My biggest fault, I guess, was deciding to surprise a friend with a cookware for her house-warming without doing some thinking. I forgot that she might already have her own set or might have her own ideas of the cookware she wanted for her kitchen.
It turned out that she did. So I ended bringing the whole thing to my mother’s house because my small kitchen could not accommodate a whole new set. I did take the 8-inch skillet because my old skillet was already wobbly at the handle; and the smallest saucepan because my mom forced me to keep it. Before I left, she told me that Teflon’s no good. Oh, well. So I started doing some research.
I bought the Paula Dean pear color set and it was pretty; I convinced myself that looks was important.
The pieces I got were truly non-stick. They also sat very well on my stovetop, which was impressive because I always had a problem with one of my unbalanced pots. The saucepan was heavily used – not only for sauces, but more often for soups. I loved the glass lid. I would have wanted the skillet to have its own lid too – for pancakes. The knobs were classy looking.
I didn’t like that it included a spoon set. Not that I didn’t like measuring spoons, in fact, I needed them. But it sounded like a bad joke that measuring spoons (5 of them) made it to the 15-piece cookware which actually included 10 cookware pieces and 5 spoons. It made the buyers look silly. Not an intelligent banner for a cookware at all; or an honest one, for that matter.
This merchandise may have been forged with heavy gauge materials but they’re definitely not designed for use in high temperature settings. Well, those were stated by the manufacturer in the product info. Not an issue for pancakes again, but soup is another matter. They do cook faster and heat up quickly. They are lightweight, easy to handle, and have non-stick interiors that are stain and scratch resistant for effortless cleaning.
For easy clean, pretty look, convenient handles and lids, quick cooking, even heating, and non-stick porcelain surface, it scores high in my book. For the relatively high price (almost $90 for 10 pieces of cookware inclusive of lids), the Teflon material which started to peel a week ago, the burn stains at the bottoms of the pot and pan, I rate the whole set 3. I only used 2 pieces, but I saw the other pieces in my mom’s garage. So it’s safe to say that she didn’t find them useful. The pot that I got was also very small. I should have taken the bigger one.
Point of learning: If I buy a gift that remotely resembled cookware next time, I’d make sure I knew what to look for in the first place. The price shouldn’t be the sole thing to go by. Also, I should read reviews first and hear from real users.
