Gordon Ramsay Cookware

Gordon Ramsay cookware, in the sense of the pans Ramsay himself uses and puts his name to, is HexClad: the hybrid stainless-over-nonstick brand he joined as lead ambassador and equity partner in July 2021. The pans sold under the Hell's Kitchen name are a different product, a hybrid line licensed from the show's producers rather than from Ramsay, and the pans in contestants' hands on the show are the set's kit, which Fox has never itemised. This guide sorts the three apart, explains how a hexagon-etched hybrid surface sears and releases at the same time, sets the HexClad 12-inch, 6-piece and 13-piece options and the Hell's Kitchen 5-piece set side by side with a cast iron skillet for comparison, and answers the questions that follow the search: the PFAS lawsuit, Costco, whether anything is discontinued, and how the pans are cared for.

It belongs to the site's kitchen gear guides and pairs with two HexClad companions, where to buy HexClad cookware and is HexClad made in the USA; the Gordon Ramsay knives guide covers the HexClad, Wüsthof and Henckels knives he is seen with.

Cookware	Build	Cooking surface	Oven	Best for
HexClad 12-Inch Hybrid Pan	Tri-ply, aluminum core, magnetic stainless base	Stainless hexagon peaks over TerraBond ceramic	900°F	The one pan to start with
HexClad 6-Piece Fry Pan Set	Same tri-ply hybrid	8-, 10- and 12-inch pans, glass lids	900°F (lids 400°F)	A full frying kit
HexClad 13-Piece Set	Same tri-ply hybrid	Pan, wok, 2-, 3- and 8-quart pots	900°F (lids 400°F)	Outfitting a whole kitchen
Hell's Kitchen 5-Piece Hybrid Set	Tri-clad stainless, aluminum core	Flame-pattern stainless over diamond-reinforced ceramic	900°F per the maker	The licensed look for less
Lodge 12-Inch Cast Iron	Solid cast iron	Seasoned iron, no coating	Any temperature	Heat retention and searing

The table splits into the two hybrid lines and the one pan that is not a hybrid at all, and the honest summary is that the two hybrids are built the same way and differ in the pattern etched into the steel, the ceramic under it and the name on the handle; the cast iron is there because it is what the hybrids are trying to imitate on the searing side.

What Gordon Ramsay Actually Cooks With

Ramsay cooks with HexClad, and unlike most celebrity cookware the relationship is on the record. HexClad announced the partnership on PR Newswire on July 29, 2021, naming him lead ambassador with a hand in product development, and HexClad's own Gordon Ramsay page describes him as a partner who uses the pans at home and in the studio on his shows. He said at the time that the pans had caught his eye a year earlier and that he was already cooking on them at home.

"HexClad's intriguing look and design, and its hybrid technology caught my eye about a year ago. I use the pans at home, and the combination of stainless steel and non-stick functionality is amazing."

Gordon Ramsay, in HexClad's July 2021 partnership announcement

What Ramsay teaches about pans is older than the partnership and still the useful part. In his MasterClass cooking course he tells home cooks to spend on a few good tools, a heavy pan and a nonstick among them, rather than a showroom of gear, and his pan method does not change with the brand: the pan goes on first and the oil goes in when the pan is hot, protein is not added until it sizzles, and a sauce is built in the same pan afterward. A hybrid pan is a way of getting the heavy pan and the nonstick into one piece of metal, which is the whole pitch.

How a Hybrid Pan Sears and Releases at the Same Time

The surface is a grid of raised stainless-steel hexagons laser-etched over a ceramic nonstick that sits in the recessed valleys between them, so food touches steel at the peaks and nonstick in the gaps. HexClad's science page describes the stack underneath: a magnetic stainless base so the pan works on induction, an aluminum core that spreads the heat, and a stainless cooking layer on top carrying the etched pattern. The peaks are what sear; the valleys are what let an egg slide. The trade is that the nonstick is only part of the surface, so a hybrid pan needs a little fat where a plain nonstick pan needs none, and the maker says as much in its care instructions.

