There's a quiet thrill to trying a piece of cookware for the first time, whether that's a shiny new stainless steel pan or a quality roasting tray.
It's something I've been lucky enough to experience many times in 2025 thanks to my role as Ideal Home's Kitchen Appliances and Cookware Editor, and to celebrate all of the excellent new launches we've seen this year, I've rounded up my favourite new pieces just for you.
Every week my inbox is crammed with new pans, knives and cookware gadgets and to bring you the intel on which ones are actually worth buying, we've filled our guide to the best cookware to the brim with tried and tested picks.
To narrow it down, these are all of my favourite debuts from the last 12 months, including a look at the cookware trends that dominated our kitchens.
1. M&S
M&S has long been a haven for kitchen essentials, but it really ramped things up with its cookware offering this year. The two big hitters were the multipurpose All-in-One saucepan (for the bargain price of £30), to rival the ever popular Always Pan (£99 from Our Place), and Tom Kerridge's phenomenal value chef-approved range.
When our expert reviewer Annie tried out the All-in-One saucepan in her busy family kitchen she loved how versatile it was for everyday cooking thanks to its deep shape and found the non-stick coating held up test after test.
And clearly Ideal Home readers loved it too, with over 5,000 of you taking a look at it from our review. Though it's been in and out of stock this year, it's currently available to buy in Charcoal and Natural (which is a cream shade).
Tom Kerridge also delighted M&S shoppers with his new line, designed to survive a professional kitchen as capably as a domestic one. His incredibly versatile 2-in-1 chopping board impressed us with its built-in ingredient zones and meat juice channels for carving meat. We topped the year off by putting Tom's signature 3-Piece Stacking Cast Iron set to the test – our expert reviewer and home economist Helen McCue swapped out her previous cookware just to make space for it.
Not to be left out, Tom Kerridge also got involved in the hottest trend of the year for multipurpose pans, redesigning the aforementioned All-in-One Saucepan in stainless steel and engineering it with a copper base. In our review, Helen found it practically impossible to fault, calling it a 'fantastic all-rounder'.
Value for money with all of the M&S cookware we've tried this year has set the retailer apart, so if you're looking for an affordable way to reset your kitchen in the new year you know exactly where to go.
2. Our Place
This Californian brand is the one everyone has eyes on when it comes to innovative cookware designs. While plenty of retailers and supermarkets were cooking up alternative Always Pans, the OG pretty pastel cookware brand headed in a different direction entirely. Instead of one pan to replace them all, Our Place unveiled the Essentials Collection – an all-encompassing set designed to organise your cooking station.
As this is Our Place, the Essentials range is superbly designed, including a clever included storage system that comes with the pans as standard. This ceramic non-stick range is designed to be easy to cook with and clean, as well as crucially still free from PFAs.
After trying out the 11-piece version for a few months now, I can confirm these pans are a dream to have in my kitchen and do plenty to raise the decor stakes too.
3. Lakeland
Lakeland's cookware offering rarely disappoints, with its range of affordable own-brand pans sitting alongside heritage names. This year it was Lakeland's spin on the Always Pan that wowed us, with our reviewer Helen saying in her Only Pan review that it 'produced perfect results with minimal cleaning required'.
With a price tag of £59.99, this version is more expensive than the M&S alternative but it does have a few clever features that might sway just you. It comes with a steamer basket, silicone wood spatula and a lid that has a clever nesting spot for your utensil.
Another trend that Lakeland made its own was a range of pans with detachable handles which are incredibly easy to store.
With prices starting from £34.99 you can bag yourself a set which sits in one neat space in your cupboards, where you previously might need a whole shelf. We're hoping to test out this clever set in 2026 to see how it holds up to everyday use.
4. Salter
With the ongoing cost of living crisis, affordability is more important than ever and one brand that brilliantly encapsulated value as well as quality this year was heritage British brand Salter.
Late in 2025 we tested its bargain Cast Iron set, which features a 2.8L & 3.4L cast iron pot for under £75 (via Salter). Our hard-to-impress reviewer Helen gave the set a stunning five stars calling it 'sturdy, versatile, and very reasonably priced'.
Oven-safe, induction hob compatible and non-toxic, this set ticks all of the boxes if you want to make more of an effort with cooking in the New Year. From stews to bakes, this set aced every test Helen threw it at in her tests, meaning it definitely has the Ideal Home seal of approval.
5. Joseph Joseph
One of Ideal Home's favourite brands for organising and cleaning, Joseph Joseph, released its debut cookware line back in 2024. This year, the brand's Folding Handle range got a stainless steel redesign in line with the industry-wide appetite for this type of material.
Non-toxic, professional-looking and with that fabulously helpful folding design for easy storage, it's easy to see why it was an instant hit with shoppers.
This is another set on our review wishlist for 2026 but if the glowing reviews via John Lewis are anything to go by, the Folding Handle Stainless Steel Frying Pan (£90) looks like a real standout. Hopefully we'll see even more cookware from the brand in the coming months.
With the appetite for multifunctional pans going nowhere fast and the need for non-toxic materials growing ever more important, it seems there's plenty of cookware innovation to come in 2026. And we'll be here to guide you through all of it with our upcoming reviews!
