Published November 1, 2004.
Does a famous chef's name on a skillet promise good performance?
Chefs are putting their names on much more than restaurants. We purchased six large skillets, each emblazoned with the name of a television cooking personality. All of these pans are relatively affordable, but would their performance be worthy of the famous names on the handle?
We prepared our pan-seared pork tenderloins (to judge browning and fond development), cooked onions (to check sauté speed), and made crêpes (to gauge uniformity of heat transfer) in each skillet. As a basis of comparison, we ran the same tests in our favorite traditional and nonstick skillets, both made by All-Clad.
The results: Even our winning pans possess design flaws that keep them out of All-Clad’s league.
