Tom Kerridge's surprisingly affordable cookware collaboration has been a sellout hit with shoppers, and this weekend past, I tried one of its bestsellers: the Stainless Steel Roasting Tray (£40 from M&S).
The first thing I noticed about this roaster is its phenomenal quality; from the weight of it in your hand to the excellent addition of oven-safe side handles, you can tell the tray has been crafted by someone who knows their trade. We've found the same in our tests of Tom Kerridge's revamped stainless steel All-in-One saucepan and versatile 2-in-1 chopping board, too.
'You’ll use this so often you’ll wonder how you ever cooked without it,' according to Tom Kerridge himself.
The tray is crafted from stainless steel and aluminium and features a textured interior. This honeycomb pattern is supposed to enhance the airflow to whatever food you're roasting, 'so food stays nice and crisp,' according to Tom Kerridge.
It's a very smart, shiny pan to have in your kitchen. I can't quite believe a pan of this quality will set you back just £40, and it's great that it's suitable for use on the hob too, including induction hobs.
I started with the most important test of all: roast potatoes. After parboiling, flouring and fluffing I added my potatoes to this pan (which I had previously popped into the oven to heat with oil).
I can't stress enough how useful the side handles on this pan are and how they enhance the quality feel of the overall product. It made it so much easier to manoeuvre it when it was very hot fresh out of the oven.
The resulting potatoes were so crispy and perfectly browned. I turned them over about 20 minutes in before I returned them to the oven to roast the other side and there was no sticking whatsoever. Being able to use my trusty stainless steel tongs for the job was also a big highlight for me.
The final step for my roast potatoes is slathering them in garlic and rosemary butter, which is where things tend to get messy and have gotten a little cagey in the past when using a lower-quality tray. It's why I'm a big believer in spending more on a good, reliable roaster.
The finished article!
Even the final roasting segment was no match for this tray. By this point I was already so enamoured with this tray that I waited until my potatoes were done so that I could use it to roast my cauliflower too. I added my florets in and added the tray back into the oven.
The finished product was great, with less moisture created than with my usual baking tray. The florets were perfectly primed then for my cheese sauce.
The next important thing with this tray is that it's proved easy to keep clean thus far. Unfortunately the tray isn't recommended to go through the dishwasher but my handwashing efforts didn't need to be too severe to get everything off the tray without incident.
For its £40 price tag, the quality of this roaster is second to none compared to any other I've tried. It's shot straight to my list of favourites from this simply excellent chef collaboration. Here are the other picks from the range that we've tried and love.
This genius chopping board has already sold out a few times but is now thankfully back and available to buy. After trying it, we can attest it's simply ideal for the festive season with juice zones for meat carving and built-in bowls for food prep (think of the space for potato peelings!).
One of the other Tom Kerridge picks we reviewed is this stainless steel all-in-one pan which should, in theory, be able to replace all the pans in your kitchen. In it you can sauté, sear and shallow fry with a matching stainless steel lid to lock in flavour. It's also oven safe.
Our expert reviewer Helen loved this stacked cast iron casserole set so much that she swapped out her usual dishes to use it all the time in her kitchen. It features a large and small casserole alongside a grill version. Our review has the full details.
If you're on the hunt for a new roasting tray just in time for Christmas then I can't recommend this one enough. Your next roast dinner will be all the better for it, trust me!
