This is the question that stops most people at the moment of buying, and the answer you find everywhere is the same: “it depends how many people you cook for.” True, and not enough. Here are the three things that actually decide.
1. The size on the label isn't the cooking surface
A pan is measured across the top, at the rim. But the rim isn't what cooks — the base is, and the base is noticeably smaller because the walls flare outwards.
In practice, a 24 cm pan doesn't give you 24 cm of usable surface. That's why a pan that looked big enough in the box turns out to be just barely enough in use. When you're hesitating, count the base, not the number on the label.
2. The rule that matters: food must not touch
This is the only sizing rule that changes what lands on the plate.
Crowded food releases its water all at once. The water can't evaporate fast enough, it pools, the base temperature collapses, and what should have seared starts to boil. You get grey meat in a grey liquid, or limp mushrooms. Your heat isn't too low: your pan is too small for what you put in it.
A pan that's too big, on the other hand, ruins nothing. It just heats a little more surface than needed. That asymmetry is where the popular rule comes from: between two sizes, take the bigger one.
With one real caveat — see the next point.
3. The size of your burners
A pan much wider than the burner heating it heats badly: the centre is scorching, the edges stay lukewarm, and your food cooks at two speeds depending on where it sits. It shows up most on gas and on small induction zones.
So before taking the bigger one, look at your hob. If your largest burner is 18 cm, a 28 cm pan won't give you its best — unless you have a flexible induction zone, or you accept moving things around more.
Stainless spreads heat sideways better than a thin coated aluminium pan, which softens the problem. It doesn't remove it. If you cook on induction, see also the right settings for a stainless pan.
What each size does well
22 cm — one to two people
Two eggs, one piece of meat, a fish fillet, an omelette, softening an onion. It comes up to temperature fast, it stores anywhere, it washes in ten seconds. It's the everyday pan for someone cooking alone.
Its limit arrives quickly: two steaks won't fit without touching.
24 cm — two to three people
The one most people should take if they only buy one. Two good pieces of meat, four chicken thighs, a pan of vegetables for two, gnocchi, a risotto for three.
It stays manageable one-handed when full, which matters more than it sounds: a full stainless pan is heavy.
28 cm — family and weekend cooking
Four portions of meat at once, a big pan of vegetables, sautéed potatoes in a single layer, a serious quantity of onions to caramelise.
It's also the one that forgives most when you cook for guests: you don't end up serving in three rounds. In exchange, it's heavy once full, and it wants a large burner.
How to choose, in three questions
- How many plates on a normal evening? One or two → 22. Two or three → 24. Four or more → 28.
- How big is your largest burner? If it's small, drop one size from the answer above.
- Do you sometimes cook for more people? If so, go up one size: a big pan cooks a small portion, the other way round is impossible.
And if you take two
The most useful pair isn't 24 + 28 — too close to complement each other. It's 22 + 28: the small one for eggs, one portion, softening aromatics; the big one for everything else. Between them you cover everything a home kitchen asks for.
If you're taking one and genuinely can't decide, take the 24. It will never be the wrong choice, only sometimes the second best.
One last thing, and it has nothing to do with size
Whichever one you pick, the pan gives you nothing if it's too cold when the food goes in. That's as true at 22 cm as at 28, and it's the real cause of most failures people blame on the hardware: why stainless sticks, and the four lines that fix it.
The three sizes described here are the ones on the pan we film every video with. It's here, 304 stainless with no coating, with the 25-recipe book free and 60 days to send it back, even used.
Found your size? Choose the Forval pan — free 25-recipe book (in French).
