I've found the ultimate saucepan set for anyone with minimal kitchen cupboard space – here's why it's almost perfect

Finding a good quality pan set is hard. You don't want to buy something cheap for it to break in a few months, but it seems most high-quality sets cost hundreds for three or so pieces.

That's why the USP of this new Tefal set, in a bid to become one of the best saucepan sets, is to solve that problem, with an array of pans that you can also store easily. Here's how I got on with it.

In a nutshell

The newly launched Tefal Ingenio Emotion 22-Piece Pan Set ticks so many boxes. It's easy to store, convenient to clean, multi-purpose and perfect for families because of the pan size range.

Yes, this set includes 22 pieces, so in other words: it can be used to cook for 2 people or 12 people. You get three sizes of saucepan, four sizes of fry pans, plus a wok and a sauté pan. Four utensils also come in the box, as do three lids for the saucepans, and four felt pan protects for use while storing.

The detachable handles are easy to use and work on all of the pans, but the catch is that you cannot use them while the pan is on the heat. You need to detach the handle from the pan unless you need to move it as it's made of plastic so could overheat.

There are so many perks of set, but the biggest for me has to be convenience — not only do they nestle together neatly for storage purposes, but you can use them in the oven, on your hob, and they pair with specially-designed airtight lids for food storage. You can even bring them straight to your table and detach the handle for serving. Also, the frying pans are among the best fry pans we've ever used as they boast clever technology to indicate when your pan is hot enough for cooking. A total game-changer.

I used this set for a whole week, to cook more or less three meals a day for my Husband and daughter — here's how I got on, and whether I think it's one of the best options on the market. Admittedly, even I was initially sceptical about the detachable handles...

Product Specs

• Pieces: 22
• Materials: Stainless steel
• Coating: Titanium 2x Stronger Non-Stick
• Induction compatible? Yes
• Metal utensil safe? Yes (except knives and whisks)
• Oven safe? Yes (up to 260°C without the handle)
• Dishwasher safe? Yes (without handles)
• Fry pan diameters: 22cm, 24cm, 26cm, 28cm
• Saucepan diameters: 16cm, 18cm, 20cm
• Extra pans: 26cm wok, 24cm sauté pan
• Warranty: 10 years
• RRP: £375

Who tested this pan set?

Annie Collyer

I tested this pan set for a week in my family home, to cook meals and side dishes for my household of three. I used the saucepans to cook: boiled eggs, broccoli, pasta and sauce.

I used the wok to cook a stir fry, and the frying pans to toast a sandwich, fry eggs and cook halloumi. I also used the sauté pan for cooking beef strips.

I cleaned them by hand and in my dishwasher. I was allowed to keep this set and I plan to gift it to my sister for her busy family household as she has a small kitchen but several mouths to feed.

Unboxing

For a 22-piece pan set, it arrived in a tidy box that was a lot smaller in size than I expected. It was also light enough for me to carry on my own. I was immediately impressed.

Onto the unboxing — I was incredibly pleased with how this pan set was packaged. Absolutely zero plastic in sight — except for the plastic handles for the pans and the three utensils which come included. Each pan was wrapped in white paper packaging, with cardboard inserts inside the box for protection purposes between the sizes and types of pans. Tidy!

In the box comes nine pans, three lids, two handles, four utensils and four felt pan protectors, perfect if you're unsure how to store pans. These are a total game-changer and while they are designed to protect your pans when storing them inside one another, they also make your pan cupboard or drawer look extra fancy, BTW. I also loved the design of the lids as their handles fold so that you can easily stack them.

On first feel, these pans aren't particularly heavy whatsoever. They're easy to stack and can be configured in many ways depending on the size of the storage space you've got available. They feel and look high-quality, and when the handle is attached they do wobble. But, once food or water is in them, they feel a lot more secure.

Before use, I glanced over the instructions (particularly the safety notices on the first page) and noted straight away that it says not to expose the handle to flames. While the pan is in use, they recommend removing the handle and re-attaching it when you need to move the pan again.

So, before first use, I washed all of the pans and lids and dried them all by hand. I then had a play around with the handles — I wanted to get used to attaching and re-attaching them before getting any heat involved.

