Is There A Difference Between Brands Of High End Cookware?

Q: I was browsing the Kitchens Etc. store today looking for egg cups, but I took a quick stroll around the pots and pans. My cookware of choice is All Clad (stainless steel, have 4 pieces to date, think they're fabu), but I notice a lot of manufs. have a stainless steel line. Tonight, I saw the Viking line of ss pans, very impressive looking, shiny and heavy. (I knew Viking made ranges and other kitchen appliances but never knew they made cookware, too.) I know Cuisinart has a line of heavy ss, too. Do you really think there's a major difference between top of the line items? I was just thinking that I have cast iron pans made from different manufacturers, and they're more or less identical in performance.

A: The Caphalon cookware I have does not have plastic handles, they are solid riveted stainless steel. The non-stick Teflon coated Caphalon pans I have are a breeze to clean by hand. The older ones that are not non-stick are not that hard to clean. A scotchbrite cleaning pad and a little elbow grease will take care of any mistakes I made cooking. Of course, I can add water and boil for a little while too to loosen everything up and then I wipe it out. I suspect you have confused the pans I have with the cheapie hard anodized pans made in no name factories by slave labor in other parts of the world. There is a real difference in a good heavy piece of cookware compared to the thin cheap counterparts. I have used my Hard Anodized pans on my natural gas grill and my natural gas cook top in the kitchen, in addition to poor quality electric stoves in apartments that would burn the same food in Revere ware pans. I really couldn't tell any difference on the natural gas except I didn't heat up the kitchen, smell it up, etc. I suspect it would work well on my Coleman stove too if I had a reason to try that but, Lodge cast iron seems more appropriate for those cooking adventures ;-) If you have a bad electric stove, a good set of premium cookware will go a long way to masking the poor and uneven heating of the cooktop heating elements if you are in an apartment and can't fix the stove top. We use a set of farberware millennium for our primary cookware - I like it better than the calaphon I used to have - the calaphon was nice and heavy though..I just really prefer the Silverstone on the millennium and was not willing to spend the $$ the calaphon would have required..18/8 stainless pans, nice and heavy- I think they sell it in sets and individual pans..I got mine about 1 1/2 years ago. Make sure you buy the 18/8 though - we did knowingly buy a few extra fry pans that are aluminum I think they work fine, but for browning, the good pans are better!

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