Cooking Reviews

This Calphalon Commercial Nonstick 2-Quart Chef's Pan with Lid is a "collector's item" from the newer line of Calphalon's nonstick cookware. Thus, it has the same alloy aluminum pan as the older "Professional nonstick" line, but its interior has the superior Commercial nonstick coating. Its handle is "stay-cool" sculpted stainless steel, instead of an older chrome-covered iron handle that can get very hot to the touch. The 9-Inch bottom of this chef's pan is slightly smaller than that of the 3-Quart Sauté pan, which is another useful pan that usually comes with a Calphalon starter set.

This pan is a real bargain. Since Calphalon rarely offers such deep discounts, especially on their newest nonstick line of cookware, it seems worthwhile to add it to one's collection. If you have not tried a Commercial nonstick pan, I recommend this one as a test pan. The Commercial nonstick omelet pans are excellent, but one can get them in a starter set at a good price, too.

Because this chef's pan has the rounded shape, I use it for stir-frying, reducing sauces, and making demi-glace. I have two flat-bottomed woks (Joyce Chen and Calphalon), but they do not work that well on an electric range, and they are not nonstick. This chef's pot is useful for a small-to-medium stir fry on either a gas or electric burner. When the stir fry is done, I use a Calphalon nylon scoop to remove the cooked food, then reduce the sauce.

Since this pot is nonstick, clean-up will be easy. Any residue can be removed with a nylon scrubber and Soft Scrub. Hand-washing is recommended by Calphalon. I have had some of these Commercial nonstick pans for four years, and they still look like new.

I love this piece. I actually just bought this pan a couple of weeks ago and I have been using it ever since. I cook for a family of four. This is the perfect size for my family. I use it to boil soup and to saute vegetables. I've even cooked gourmet dishes using this pan. I thought that this piece might be too small but it has worked out just right for me.

Another issue I thought I would have is the size of the bottom area of the pan. It is much smaller than the lid area. But I found that the heat spreads evenly all across the surface area of the pan and not just the bottom of the pan. So I think that the surface cooking area is actually bigger (for those people who saute a lot, I think you know what I'm talking about).

Also, I have an electric stove top. When you have an electric stove, cooking time takes longer. I've never loved cooking with electric since I bought this pan! Again, the pan seems like it heats evenly. Boiling water seems quicker than before.

Definitely a must buy category.

This "skillet" is just the right size if you are single and likes to cook. I find it just the perfect little wok to whip up something for dinner. The skillet is heavy anodized aluminum with a seemingly very sturdy non-stick coating. The heavy stainless lid only adds to the heft and quality of the set. It sits on my small electric burner unit very well and heats up nice and hot in no time. Use non-metallic cooking utensils and never put it in the dishwasher and it will last a long time. Excellent plus!

I use this as a cooling rack and it works well. It is a bit hard to handwash (I don't have a dish washer). Good size although the wires are a bit thick for things like cake, this is more for meat.

This rack has flat wires instead of round, which makes it even better than most other racks for cooling cookies! Gives a more firm support and makes it easier to get a spatula underneath to move cookies around. The finish is nonstick and easy to clean, I've had no trouble sticking mine in the dishwasher. Highly recommend!!

This is an excellent cooling rack! Certainly a must have if you like to bake, especially cookies! The wires are a good size for cooling. They are flat rather than round, which I love, the flat surface gives more firm support to your cookies. The nonstick finish is very easy to clean. I have 2 and am considering ordering 2 more. It is also to nice to cool baked items on this rack with it is still in the pan, it allows the bottom to cool much better then if it was just sitting on your counter. Highly recommended!

After scratching through a host of ... fry pans, I decided I would settle down with the highest quality fry pan available in the industrial world. This pan, techically a wok, still can do it all due to the flat bottom- pancakes, omlets, stirfry, deepfry - all with the grace of even heating. Although I've been pleased overall, this is a monster of a fry pan and quite heavy at 5.5 lbs- certainly not recommended to anyone with carpal tunnel syndrome. Using this wok is a bit like driving a HUM-v to the grocery store- but it is from the commercial nonstick series. But if I had to have just one frypan for the rest of my life, this would be it.

The ...professional version is also available, but at these levels, you might as well get the best.

Stir-frying in a wok - if it is to be done right, must be done at a high temperature so as to brown correctly and create a fond. In general, you cannot brown very well on ANY non-stick surface - you certainly cannot create a fond. So if you want good stir-fry you need a steel wok, commercial style stove and wok-ring.

Fortunately I did not know this when I bought this pan on impulse in 1995. It has failed several stir-fry tests, but it's non-stick coating is foolproof. And I find that it is perfect for a host of other uses. Most of the time I use it to make big batches of sauces. I like the sloping edges because I can see into the pan without ducking underneath the vent hood. And the wok shape makes stirring very successful.

It has recently become my favorite pan for making omelettes, though a 10 inch calphalon commercial non-stick pan is on my short-list.

I use this pot/pan more than any other in my kitchen. And the non-stick coating is in mint condition after seven years of heavy use. (Some time earlier I had purchased a smaller calphalon wok whose non-stick coating wasn't very non-stick. And the handle on that older pan was not impressive.)

The COMMERCIAL wok has a very stylish, comfortable, and cool handle as well as a durable, really slick surface. If you are going with non-stick, I can give the Calphalon Commercial line my highest recommendation.

This baby has become a staple in my kitchen. I do stir-frying a lot of the times and even though I have other Calphalon products that could also handle stir-frying, I find myself reaching for this wok time after time, almost on auto-pilot. Unlike one of the reviewers who experienced some frustrations with this wok on his electric stove, I find mine to work extremely well with my gas stove. With medium-high heat, this wok gets hot very fast and cooks up meat and veggies in no time. Cleaning the wok is almost as enjoyable as cooking with it.

The only downside to this wok, as is the issue with any other Calphalon non-stick product, is that you are not supposed to clean the wok with water immediately after using it. Running water over the hot surface may warp the non-stick coating. Since I usually make more than one stir fried dish a time and always have the need to clean the wok so that I can move onto the next dish, I find this requirement somewhat annoying. I am going to buy another work-horse style wok (one that can be rinsed immediately after usage, no non-stick, can withstand abuses) to complement this one.