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Some kitchen tools are born in design studios. The Chef's Press was born at the stove. After years in a San Francisco restaurant kitchen, chef Bruce Hill had had enough of traditional cast iron presses - they flattened food like a steamroller while trapping the steam, so that lovely crust ended up steamed instead of golden. His fix was as simple as it was obvious: a vented cooking weight that lets moisture escape instead of locking it into your food. This is the press you spot when chefs on social media list their "kitchen tools I can't live without".
You'll notice the difference the moment it hits the pan. Because the weight presses more of the food against the hot surface, cooking time drops by around 20 - 30 percent, and the surface comes out more even, better looking and more appetising. Bacon that stops curling, chicken breasts that brown evenly edge to edge, fish skin that turns crisp instead of chewy - that's the kind of everyday magic a good cooking weight delivers.
The clever part is that you decide the pressure. The Chef's Press comes in four weight classes (one of them round) and is built to stack. A single press is enough for delicate things like fish and vegetables, while two or three stacked deliver the pressure a proper steak or a grilled cheese deserves. That same stackability makes it easy to store and handy for keeping food submerged in a marinade (or sous vide).
Since the summer of 2026, The Chef's Press is also made in Sheffield, England (the city that practically invented stainless steel). The presses are made at one of the city's historic steelworks, in laser-cut 304 stainless steel for a perfectly flat cooking surface and a clean, sharp edge. Every press is formed on traditional machinery and finished by hand, in a process that also produces less waste than classic stamping.
Why you need The Chef's Press:
- The original - the vented cooking weight chefs actually recommend
- Cooks 20 - 30% faster thanks to better contact with the pan
- Vented design - steam escapes, so the surface turns golden, not steamed
- Stackable - you control the pressure, from fish fillet to thick-cut ribeye
- An even, beautiful sear on meat, fish and vegetables - and bacon that lies flat
- Made from stainless steel, dishwasher safe