The aluminum core is the reason a hybrid pan heats faster and more evenly than a plain stainless one, and the numbers explain it: aluminum conducts heat at roughly 205 watts per metre-kelvin against about 16 for stainless steel, per the Engineering ToolBox reference tables, so a burner's heat moves sideways through the aluminum layer about thirteen times as fast as it would through steel and reaches the edge of the pan before the centre has a chance to scorch. That is also why HexClad's FAQ says medium on a HexClad behaves like medium-high on other pans, and why the handles stay cooler: the handle is stainless, the poor conductor, so heat travels up it slowly.

Searing itself is a temperature threshold, not a pan feature. Browning, the Maillard reaction between amino acids and sugars, begins at about 284°F (140°C) on the food's surface, and a wet surface cannot get there because water holds it at 212°F (100°C) until the water is gone. A steak dries and browns on the steel peaks because steel holds and transfers heat well and the raised ridges concentrate contact, but no pan sears a wet steak. Pat it dry, get the pan properly hot, and the hexagons do the rest; the cast iron ribeye guide walks through the same threshold on iron.

HexClad 12-Inch Hybrid Pan: The One to Start With

The 12-inch hybrid pan is the HexClad most cooks buy first, and HexClad's product page gives the specification in full: tri-ply construction with an aluminum core, the laser-etched stainless hexagon surface over TerraBond ceramic nonstick, safe on gas, electric and induction, oven-safe to 900°F, metal-utensil safe, dishwasher safe with hand washing recommended, and a lifetime warranty. Twelve inches is the size for two steaks, four chicken thighs, a whole crispy-skin salmon side cut in portions, or a one-pan dinner; the 10-inch is the eggs-and-omelette pan.

Metal-utensil safe is the claim that separates a hybrid from ordinary nonstick, and the mechanism is simple geometry: the stainless peaks stand proud of the ceramic, so a spatula or whisk rides on steel and never scrapes the coating in the valleys. HexClad's FAQ is candid that a sharp utensil can still leave a cosmetic scratch on the steel; the coating underneath is protected, which is why the pans carry a lifetime warranty when most nonstick carries one or two years.

HexClad 6-Piece Fry Pan Set: A Full Frying Kit

The 6-piece set is three hybrid frying pans, 8-, 10- and 12-inch, each with a tempered glass lid, and it is the configuration that covers a household's frying, sautéing and simmering without buying pots. The build is identical to the single 12-inch: tri-ply aluminum core, hexagon peaks over TerraBond, induction ready, oven-safe to 900°F. The one figure to note is the lids: HexClad rates tempered glass lids to 400°F and stainless lids to 900°F, so a pan that goes under the broiler goes without its glass lid.

HexClad 13-Piece Set: Outfitting a Kitchen

The 13-piece set is the whole-kitchen purchase: a 12-inch pan, a 12-inch wok and a 12-inch lid, 2-, 3- and 8-quart pots with lids, plus two silicone trivets and two drying mats that pad the count. The pots are the same tri-ply hybrid construction as the pans, which matters less for a pot than a pan; a stockpot boils water and braises, where the nonstick surface is a cleaning convenience rather than a cooking one. The wok is the piece that earns its place, since the hexagon surface takes the metal wok spatula that ruins a coated wok. If the pots are not needed, the 6-piece pan set plus a good stainless stockpot costs less and does the same work.

Hell's Kitchen Cookware vs HexClad: Which Pans Are Ramsay's?

Hell's Kitchen cookware is not Gordon Ramsay's brand. The Hell's Kitchen Store sells a hybrid line under a licence for the show's name from its producers, ITV Studios, and Ramsay's cookware partnership is with HexClad; the two companies are unrelated, and the show's own kitchen has never published which pans the contestants use. The Hell's Kitchen hybrid pans are built on the same idea as HexClad, a tri-clad stainless body with an aluminum core and a laser-etched stainless pattern raised over a ceramic nonstick, but the pattern is a flame motif rather than hexagons and the ceramic is described as diamond-reinforced. The store rates the pans for all cooktops including induction, oven use to 900°F, metal utensils, and a lifetime warranty, and states the coating is made without PFAS, PTFE, PFOA, lead or cadmium. The 5-piece set is an 11-inch fry pan, a 4-quart sauté pan, a 7.5-quart pot and two 11-inch glass lids that fit all three.

