European cookware brands worth keeping

America sells cookware. Europe makes it. The cast iron in the best French kitchens has been forged in Burgundy for a hundred years. The stainless steel pan a Brussels chef sears on was hand-finished in Herentals. The copper saucepan in a Michelin-star pastry station is from Villedieu-les-Poêles. The enamel oven dish in a Vienna grandmother's kitchen has been made in the same Austrian valley for two centuries.

The US brands you've heard of — All-Clad, Lodge, HexClad, Caraway — are marketed harder. But the European ones are typically built better and have been at it longer. A Mauviel copper pan from 1830 is functionally identical to one made today. A Le Creuset Dutch oven outlives the marriage it was a wedding present for.

Below: ten European cookware brands worth choosing over their US equivalents. France dominates, but Germany, Belgium, Italy, Austria, and Sweden all hold their own. Most of these companies are 100+ years old. Several are still family-owned.