The one thing I was keen to test on these pans was the THERMO-SIGNAL technology — the fry pans feature an hourglass shape (and some text) in the middle of a red spot in the centre of each pan. Only once this red spot turns completely red, and the hourglass is no longer visible, is your pan hot enough for food. This is to prevent overheating the pan or adding your food to a pan that's not yet warm enough.

Using the frying pans

There are four sizes of frying pan included in this set, 22cm, 24cm, 26cm and 28cm. For storage purposes, they nestle inside each other. Unfortunately, they don't come with lids so you can't use them for cooking certain dishes, like my favourite weekend breakfast: shakshuka.

My first test with the frying pans was cooking a toastie. I assembled it, heated my pan and popped my bread in after the signal showed. I was pleased with how it toasted, and how fast it cooked. It didn't stick whatsoever. I do own a toastie maker but this might now be my favourite way to cook my sandwiches, instead.

My next test was cooking two fried eggs in the smallest pan, without oil. Unfortunately, I tried twice to cook fried eggs in this pan and although the bottoms browned very nicely, I did find that they kept sticking. So much so that the first time around, I ended up cracking both of the yolks while trying to unstick them from the pan to flip them. And moving them felt treacherous. Bearing this in mind, next time I'll butter the pan to prepare it.

Then, I cooked some French toast for my daughter for breakfast. This had a little bit of cheese grated in there, too. It browned perfectly and it didn't stick to the pan at all. You can flip most foods without the handle attached to the pan, as long as you feel it's stable enough.

Next up: Halloumi. I find Halloumi notoriously hard to cook. It either leaks water that saturates the pan or it dries up and sticks to your pan. Either way, achieving perfectly browned halloumi isn't the easiest of tasks, in my opinion. Again, using no oil, I added the halloumi to the pan and watched it like a hawk to check when it needed to be flipped. It initially did cook fast so I turned the pan all the way to low heat. It browned so nicely, it didn't stick at all and was very easy to move around the pan.

Using the wok and sauté pan

I used the wok to cook, you guessed it: a stir fry! It was plenty sizeable to cook a stir fry for two, and I found cooking without the handle on pretty easy. The vegetables went in first and cooked nicely, without sticking. Then went in the sauce which didn't stick to the pan at all. Afterwards, I popped it in the dishwasher.

I used the sauté pan at the same time, to lightly cook the steak pieces we wanted to add to our stir fry. These cooked fast and well — they were pretty much sliding around the pan. I loved that this pan was nice and deep, as it prevented oil or fat splatters while cooking. I hand-washed this pan afterwards, and it cleaned up so easily.

Using the saucepans

There are three size saucepans included in this set. The smallest is 16cm, then 18cm and the largest is 20cm. All come with matching lids.

Overall, I can say that I really liked using these saucepans. The matching lids are so convenient to store as the handles flap down so they can sit atop one another. The pans themselves heat fast and they have measurements on the inside that are handy when cooking foods such as rice.

I found that the easiest way to use them, especially when boiling water, is to fill them and place them on the hob without a handle attached. Once boiled, so long as you don't need to move the pan, I'd leave the pan sitting on the hob and didn't feel the need to clip the handle on until it came to draining or moving for serving.

The first thing I cooked in these pans were boiled eggs, and they were a success! They cooked in their usual time — 5 minutes for soft-boiled, 6 minutes for hard-boiled.

I also used the small and medium-sized pans for cooking broccoli on several occasions, which again always cooked in good time. I sometimes used the matching-sized lid while cooking broccoli. There are air vents thanks to the design of the lids, so the water never boiled over while the lid was on.

I cooked pasta in a medium-sized pan, and according to the packet instructions, the pasta I chose takes 10-12 minutes to cook. I noticed that after 10 minutes, the pasta was al dente. It was perfectly cooked at around the 12-minute mark. The only tricky part about cooking pasta in this pan was attaching the handle for draining. Once you get the hang of it, it's fine but initially, you might be worried you've not attached it properly.

