As I’m sure you know, Rachel Ray is an incredibly popular television chef, host of her own show, writer of cookbooks, videos, you name it. She’s sort of the Oprah of the cooking world and she also has her own line of cookware. So out of all her products, which is the best Rachel Ray cookware? That’s what I’m going to discuss in this article today.
Now before we go any further I’ve got to give my standard disclaimer or else I wouldn’t be able to sleep with myself at night, and I really like sleeping! I have a problem with celebrity cookware. We’ve seen lots of celebrity chefs come and go over the years, and many of them stick around quite a long time. I’m talking about people like Emeril, Jamie Oliver, Rachael Ray, Martha Stewart, and people like that.
They all try to make a little extra money by manufacturing and promoting their own line of cookware, and why not? It’s a great little business model and I have nothing wrong with it per se. The problem is, these people aren’t cookware manufacturers, they are television personalities. They don’t know the first thing about manufacturing for the usually team up with some other company.
Now the name of the game is to churn out the cheapest possible cookware that looks shiny and neat and then promote the heck out of it on the television show. That’s the only way the margins work for the limited runs of production.
What that means is you get cookware that’s not of particularly high quality, produced by companies that may or may not be in business next year to handle the warranty. I won’t name names but there have been a number of these companies that have gone out of business and when people try to invoke their warranty, there’s nobody there to answer the phone, and that leaves you completely out of luck.
So as somebody who reviews cookware for a living, I don’t understand why anybody would spend money on this stuff when for just a little bit more money you can get a set of very high-quality cookware that will last you forever and is backed by a company that’s been around for decades. That being said, if you don’t mind the fact that these pieces are going to fall apart in a year or two – most likely, you can actually find some good deals and Rachael Ray’s are little better than normal.
Getting back to the idea of what is the best in the Rachael Ray catalog, let me make one distinction. You have the option of buying individual pieces or complete sets. We don’t have time to discuss all the individual pieces so that I’m going to focus on the three top sets that are available. Namely they are:
- Rachael Ray 10-Piece Hard-Anodized Cookware Set
- Rachael Ray 10-Piece Stainless Steel Cookware Set
- Rachael Ray 10-Piece Porcelain Enamel Cookware Set
It’s hard to say which of these is better because they are three very different sets and the material that each of them is made out of is completely different. One is hard anodized, another is stainless steel, and the last one is enamel. If you have a specific preference in material than the choice is easy.
If you don’t have a particular preference in cooking materials then the choice is a little more difficult.
Also, you can’t really go by price because they’re all priced relatively the same from $130 up to around $150, which for all intents and purposes is the same.
I haven’t used any Rachael Ray cookware myself personally so I can’t tell you based on experience which is the best set, but I can tell you what other people have said. I went ahead and aggregated all the customer reviews for each one and based on that I have a clear winner and a clear second and third place.
Based on a whopping 290 customer reviews and 97% aggregate score, the clear winner is the Hard-Anodized Cookware Set. Second place goes to the enamel set, with 89 reviews and a 93% aggregate rating. Bringing up the rear is the Stainless Steel set with 45 customer reviews and a 90% aggregate score.
So there you have the Best Rachel Ray Cookware set based on aggregate customer reviews. Of course, I’m not really sure how much stock you can put in “fans”, and let’s face it, the people that buy her cookware are probably just culled out of her fan base, but still – it’s something to go by! At $150 though, even if you only get a years use out of them they will probably be worth the money.
