Goldilocks Stainless Steel Pan Review

Intro

True to the tale of Goldilocks, the Goldilocks Stainless Steel Pan strikes a nice balance of performance, design, and cost. It has all the essential features of premium pans like an all-clad construction, rolled rims, subtle indents on the handle, without the baggage of flashy designs or unnecessary weight.

But maybe the most surprising thing is that for a pan with all the specs to compete with top brands, it comes in at just a fraction of the cost.

Let’s run through all the pan’s features, starting with it’s construction.

Construction

Materials

This is a 3-ply fully-clad stainless steel pan. Those three layers are:

• a 430-grade stainless steel exterior to enable induction cooking
• a 1050-grade aluminum core for improved conductivity
• a 304-grade stainless steel interior for corrosion resistance and durability

Most premium stainless steel pans use 304-grade interiors and 430-grade exteriors, the main point of difference is that with 5-ply or 7-ply cookware, brands sandwich aluminum alloys or copper between sheets of aluminum to form the core of the pan. So for a 5-ply pan, the middle three layers would be aluminum, an aluminum alloy, and more aluminum. In Goldilocks’ case, the core is all aluminum.

How does that affect cooking performance?

Well, whether it’s 3-ply, 5-ply, or 7-ply, the number doesn’t really matter. It’s far more important to know how thick each layer of metal is and what it’s made of.

Each material has its own trade-offs, but in general, if you want your pan to heat up quickly, you’ll want a thicker core layer, whether that’s aluminum, aluminum alloy, or copper. If you want to more durability and heat retention, you’ll want thicker interior and exterior stainless steel layers and a thinner core layer.

And of course the total thickness of all the bonded layers also plays a role, where you have another trade-off to consider between performance and weight. Goldilocks pans have a 3mm thick surface throughout the entire pan, which is right in line with other top brands.

Weight

In terms of weight, the 12” Goldilocks pan clocks in at 3.3 lbs, slightly heavier than Made In at 3.1 lbs, but pretty typical compared to other top stainless steel pans.

Design

On the design front, Goldilocks didn’t make any bold statements, but their subtle touches on the handle, rims, and exterior are all worth noting.

Handle

The most noticeable element is the polished handle, which resembles both All-Clad and Demeyere in different ways.

The All-Clad resemblance is the indent running down the face of the handle which gives your thumb a place to rest and the convex bottom that fits the natural curve of your fingers. The Demeyere resemblance is the two prongs that connect the handle to the pan to keep it cool and cut down on excess weight.

Goldilocks secures their handle with rivets like All-Clad and Made In, and the ridges on the top help you grip the pan as you tilt it, so you’re less likely to spill.

However, if you have big hands, you may find the handle to be too thin.

It feels great in your hand when the pan is resting on the stove, but when you lift it, the weight of the pan and the thin handle can create pressure points that make it less comfortable to hold.

Pan Walls & Surface

The pan comes with rolled rims for easy pouring, though they don’t extend quite as far as those on Made In cookware. The walls also have a fairly standard height, only slightly higher than Made In. The pan has a 9.25” cooking surface diameter, slightly smaller than Made In at a 9.5”.

Finally, the pan has a polished exterior which looks great when it’s clean, but it can quickly pick up fingerprints, smudges, and food debris over time.

Logos

One more thing I love about this pan is the minimal branding. There is only one logo on the bottom of the pan, and one etched below the handle.

Lifetime Warranty

The construction specs are solid, the design is neat, but the most obvious signal of Goldilocks’ confidence in this pan is their lifetime warranty. And while it’s true that other cookware brands like Made In, All-Clad, and Heritage Steel do too, this pan sells for a fraction of the cost which makes the warranty stand out as even more impressive.

Value

I’m not usutally one to spend much time talking about product prices. Among all the different dimensions you can judge a product on (weight, materials, manufacturing methods, design, utility, durability) price is one of the least interesting to me because it tells you nothing about how a product was made or how well it works.

However, price is still a dimension, one that we all factor into our buying decisions whether we like it or not.

And it happens to be the dimension where this pan really shines. The 12” pan sells for just $60 and the 10” pan for just $45. Made In, All-Clad, and Heritage Steel all sell their pans for much more, yet the performance of this pan stacks up pretty well.

So naturally, that leads us to the question of how Goldilocks is able to sell these pans for so much less than their competitors?

Well, I don’t know for sure, but there are a few factors that might be playing a role:

• The simplest explanation may just be that the other brands have a large margin. Just because they’re selling pans for $100, doesn’t mean the prices reflect the cost of materials and labor. There are countless examples of brands that compete by undercutting their peers.
• Another explanation is that Goldilocks can produce their pans more efficiently thanks to their simple product construction and small product line-up. Instead of 5-ply or 7-ply pans, Goldilocks uses just 3 layers. They also only sell a 10” and 12” version of the same pan, while other brands sell dozens of pan variations.
• Third, Goldilocks manufactures their pans in China. I don’t have any reason to believe the pan is any worse or better because it comes from China, but labor costs are lower there than in France, Italy, or the USA.
• Fourth, Goldilocks is a relatively new brand. So it’s plausible that they’re selling them as loss-leaders to either gain market share or get people talking. Just because they are selling for $60 today, doesn’t mean that’s a sustainable price for the company to sell them at forever.

Final Notes

Overall, this pan embodies the Goldilocks spirit of being just right, with all the key features and materials you’d expect from premium cookware without extra frills, bold branding, or high prices.

Compared to pans from All-Clad and Made In, it’s easy to assume this pan is rather ordinary, since the specs are similar and the detail variations are relatively small. But when this pan is selling for $60, while the other pans sell for $100+, it becomes extraordinary.

How many other items can you buy for $60 and use every day, maybe even every meal, for the rest of your life?

To me, that makes the Goldilocks pan one of the best bang-for-your-buck pieces of cookware out there today.