I’ve been thinking about buying a nonstick frying pan for awhile now, so when I was given the opportunity to try out the Scanpan Professional 9 1/4 inch frying pan I jumped at the chance. 

I’ve resisted using a non-stick pan for almost as long as I’ve been cooking, mainly because I hated the ones we had in the kitchen when I was a kid. They were always scratched and peeling, no doubt helped along by my Dad’s habit of leaving the pan on the stove and walking away, to return only when the smell of burning food and cookware reminded him he was cooking! 

Still, every time I cooked scrambled eggs I wondered about non-stick pans because unless I’m super careful the clean up is a pain. 

The first thing I noticed about the Scanpan is the weight. It has a nice heavy bottom and good sized round stainless steel handle that makes the pan easy to lift. The pan weighs 3 pounds, so it’s not unwieldy at all. The heavy bottom provides excellent heat conductivity and even heat distribution so you don’t get any scorched spots even if you have high BTU burners. I didn’t have any problems with the handle getting hot, but it does come with a handle mitt, which is a nice touch. 

I cooked scrambled eggs in no time and they came out perfectly, as did sautéed sole, which can be super difficult because it’s so delicate. Despite the great pan, I still didn’t rival Julia Child’s sole meunière, though! I also experimented with prawns, ground turkey and mushrooms, so I gave the pan a thorough workout and the results were uniformly good. 

I didn’t use super high heat on the pan, but that’s more because I have a cast iron skillet that’s more or less attached to my hand for that sort of cooking, and has been for the last twenty years, than because I thought the Scanpan couldn’t handle high heats. One of the best things about Scanpan is that it’s PFOA free, so you do not have to worry about the release of toxins at high heat, which has been a big concern of mine over the years and another reason I didn’t use a non-stick pan. The pan is also dishwasher safe and oven-proof to 500° F, so those features make this pan an excellent all round kitchen tool and worth the price of about $90. It has a ten-year warranty and comes with good instructions for care and use.

I like this frying pan a lot, and have used it a lot more than I thought I would ever use a nonstick pan. I also can't help thinking that if my Dad had had one of these he might not have had so many scorched pans!