9 Cookware Trends at the 2024 Inspired Home Show

In previous years, we’ve spotted wildly popular kitchen trends—such as air fryers, Instant Pots, carbon steel, and the revival of cast-iron cookware—months before these things became household staples. 

So here are the top trends we spotted at the 2024 show. Read on to see what’s next.

Many manufacturers are responding to consumers’ rising calls for environmentally responsible and sustainable products. Several products were advertised as being made from recycled post-consumer materials, reusable, or free from harmful chemicals. 

“Green” marketing was seen for everything from water bottles to skillets. This trend could also point to companies trying to appeal to younger shoppers who, according to some surveys, prefer to buy from brands that actively produce environmentally friendly products.

Several companies utilized bamboo as a way to signal that their products are “sustainable” and to appeal to consumers who want a natural yet modern look. Bamboo has long been a popular alternative to wood products. It’s touted as being smooth, flexible, and strong. We saw everything from paper to dish racks made from the material. 

Although it may look attractive, bamboo isn’t necessarily more sustainable than traditional wood products. Its eco-friendliness all depends on how it’s grown, harvested, transported, discarded, and more.

In keeping with the trend toward more healthful and eco-conscious offerings, we also saw a lot more companies at the show with new ceramic nonstick cookware and bakeware lines. 

This trend is also driven by the fact that in the last few years, many states have begun to enact or at least consider legislation that regulates the sale of cookware made with traditional, PTFE-based nonstick coatings. This is because PTFE contains chemicals called PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, pronounced PEE-fass) that have been linked to some health issues. 

As we predicted in a recent article, this legislation has pushed companies to start switching over from traditional nonstick to ceramic coatings, which don’t contain PFAS and can perform just as well as traditional variants. 

At the show, it was clear that cookware companies have leaned into this shift, with many advertising their products to be safer and less toxic than traditional nonstick. We’ll be interested to see how the new products perform in the coming year, and will also monitor any new research on the safety of these ceramic options as well.

Cookware companies have clearly taken note of the success enjoyed by HexClad, a company that makes expensive “hybrid” stainless-steel and nonstick cookware. We saw tons of knockoffs, each boasting to maximize the same benefits of both materials. 

Unfortunately, when we tested HexClad’s popular 12-inch skillet, we didn’t like it very much. We found it to be the worst of both worlds: neither truly nonstick nor particularly good as a stainless skillet. While the majority of the surface has a PTFE-based nonstick coating, the surface is interrupted by raised hexagons made of stainless steel. Food sticks to those hexagons, rendering the nonstick surface fairly useless. 

Grilling in America is at an all-time high, with 80 percent of U.S. households owning some type of grill—and the trend is growing. Increasingly, barbecuing, grilling, and smoking aren’t just for summertime anymore, with home cooks cooking outdoors all year round. 

We saw plenty of grills at the Inspired Home Show, and while there were a few big, high-end models, many more fell in the compact, portable category. For people with smaller households or limited outdoor space, as well as those who want to take their grilling on the road, there are new sleek styles that are easy to transport and store. 

Cuisinart showed a few portables, including its new Venture Portable Gas Grill, shaped like a red-and-black picnic basket. It stores a small propane tank, and its lid turns into a wooden cutting board. Old Mountain Cast Iron displayed two sizes of a lightweight stainless-steel tailgating grill that not only looks like artwork but also folds flat and slides into a slim, padded nylon carrying case. Lodge displayed its portable Kickoff Grill, two nesting perforated buckets of cast iron that invert, stack and twist (to adjust airflow) to become a round, portable grill.   

As growing numbers of consumers have been cooking outdoors, cookware manufacturers not well known for products for the grill are getting into the act. 

We saw the Demeyere Black 5 cookware collection, which consists of 5-ply stainless steel pans with a matte black ceramic nonstick exterior coating that won’t show soot. Demeyere says they’re made to “blur the boundaries” between indoor and outdoor cooking, meaning the same pans can be used on the stove or out on the grill. Zwilling displayed shiny stainless-steel perforated grill baskets to corral smaller foods, with slotted sides to hold kebabs. And Le Creuset introduced its first Alpine Outdoor Collection that includes a perforated grill pan, a skillet, and a pizza pan, all made of black enameled cast iron. 

We saw a ton of soft, airy, pastel-toned small appliances, bakeware, and water bottles, as the consumer-driven aesthetic spreads all across social media platforms. The muted-yet-elegant matte finish is another trend that may be coming to your kitchen soon. Available in a wide range of colorways, the smooth matte finish has been increasingly embraced by shoppers over shiny finishes, potentially because scratches and thumbprints leave less obvious marks on products with matte finishes. 

Buoyed by the success of the Ooni Kodas, Ooni Volt, and Breville Pizzaiolo, many companies launched new indoor and outdoor pizza ovens. Many, including the Cuisinart Pizza Oven, cost significantly less than our favorites.

This makes them an intriguing option for home cooks who would love to dip a toe into pro-level pizza gear but have been scared off by the high price tags of the existing options. We’ll be very curious to see how these more affordable options perform!

Love them or hate them, air fryers are here to stay—but with spins that help them appeal to a broader group of consumers who are still on the fence about buying one. 

Want to stay away from nonstick coatings? Gourmia and other companies are making models with glass bowls that aren’t coated with nonstick material. (We tested some last year and had mixed feelings about them.)

Looking for a do-it-all gadget that doesn’t take up much space on your counter? A number of companies are releasing models that combine multiple appliances into one, including one by Gourmia that can be turned into a grill, griddle, steamer, and air fryer.