Why this top chef wants people to stop using cast-iron pans

There has been a recent resurgence in the popularity of cast-iron pans; there's even a Reddit community dedicated to them with close to 200,000 subscribers.

But one New York City chef says they're throwbacks which you should stop using, and urged home chefs to hang them on the wall instead.

Frank Prisinzano, the owner of multiple restaurants, said on Instagram: “This is really comical to me because we’re way past cast-iron now.”

“This is really something from history here. I understand the nostalgia around it, my grandma had a cast-iron, I have her pan, I took it from her, she used it for certain things, she used it mostly for batter and frying potato croquettes and that's the only thing she used it for and she kept it seasoned and she took care of it.

“But the problem is nowadays, who has the time to be seasoning cast-iron pans all the time?”

The need to season a cast-iron pan to ensure it doesn’t rust is just one of the issues with the cookware, according to Prisinzano, who pointed out that the constant seasoning also means the “coating tends to come off into the food”.

The pans are also “way too heavy to handle, way too hard to clean and way too corrosive,” according to the chef, and are typically so dark that you “can’t see what the oil is doing or if the butter is starting to brown”.

“There’s no real benefit,” he added.

Rather than spend money on a cast-iron, the Frank owner encouraged his followers to invest in stainless clad aluminium-core pans, which he said are “just as good”.

“You do not need cast-iron, and you don’t need carbon steel either,” he added, explaining aluminium and copper pans are the “two things you should be considering right now”.

As for what to do with your cast-iron pan, Prisinzano captioned the post: “Hang it on the wall, say a prayer for her everyday, and on her birthday take it down and make her food.”

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