Not All-Clad: The Cookware Brand Behind Consumer Reports' Highest-Rated Stainless Steel Pan

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The OXO Stainless Steel Mira Series 10-inch Frying Pan is Consumer Reports' highest-rated stainless steel pan, scoring top marks for its cooking evenness and handle sturdiness, as well as its easy-to-clean design. If you're spending most of your time hunting down All-Clad or other valuable kitchenware brands to look for at thrift stores, OXO may not be on your radar. But thanks to its deep commitment to universal design, not to mention the lifetime guarantee backing all OXO products, it's worth taking a closer look behind the brand.

OXO was founded in the late 1980s by Sam and John Farber, a father-and-son duo with deep connections to the cookware industry. Like their uncle's Farberware pots and pans that were intended to make life easier for home cooks, OXO was originally developed to solve a common problem. Sam's wife, Betsey, suffered from arthritis that made it difficult to use the couple's fiddly peeler. Recognizing an opportunity to create kitchen utensils that weren't just functional but comfortable to use, Sam and his son joined forces before working with an industrial design firm in developing the Good Grips tool line.

Today, it's easy to recognize the brand's genius small kitchen products thanks to their fat black handles. Made of a cushy material called Santoprene, most OXO utensil handles have what can best be described as flexible fins that make them much easier to hold and use than smooth plastic alternatives. "It's hard to think of a vegetable peeler as radical, but I guess it was," Sam Farber said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

So how did OXO go from reinventing a humble kitchen utensil to winning recognition for its stainless steel pans? There were plenty of stops along the way. Within its first decade, OXO grew to become an international brand lauded by casual cooks and professionals alike. In 1998, the cookware brand made lettuce lovers rejoice with the introduction of the OXO salad spinner, an easy-to-use if tricky-to-clean rotating basket device that relies on centrifugal force to pull moisture off leaves and herbs. Less than 10 years later, OXO was acquired for $273 million by Helen of Troy Limited, the company behind everything from your favorite Hydroflask to Honeywell heaters.

Soon after being acquired, OXO launched POP Containers. One of the food storage containers you'll always want to have on hand, the kitchenware brand has sold millions of them. Another thoughtfully designed product, the push-button lid mechanism makes it much easier for anyone with hand mobility limitations to easily open and close the containers. The company continually refines its products based on consumer feedback, which is why both the salad spinner and POP Containers you can find in stores today look a little different (and function a little better) than the original versions.

It's no surprise, then, that OXO continued to incorporate universal design principles when it launched its first cookware collection in 2014. The brand's continued commitment to making everyday life easier is one of the reasons why OXO continued to develop and refine products like the Mira Series Tri-ply stainless steel pans it launched earlier this year.