Let’s pretend we’re speed dating. Ready? Here are two quick facts about me:

1. I love nice, high-quality things. 
2. I think most nice, high-quality things are overpriced.

To elaborate, I’m equally intrigued and wary of luxury items – skincare and cookware, in particular – marketed as “must-haves” that just so happen to cost a fortune. I’m drawn to these shiny things, like a bougie moth to a flame, but I also want to know why they are so expensive. How do they justify their hefty price tags? Are they actually worth it?

Luckily, my job requires that I do extensive research, put these products to the test, and share what I find! That trendy $150 under-eye cream that’s really only $10 worth of product? Never making it into my routine. GreenPan’s fancy new line of healthy ceramic cookware, on the other hand? Worth every penny.

If you’re a discerning person who loves to cook and cares about your health, read on for my full review of GP5!

If you’re a discerning person who’s also impatient, just head over here and grab this stunning cookware set for yourself for 10% off with code: PRIMARY10.

The tiniest bit of shade…

I can’t talk about how I found my way to GreenPan without throwing some other pans under the bus. I will try to be tactful! But I want to be honest about my frustrations – especially since some of them have actual health-related implications. (If you feel like skipping this journey, head straight to the good stuff here.)

Cooking is important to me, and what I cook with has always mattered. I’m not amazing in the kitchen by any means, but I find cooking both fun and quasi-meditative – I get into a zone where I’m not thinking about any of my problems and I’m completely at peace. I also cook at least five nights a week, so of course I want to make sure I’m using high-quality cookware.

And until recently, I thought that I was… I had a set of high-end nonstick pans, which I’d been told was just about the best you can get; they were even recommended by legit professional chefs. However, I learned that most nonstick cookware out there – including the aforementioned high-end pans – contain toxins in the coating that can leach into your food and stay in your body… forever.

Getting heated

I’ll spare you the science lesson, but feel free to read this haunting article about the dangers of PFAS and PFOA. You can imagine my terror when I realized that what I’d been cooking on for years – basically Teflon but with a fancier brand name – was potentially hazardous to my health! I felt duped, and went on a furious search for PFAS- and PFOA-free pans that would set my mind at ease.

I immediately fell for the eye-catching, Instagram-friendly nonstick ceramic pans you’ve seen pop up all over your feed. After experimenting with some of them, I ultimately felt that they weren’t that high-quality or durable. One of my pans got scratched up after a single week, and I was using the gentlest sponge recommended by the brand itself.

Turns out, some hyped-up products are just not worth the hype – or money.

Now twice burned, I finally started reading about GreenPan. And I learned that they were the very first to make PFAS- and PFOA-free nonstick pans! And they’re constantly innovating, churning out the most cutting-edge, high-performance cookware ever.

What’s so special about GP5? 

Once I knew about GreenPan, I couldn’t help gravitating toward GP5, dubbed their “most advanced collection” yet. Maybe it’s the aspirationally-fancy girl in me, but why wouldn’t I want the best of the best? Especially when it comes to something that I would use almost every single day.

Did I gulp at the price tag? I absolutely did. GP5 costs $859.99 for an 11-piece set – $300 more than their popular Reserve Collection. How? Why? I needed to investigate what truly set these pans apart. Here are just a few techy features that caught my attention:

• Their Infinite8 Ceramic. This is the 8th generation of nonstick pans and the most innovative by far. Their ceramic coating promises to hold up against metal utensils (no scratching), perform better, and last longer. If I’m going to spend this kind of money on something, I definitely want it to stand the test of time.
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• Balance Pro Base. With most pans, any oil you pour for cooking immediately goes everywhere, requiring you to keep adding oil. With GP5, the base stays flat – always – so your oil stays exactly where you poured it, meaning you can use less of it, which is way healthier! I did not even realize this feature was possible, but I’m so glad it is!
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• Armored Bodies. These pans are seriously heavy duty! The aluminum is pre-treated before being hard-anodized – a process that strengthens the metal, making it non-porous, extra-durable, and scratch-resistant.
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• Oven- and Induction-Safe. I love that these pans can go in the oven (up to 600°) – perfect for my go-to dishes like shakshuka and miso-glazed chicken thighs. Also, I am about to move to an apartment with an electric induction stovetop, so I’m excited to know  I can utilize this more energy-efficient feature!
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• Silhouette Rivets. Trying to clean the gunk that always seems to pile up in the tiny little grooves around regular rivets drives me insane! So I love that these GP5 pans preserve the strength that riveted handles provide without the headaches. Honestly, it’s the kind of attention to detail that I look for in high quality products.

And of course:

• Healthy! That’s *all* GreenPan cookware, not a GP5 exclusive, but it bears repeating, because it’s so important. No forever chemicals like PFAS or PFOA. No lead, no cadmium. Just healthy, nonstick ceramic I can feel good about.

Survival of the chicest

Even from the handful of pictures and short videos I eyeballed on the GP5 product page, I could tell these pans were the real deal. They looked heavy. They looked high-quality. They looked chic!

I landed on the Cloud Cream color, which seemed the chicest of them all. For whatever reason, imagining these off-white beauties in my kitchen made me feel extremely elegant. I followed my instincts and clicked “Purchase.”

Fast forward to the pans arriving on my doorstep, me unboxing them, and discovering that I was correct – the set looks gorgeous in my home! Obviously, performance features are way more important to me than aesthetics, but I appreciate that GreenPan designed their pieces to be both functional and easy on the eye.

If you are only here for Instagram-worthy pots and pans, you will still get what you came for! 

But are the pans actually any good? 

Yes! I have had these pans for a few months now and they have already proven their worth many times over. I have cooked hundreds of meals – from the simple, like omelets, to the more complex and layered, like tofu tikka masala – and my GP5s have handled everything I throw their way with ease.

Each of the pieces performs beautifully and cooks food evenly, whether I’m sizzling a piece of salmon in the 11” frypan or making matzoh ball soup in the stockpot. This set is a real workhorse!

It’s so unlike most nonstick pans out there. As I mentioned, some of my previous purchases did not hold up. I’ve also heard chilling stories of friends’ nonstick pans literally shedding their coating and flaking off into the food… You don’t have to worry about any of this nonsense with the GP5’s! They are truly so well made and built to last.

And! Because it’s nonstick, cleanup is so. Unbelievably. Easy. I typically hand-wash my pans, and any food remnants slide right off. But they are dishwasher safe, if that’s more your vibe!