I'm looking for information on a new pots and pans set. There are so many kinds available--All clad, Pampered Chef, Calphlon, etc. does anyone have any pros or cons they could share? Glass covers or metal?? Weight(don't want to burn that lemon curd)? TIA

I like my Anolon cookware. What I recommend in your situation is to hit amazon.com and resarch the cookware they have and read the reviews from people. That will give you a good idea of what you need for usage and how it will hold up. Good luck!

I love love love my calphalon. I have the heavy stuff pro chef or something like that. I bought most of it on ebay and didn't pay more than 35 dollars a pan many were less than that and all were brand new in the box. It is really great stuff. I waited 15 years to buy good pans and other than grandmas cast iron skillets I wouldn't use anything else.

Hey--thanks for the great tips--never thought about checking the comments on Amazon--and I didn't even realize calpholon was S/S. I'm off to search..
Jeanne

I love the Cook's Essential line on QVC...they really work and you get a full lifetime warranty.

I have a tri-clad set of Calphalon pans with a copper interior. Copper is BY FAR the absolute best conductor of heat. Really spendy sets have a copper core throughout the entire pan (meaning up the sides as well as on the bottom). Less expensive sets have a copper core on the bottoms of the pans only, which is what my set has, and I can boil a quart of water in one of these pans in 3 minutes.

The crappiest cookware you could ever buy is solid stainless steel. It's cheap and it's a crappy conductor of heat.

Next up from pure stainless steel is pure aluminum, which is a great conductor of heat, and you can buy many inexpensive pieces of aluminum cookware.

If you are a serious cook, spend a little money and get a copper-core set of cookware. The phrase, "You get what you pay for" is absolutely true with cookware.

Stay away from Teflon-coated stuff. Hard-anodized aluminum is okay (I have some of this too), and of course cast iron is AWESOME (which I use almost as much as my copper-core cookware). You can never go wrong with a well-seasoned cast iron pan. Just make sure you don't go overboard and buy a 12" pan if you can't lift it full of food. I use my 8" and 10" cast iron pans most often, although I also have 6" and 12" pans. Lodge is the best.

I am a Pampered Chef consultant so I have their cookware and I really love the executive cookware line. It's nonstick but they don't use teflon so it doesn't peel up like teflon does after a while. It is made with hard anodized aluminum and it heats really evenly.

They also have stainless steel cookware. It's different than most stainless because it has aluminum between two layers of stainless steel so that it has more even and faster heating.
All of the cookware has a lifetime warranty.

If you want to PM me I can give you my website if you want to research them. Sorry if this sounds too much like a sales pitch, I don't mean for it to. I just wanted to give you the info that I have about their cookware.