I warmed through pasta sauce in the same pan, once the pasta was drained, as I wanted to check its non-stick capabilities with wet food. The sauce didn't stick to the pan at all, even on a higher heat. It's worth noting that I did leave the handle on for this, as I needed to use it to continuously stir the pasta, so I left it on a very low heat.

Cleaning

I cleaned the saucepans, the frying pans and the lids all by hand and in my dishwasher.

The saucepans are best cleaned and dried by hand as this gives them a good shine. They did clean well when put through the dishwasher but you could see water marks.

The lids were admittedly hard to clean — the instructions don't make it clear as to whether they can be popped in the dishwasher, so I opted to wash and dry them by hand. I do live in a hard water area, but I couldn't seem to get the glass as clean as they were when I first unboxed them. I cleaned them twice and still, the lids have a glaze over them.

The frying pans and sauté pan were all extremely easy to clean by hand thanks to their non-stick coatings, and drying them manually gave them a satisfying shine on their exterior. I cleaned the wok in my dishwasher and it came out sparkling clean, I was truly shocked!

Storing

Storing this large set was a total breeze. I usually store my pans in a drawer underneath my oven, and I found that I could easily fit all of the pieces in there, minus the utensils as they go in a pot (obviously). I could stack the saucepans separately to the fry pans, or nestle them all together. Both ways meant I had some empty space to store other cookware.

I love the addition of the felt pan protectors as stacking pans sometimes makes me nervous that I'm ruining the non-stick coating if they scratch while taking them out and putting them back in.

How does it compare to similar models and its predecessors?

There aren't many pan sets of this size with detachable handles on the market. There's a very similar one from Tefal, the Ingenio Emotion L897SK04 20 Piece Set, which is just £250 (that's £145 cheaper) but it comes with one less frying pan (the 26cm one isn't included). Plus, it doesn't include lids for the saucepans, instead, it comes with 3 plastic lids for food storage. You also get one less utensil.

When it comes to competitors, Tower has designed a very similar concept which is sold at Amazon for 13 pieces, for an RRP of £149.99. You get two (16cm and 20cm) saucepans, plus two fry pans (22cm and 28cm), a 28cm wok, a 24cm sauté pan, paired with 3 glass lids, 2 silicone lids and 2 detachable handles. This set has a 4.2/5 star rating from Amazon reviewers.

There's also the ProCook Designpro Stackable Cookware Set, which is £129 and comprises 6 pieces, so best for smaller households. Included comes three pans — one 20cm saucepan with a lid, a 26cm sauté pan with a lid, plus a 26cm frying pan and a detachable handle. This has a 4.9/5 star rating from reviewers.

Should you buy the Tefal Ingenio Emotion 22-Piece Pan Set?

I 100% recommend this pan set if you're a family of three or more and if you do a lot of home cooking. It's especially handy if you find yourself often using several hob rings at a time — because all of the pans work with one handle, you needn't be playing Tetris with your panhandles and whether to position them. You also get four-sized frying pans and three-sized saucepans, plus a sauté pan and a wok included. Just do note that the frying pans do not have matching lids, but the saucepans come with a lid for each.

If you've got several mouths to feed but only so much kitchen storage, then this set is more than convenient — it's multi-purpose, too. You can use them on the hob, or in the oven (without the handles or lids) and they can even be paired with lids that you can buy separately on Amazon, for food storage in your fridge. Better yet, save on washing up and bring them straight to the table for serving, just be sure to remove the handles and make sure no one touches them. When it comes to storing them away, felt protectors mean you can nest them into one another, and the handles on the lids fold, too, so that you can stack them.

Admittedly, price-wise, this set is an investment but it's often on sale at Amazon. Even if you can't find it on sale, I do think it's a bargain as you get 22 pieces included. You'll own so many different sizes of pots and pans meaning you will never ever be stuck for cookware, whether you're serving 4 for Sunday lunch or 14 for Christmas.

On the flip hand, if you're someone who lives on their own or in a couple and rarely cooks at home, I'd probably go for something smaller. If you still want the convenience of detachable or foldable handles for saving storage space, then check out my review on this Joseph Joseph 3-piece set with foldable handles. Do bear in mind that you cannot use these pans on the heat with the handles attached — they are plastic and will get hot, and they could melt.