks who need them. I’d rather do it directly than haul the stuff to Goodwill.
For general pots and pans, I’m still instituting my own self-ban on any more cookware. It has to be something really unique before I can consider it. I also have a few more pieces when we cleaned out my mom’s place last year, and I think I may have to let some of them go.
But I haven’t looked at All-Clad in particular ever since I bought my 3 piece set that was sale maybe 5-6 years ago. Good plans - larger than one I typically use so not tons of use - but I think I’m good with All Clad until those pans fall apart.
I go by the same. No cookware, unless something really special comes along. Most AC has handles that my hands dislike.
I have way too much cookware as well. So maybe we aren’t the best group to comment on the relevance of All-Clad these days.
That said - I’m super happy with my AC pots and pans and IF I needed to replace something I would look there first I think.
If AC is going out of favor - is there another maker that is filling that market? I don’t know of one, but again, I’m a little out of the market at this point in life.
I haven’t bought any in about 8 years, when my favourite kitchen shop went out of business and I purchased 3 skillets. I use one of the skillets almost every day!
I didn’t intend my OP to convey that A-C has necessarily gone out of favor. A-C has been famous for introducing new lines and tweaking them for many years now, and that seems to have stopped. Personally, I found that all the lines were confusing, competing with each other, and largely of the same performance level, so maybe backing off is a good thing.
To answer your question, I think makers like Made In have taken a lot of A-C’s market share.
I agree with this observation. One of the newer chefs I’ve started watching (“Olivia”) uses AC in her early videos but has switched to – and even video promo’d – Made In. (My guess is she got sponsored by Made In?)
To answer your original question, I’d buy an 8" AC-CC skillet and 3 to 4 qt sauce pan if they showed up at any of my local TJX stores.
My rule has become “Don’t buy it if I don’t need it.” The last kitchenware I bought was a new cheapo nonstick skillet to replace the old one that is wearing out.
I think the world of cooking adventurously opened up largely while we Boomers were in acquisition mode, and we picked up a lot of All Clad and Le Creuset. Many in the younger generations seem to be very responsible in their spending habits. The ones I know are knocking out great food in lots of Cuisinart, Tramontina, and Lodge.
I hope you’re right, but IME the later Gs spend right up to what they can finagle. It may not be on cookware, for sundry reasons.
I will testify to that. But damn it was fun for those of us who stuck with it!
Not me
I’m probably not alone in stating that I hate AC handles, and never understood folks who were fans of them, so when they came out with their TK (Thomas Keller) line, I was very happy as they had very comfortable handles, but their endorsement seems to have run out as they don’t seem to be available anymore, but didn’t they recently come out with a line that had different (i.e. more comfortable) handles? I have one AC pan (a 10" paella pan) that I use for things like chicken piccata or marsala, but more times than not I use my cast iron skillet or my wok for everything else…
There have been lengthy threads on most every site that talks about cookware discussing those handles. I am in the hater camp. They are painful to grasp and tippy. All Clad should have known about this and fixed it decades ago. They apparently do not care and just seized on it as a way to offer a new line, presumably costing more and looking sufficiently different that those who are into matchy-matchy would feel the need to buy an entire new set. Yes. Original All Clad has decent performance. Yes. It is durable. So what? You can say the same about pretty much any stainless clad pans, many costing far less.
We have lots of choices in clad pans now, but all-clad was the first to market. Mine all date from the very early years. I always thought the handles were ugly, but it didn’t matter to me, since I didn’t jump my food. Can’t now; induction. I always look for larger pans with 2 handles anyway - if you don’t have a hanging pot rack, they’re easier to store. And they fit in the oven. Shrug. I’m a peasant. But a relatively happy one. And my stuff doesn’t match lol. I’ll take one of everything …
The original handles were (and remain) hated by me, too. I think the only cooks who like them only use an underhand grip.
However, there has been a D3 variant for awhile now that’s got better “ambi” handles (and pouring rims). Agree this was a much and needlessly belated development.
I’m from Denmark in Europe.
There are 2 reasons I’m not buying All Clad:
All Clad is owned by the French company SEB, which also owns Tefal and Lagostina. This company has decided to not sell All Clad in Europe, so it’s pretty much impossible to get anywhere here. You have to import it from the US, but why would I do that, which brings me to my second point……
All Clad handles have always been unattractive and weird designed to my eyes. Each time I see an All Clad pan my eyes get sore just from looking at that ugly handle design. So much so that it’s a deal breaker.
On top of that the handle is not comfortable to hold in my hand (even my Mauviel M’Cook pan handles feel more ergonomic than All Clad handles) and there are so many other better or equally good cookware brands to buy in Europe at matching prices, so why even bother ?!?
