Meet our favourite cooking pan. Based on the classic rondeau, a pot found in every chef’s arsenal, it’s the large, shallow, versatile saucepan with looped handles and a heavy lid that’s an absolute workhorse in our kitchen. And it should be in yours too Here's why.

Can one pan do it all? We say yes. It can. And that pan is the MAKO Genius 5-Ply Essential Pan. We cook in it all the time and when we’re not, we’re dreaming up new ways to use it. Braising. Pan-frying. Deep-frying. Sautéing. Simmering. Preserving. Steaming. Oven-roasting. Poaching. Gratinating right under the oven grill for a golden, crusty finish. This pan is up for it all. It will actually make you a better cook and no wonder, because we looked to professional kitchens when coming up with the design. We figured if anyone knew a thing or two about tough, multi-functional, well designed, high-performance cookware, it’s a restaurant chef and if we do say so ourselves, how right we were.

It’s… everything. With a roomy 28cm (11¼ inch) wide base and a side 13.5cm (5½ in) high, the dimensions of this hybrid beauty mean it can swing either way. You can shallow-fry plenty of ingredients in a single layer for a decent sear, or comfortably simmer big-batch ragus and braises. The relatively low side allows sauces to efficiently reduce when you want them to, and the sturdy, tight-fitting lid keeps liquid and heat in when you need. This pan is spacious enough to cook soup, sauce, pilaf or risotto for a crowd, make a batch of jam or other preserves, or accommodate an easy one-pan oven-roast for the family. We even thought hard about the helper-style handles, perfectly positioned to make handling this pan, even when fully loaded, a breeze.

We love the convenience of starting a dish on the stovetop, then finishing it in the oven. Sweating off vegetables, searing proteins, deglazing, and adding other ingredients, then slinging the pan in the oven to finish cooking undisturbed is, well, liberating. No stirring, no fussing, no stressing. The Essential pan is oven-safe to 260°C (500°F) so it can handle this easily. Conversely, when used to oven-roast, you can easily construct a sauce by taking the cooked goodies out, plonking the pan on the stove, then deglazing and making a reduction, gravy, butter-mounted sauce or whatever, utilising all the lovely concentrated flavours and cooking juices. This is how chefs cook; moving easily, seamlessly and elegantly from the stove to the oven and back again, building layers of flavour as they go. This pan practically makes cooking balletic

Our Essential pan performs this way because of what it’s made of. The solid 5-ply stainless steel construction delivers the ultimate in responsive, even heating and best-in-class heat conductivity. At the core is a layer of copper wrapped in two layers of aluminium, the ultimate materials for consistent heat circulation and hotspot elimination. Cladding the inside and exterior is quality, brushed stainless steel for the ultimate in durable, easy-care, non-reactive cooking surfaces. These premium materials make a pan with the perfect heft that heats quickly, accurately and evenly. It never misses a beat, no matter what the cooking surface. Gas, electricity and even induction; this pan will perform on them all.