Which to buy comes down to what the name is worth to you. The specifications are near-identical on paper, both makers claim the same 900°F oven limit, the same induction compatibility and the same lifetime warranty, and neither publishes a hardness or thickness figure that would separate them. HexClad is the pan Ramsay is on record cooking with and the one with a decade of owner history, a settled lawsuit and a documented coating change behind it; the Hell's Kitchen set is the show's logo on a similar pan. The affordable cookware set guide covers the plain stainless and nonstick sets below both.

The Cast Iron Alternative: What the Hybrids Are Imitating

A hybrid pan is sold as stainless, nonstick and cast iron in one, and the cast iron part of that claim is the weakest, because what cast iron does is hold heat. A Lodge 12-inch skillet is far heavier than a hybrid pan, and heat capacity scales with mass: when a cold steak lands in it, the iron gives up a little of a large store of heat and barely drops in temperature, so the surface stays above the browning threshold and the crust forms in one go. A lighter tri-ply pan drops further at the same moment and recovers through its aluminum core, which is fast, but it is a different physics from retention. Cast iron conducts poorly, which is why it needs a long preheat and heats unevenly on a small burner, and why the cast iron ribeye method starts with ten minutes over the flame.

The seasoning on a Lodge is the original nonstick: layers of oil polymerised by heat into a hard, slick film, which improves with use and can be stripped and rebuilt, where a ceramic coating can only wear. It also cannot be put in a dishwasher and needs drying at once to keep from rusting. For a cook who wants one pan to sear steak, and the crispy skin salmon method works on it too, cast iron is the cheaper and more permanent answer; for a cook who wants eggs to slide and a dishwasher-safe pan, it is not, and that gap is what the hybrids fill.

The HexClad Lawsuit and What Is on the Pan Now

HexClad settled a class action in 2025 over how it had described its nonstick. The suit, reported by ClassAction.org and administered through the official settlement site, alleged that pans sold between February 2022 and March 2024 were marketed as non-toxic and PFAS-free while being coated with PTFE, which is itself a member of the PFAS family. HexClad denied wrongdoing, settled, and agreed to stop calling a product non-toxic, PFOA-free or PFAS-free if it contains PTFE or any PFAS chemical. The settlement received preliminary approval in April 2025.

The pans on sale now carry a different coating. HexClad's science page describes the current nonstick as TerraBond, a ceramic it states is PTFE-free and free from forever chemicals, and its FAQ repeats that the coating is PTFE-free and PFAS-free; the lawsuit concerned the earlier PTFE-based pans and their marketing, not the ceramic. For what PFAS are and why the term covers thousands of compounds, the EPA's PFAS explainer is the reference. The practical reading for a buyer is that a HexClad or Hell's Kitchen pan bought new today is a ceramic-coated hybrid, and that the honest claim for any ceramic nonstick is that it is made without PTFE, not that it will last as long as one.

Care: Heat Level, Seasoning and the Dishwasher

HexClad's care instructions ask for three things, and each has a reason. First, season the pan before first use: heat it on medium-low, wipe a teaspoon of vegetable oil around the interior, leave it two to three minutes, and let the fats from the first weeks of cooking finish the job. The oil bonds to the ceramic and the steel as a thin polymerised film, the same chemistry as cast iron seasoning, and it is what makes an egg release on a surface that is partly bare metal. Second, cook lower than you are used to: the aluminum core moves heat so quickly that medium on a HexClad matches medium-high on an ordinary pan, and high heat bakes fat onto the surface as burnt residue, which is the sticking most owners report. Third, hand wash. The pans are rated dishwasher safe, but HexClad's FAQ warns that dishwasher cycles dull and darken the steel over time and that phosphate-free detergents can etch it.

Stains and stuck-on residue have a fix that does not involve the coating: soak the pan in warm soapy water for ten to fifteen minutes and clean with a soft sponge, and if the sticking persists after long use, scrub the surface with a more abrasive pad and re-season it. Exposed stainless at the rim and on the base can discolour with heat, which is cosmetic; a scouring pad clears it as long as it stays off the cooking surface. HexClad's lifetime warranty covers the original buyer with proof of purchase and excludes damage from ignoring these instructions and any commercial use, so the care page is also the warranty's terms.

