I was thrilled last month to receive a pan free, courtesy of T-Fal and Influenster, in exchange for a review.  It’s been a rough winter, to put it mildly, in between dealing with a landlord who, shall we say, wouldn’t accept anything except what he wanted, which was against the law (but he insisted was actually the law), and the seemingly constant sicknesses.

So it was really nice to receive this pan — but never fear, opinions are all my own.

And I’ll start by admitting that I haven’t had the time, despite my best intentions, to look up if this pan could be harmful to our health.  To be honest, I should have done it before applying for this review opportunity.  Similarly, I haven’t looked into T-Fal’s ethical practices or its environmental impact.  I’ll blame the constant illness and the landlord situation, but let’s be honest, this mama’s brain is a bit like Swiss cheese now.

So, strictly from the perspective of user experience, I really love using this pan.  Because it was for a review, I decided to use and abuse it for three weeks: I fried, deep fried, cooked quickly, cooked for a long time, and reheated.  I cooked on my stove’s small and large elements.  I made bland foods, dry foods, oily foods, wet foods, foods with spices that stain.  A few times, against all my instincts and ignoring the screaming in my head, I left the pan dirty overnight to test how hard it would be to wash.

Here are my conclusions: The pan is light, making handling while cooking, cleaning, and storing easy.  The lightness and the curve of the rim made flipping pancakes easy.  The heat spreads evenly, which means no center ring of burnt food with an outer circle of perfectly cooked food, or a center of perfectly cooked food with a ring where a colony of E. Coli is still evolving into a complex civilization.  One of my stove’s elements is VERY eager to heat things up and often burns foods in my other pots and pans; it took three times as much time to burn in this one.  And even with burnt food left to crust up overnight, the pan washed extremely easily.

I didn’t do a true scratch test in the pan; I didn’t dare use any metal utensils.  However, it did survive a lot of scraping with the usual plastic, silicone, and wooden tools, as well as being in a pretty large pile of clean dishes with full contact with our plates, and we still haven’t seen a single scratch or any sign of peeling.  I even let my kiddo handle it a few times; it was easy because of how lightweight this pan is, and there were no scratches despite her delightful and slightly evil grin when I told her she didn’t have to be careful when scrambling her omelet.

All in all, a great pan. I found it in stores for CA$40, so it could make a great beginner pan for someone moving into their own place, a replacement pan, or an extra pan for when there is more cooking that usual to be done.

I aim to update this review in a few months, by the way.  Good intentions and all.  I want to look into T-Fal’s environmental and ethical records, as well as any health issues related to its products.  And I want to see how well the pan fares after a much longer period of constant and slightly abusive use.  Let’s see how my Swiss cheese brain handles this assignment.

——- U P D A T E ——-

As of 6 November 2023, I am still quite happy with this pan.  It is holding up really well; it looks used but still relatively new.  Nothing seems to stick to it, even the stickiest of tofu recipes (found a delicious orange crispy tofu recipe just to test this pan out and it’s become a staple).  No big scratches despite it being used regularly by the kiddo.  But unfortunately I have not yet looked up the environmental or ethical sides of this corporation.  I’ve also been told, but haven’t looked up, the potential health effects of non-stick pans.

So if you are looking for a good non-stick pan at a good price and have no concerns regarding the ethical or environmental practices of the company, or have no health concerns related to non-stick pans, this could be a great choice for you.