Gastronorm sizes explained

Quick answer. For most kitchens, build your system on 1/1 stainless in 65mm and 100mm depths as the backbone, add 1/3 pans in 65mm and 100mm for prep wells and bain-marie toppings, and use clear polycarbonate 1/1 and 1/3 for cold fridge storage. That one set moves food from combi to blast chiller to fridge to bain-marie to the pass without decanting, which saves labour, cuts waste and means every counter, fridge and oven you buy next already fits your pans. Buy a decent gauge (0.7mm or better) with lids that match, and you will restock the same sizes for years. Lordwell holds some GN lines in its own warehouse for next-working-day dispatch when you order before the cut-off, and orders the rest in with the lead time confirmed before you commit, so tell us the kit you are matching and we will spec the pans to fit it.

Gastronorm (GN) is the European standard (EN 631) that sizes food pans, and the whole professional kitchen is built around it: the 1/1 pan measures 530mm x 325mm, and every other size is a neat fraction or multiple of that same footprint. That is why one pan slides into your combi, blast chiller, fridge, prep counter and bain-marie without being decanted, so the real decision is not which brand of pan to buy, it is which sizes and depths to standardise your kitchen on.

The questions to ask before you buy

Which pieces of kit does the pan actually have to move between?

This is the question that makes GN worth standardising on. Your combi shelves, blast chiller, upright and undercounter fridges, prep and saladette counters, bain-maries, hot cupboards and gantry shelving are all built to the same 1/1 module, so a single pan can carry food from cooking to chilling to storage to hot holding to the pass with no decanting. Every transfer you remove is labour saved, waste cut and one less HACCP break point. Map the journey a dish takes through your kitchen, then buy pans that ride the whole way.

Do I plate from full 1/1 pans or from the fractions?

Bulk cooking, roasting and storage want 1/1 (and 2/1 for volume sites). Service lines, prep wells and bain-maries want the fractions, because they let you run several products side by side in one well. The maths is deliberate: two 1/2 pans, three 1/3 pans, or a mix such as a 1/2 plus two 1/4 all fill a single 1/1 space exactly, and small 1/6 and 1/9 pans drop into the gaps for garnishes and condiments. Work out how many separate items sit on your line at once, then buy the fractions that tile your wells cleanly.

How deep should the pans be?

Depths run 20, 40, 65, 100, 150 and 200mm, and each step roughly adds another layer of capacity. As a rough guide a 1/1 holds about 2.5 litres at 20mm, 5.5 litres at 40mm, 9 litres at 65mm, 14 litres at 100mm, 21 litres at 150mm and 28 litres at 200mm (figures vary a little by maker). Shallow pans (20 to 65mm) turn over fast, display well and transfer heat and cold quickly, which matters in a bain-marie and when you blast chill. Deep pans (150 to 200mm) are for bulk storage and liquids, but a deep pan of hot food holds heat unevenly and chills slowly, so keep the deepest pans away from hot holding and chilling.

Stainless steel or polycarbonate?

Match the material to the temperature. Stainless is the all-rounder: it goes from freezer to combi to oven to bain-marie to blast chiller and takes daily abuse, so it is what you cook, hot-hold and blast chill in. Polycarbonate is a cold-side pan: clear so you can see and label the contents, lighter, quieter and cheaper, ideal for fridge and dry storage and mise en place, and fine down to freezer temperatures. What it will not do is go in the oven or sit over a bain-marie flame, where the heat warps or melts it, so keep poly for cold and stainless for anything hot.

What gauge and finish will survive my service?

A GN pan is only as good as its steel. Look for a gauge around 0.7mm to 1.0mm for pans in daily service; thin 0.5mm pans dent, warp and stop seating properly in your wells. Anti-jam or stackable profiles stop pans wedging together, non-stick is worth paying for on egg, potato and baked items, and perforated pans earn their place wherever you steam or drain in the combi. None of it works without lids, so spec those at the same time.

Am I locking into a standard I can restock and mix for years?

This is the quiet advantage of GN. Because the footprint is a published standard, pans from different makers interchange in the same fridge, counter and combi, and any new kit you buy later will already accept the pans you own. Capacity, gauge and lid fit do vary between brands even at the same size code, so check the litres and the gauge rather than assuming, and standardise on as few sizes as your menu allows so par levels, stacking and next-day replacements stay simple.

The main types, and who each suits

1/1 full-size GN (530mm x 325mm)

The base module the whole kitchen is measured against. Bulk cooking, roasting, hot holding and storage, and the reference footprint your combi shelves, fridges and counters are all built around. The pan every kitchen owns most of.

1/2 GN

Splitting a 1/1 space into two. A bain-marie and prep-well workhorse for sauces, vegetables and larger portioned components where a 1/3 is too small but a full pan is too much.

1/3 GN

The most-used service and prep pan in most kitchens. Three tile a 1/1 well exactly, so it is the default for bain-marie toppings, saladette counters and made-to-order lines running several components at once.

1/4, 1/6 and 1/9 GN

Garnishes, condiments, dressings, herbs and small portions on a busy garnish rail or salad counter. They fill the gaps in a 1/1 well and keep low-volume items separate and within arm's reach.

2/1 and 2/3 GN

High-volume and banqueting. The 2/1 (650mm x 530mm, a double 1/1) suits roll-in combis, big blast chillers and production counters; the 2/3 fills deeper-fronted counters and works well for buffet and carvery display.

What to look for

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