If you want…	Buy	Why
The pan Ramsay is on record using	HexClad 12-Inch Hybrid	The partnership pan, one size that does most jobs
Three frying pans and no pots	HexClad 6-Piece Fry Pan Set	8, 10 and 12 inches with lids
A whole kitchen in one box	HexClad 13-Piece Set	Pan, wok and three pots, hybrid throughout
The Hell's Kitchen name for less	Hell's Kitchen 5-Piece Hybrid Set	Same construction idea, flame pattern, licensed logo
The best sear and no coating to wear	Lodge 12-Inch Cast Iron	Heat retention from mass; seasoning that rebuilds

The last thing to know is what "Gordon Ramsay cookware" is not. It is not a line he manufactures, and it is not the Hell's Kitchen pans; it is HexClad, a partnership with a settled lawsuit and a changed coating in its past and a pan that does what it says on the steel. Buy the 12-inch first, season it, cook on medium, and keep the cast iron for the nights a steak matters more than the washing up.

More HexClad and cookware guides: where to buy HexClad cookware, is HexClad made in the USA, and All-Clad stainless steel sets. Ramsay's knives: Gordon Ramsay knives.

Gordon Ramsay Cookware FAQs

The questions that come up most: what cookware Gordon Ramsay uses, whether Hell's Kitchen pans and HexClad are the same, whether HexClad is worth it, what the HexClad lawsuit was about, whether the pans are safe, whether Costco sells HexClad, whether HexClad is discontinued, and what Ramsay used before HexClad.

What cookware does Gordon Ramsay use?

HexClad. Ramsay became HexClad's lead ambassador and a partner in the company in July 2021, and HexClad states he uses the hybrid pans at home and on his shows. In his cooking lessons before the partnership he recommended a heavy pan and a good nonstick; a hybrid pan is both in one.

Are Hell's Kitchen pans the same as HexClad?

No. Hell's Kitchen cookware is a hybrid line sold under a licence for the show's name from its producers, ITV Studios; HexClad is the brand Ramsay partnered with. Both are tri-clad stainless with an aluminum core and a laser-etched stainless pattern over a ceramic nonstick, but the Hell's Kitchen pattern is a flame motif, its ceramic is described as diamond-reinforced, and the two companies are unrelated.

Is Gordon Ramsay's HexClad cookware worth it?

For a cook who wants one pan that sears on steel and releases eggs, takes metal utensils and goes in the dishwasher, the hybrid does that and carries a lifetime warranty. For a cook who mainly sears, a cast iron skillet holds heat better for far less; for a cook who mainly wants eggs to slide, a plain nonstick releases better because its whole surface is coated. The hybrid is a compromise pan, and a good one.

What was the HexClad lawsuit about?

A class action alleged that HexClad pans sold between February 2022 and March 2024 were marketed as non-toxic and PFAS-free while coated with PTFE, a PFAS. HexClad denied wrongdoing and settled in 2025, agreeing not to call a product PFAS-free or non-toxic if it contains PTFE. The pans now sold use HexClad's TerraBond ceramic, which the company states is PTFE-free.

Is HexClad cookware safe and non-toxic?

The current TerraBond ceramic coating is described by HexClad as PTFE-free and PFAS-free, and the raised cooking surface is stainless steel. As with any ceramic nonstick, avoid empty high-heat preheating and abrasive pads on the cooking surface; the EPA's PFAS explainer covers what the older coatings contained.

Does Costco sell HexClad?

Yes. Costco lists HexClad sets and single pans online, including a 7-piece set and a 14-inch hybrid pan, and carries HexClad in many warehouses, sometimes as a roadshow event. The where-to-buy guide on this site covers the other retailers.

Is HexClad discontinued?

No. HexClad sells its full hybrid line on hexclad.com, Amazon and Costco. Individual older listings do get retired as sets change and as the coating moved from the earlier PTFE nonstick to TerraBond ceramic, which is why an old Amazon listing can show as unavailable while the current version is in stock.

What did Gordon Ramsay use before HexClad?

He has not named a brand. His MasterClass, filmed before the 2021 partnership, teaches with an unbranded heavy pan and a nonstick and advises buying a few good tools rather than many. The pans on Hell's Kitchen are the show's kit and Fox has not published what they are.