THE COMPANY
Culina is a small business in San Diego that imports Chinese kitchenware for sale in the USA. Culina has been aggressively marketing on Amazon lately. This review of this pan is going to be a cautionary tale about why you shouldn’t always take product descriptions at face value.
THE PRODUCT BEING REVIEWED
Today, we’re going to look at the Culina 12 Inch Fry Pan Tri-ply Bonded 18/10 Stainless Steel Cookware with Lid, Silver, Dishwasher safe
THE COMPANY
Cuisinart (pronounced “KWEEZ-in-art”) is a subsidiary of the Conair Corporation, which is perhaps better known for hair dryers. But don’t let that fool you; Cuisinart has been around since 1971.1 The short story is that Carl Sontheimer started Cuisinart in 1971 after visiting France and seeing semi-automated food preparation machines. He reversed-engineered a machine and added a feeding tube. His creation, dubbed a “food processor,” was a success. Cuisinart subsequently expanded into choppers in 1986. Sontheimer sold the company in 1989 for $60 million, which was re-sold to Conair Corporation later that year. Under Conair’s management, Cuisinart expanded its offerings to encompass virtually everything kitchen-related, from bakeware to wafflemakers.
THE PRODUCT BEING REVIEWED
Today, we’re going to look at the Cuisinart Multiclad Pro (aka MCP or MultiClad Professional)
Zwilling–the new owner of Demeyere–loves to rebrand its cookware, which is why we now have three nearly-identical variants of Demeyere Industry5.
As of July 2016, Demeyere also sells a Sur La Table exclusive called Demeyere Silver7 which is the same thing as Demeyere Atlantis and Proline, except with uglier lids and handles and double-walled (i.e., slightly better insulated) lids a la the Demeyere John Pawson line. The Demeyere Silver7 cladded (not disc-base) pans also have rims sealed with stainless steel. This means that there is no exposed aluminum layer at the rim of the pan. In theory this means you can use even the harshest dishwasher detergents with these pans and not have the aluminum layer eaten away by the detergent. But it’s not clear how big of a problem that really is, because many people have used cladded pans with exposed aluminum for years in dishwashers and been fine. (As of 2023, Demeyere makes Atlantis pieces the same way with protected rims just like Silver7, anyway.)
Also, Demeyere Aurora is NOT Industry5. Aurora has rivets and does not have Silvinox. Basically you’re just getting the thicker core (3mm total thickness compared to 2.6mm for All-Clad Stainless) and nothing else.
Demeyere also makes KitchenAid Professional 7-Ply Stainless Steel 10-Piece Cookware Set – Stainless Steel
which is made in Belgium and a clone of Demeyere Atlantis (reviewed here) except for a few differences: the handles and edges are slightly differently shaped, the capacities are slightly different (e.g., KitchenAid’s version is a 3.5 quart saute pan instead of 2.6 or 4.2 quarts), and the KitchenAid pieces have helper handles. Also, the skillets in the 7-ply KitchenAid line are 3mm thick and are thus effectively the same as Demeyere Industry5/Zwilling Sensation/Demeyere 5-Plus and NOT the 4.8mm of Demeyere Prolines (aka Atlantis Gold 5-star). Lastly, the KitchenAids are priced higher than Demeyere and available only as the aforementioned 10-piece set or as a 10 inch skillet
Other companies play a similar rebranding game. All-Clad TK (named after Chef Thomas Keller) is the same thing as All-Clad Copper Core and D5 except dressed differently: the handles curve more gently, the Copper Core pieces are not gouged out to expose the copper near the base of the cookware, and the lids are lollipop-style (discs with flat handles) which is more traditional and allows the use of the same lid on multiple cookware pieces of similar-but-different diameter–but which many people hate because condensation drips down from the overhand of the lid.
THE COMPANY
German-American immigrant, mechanical engineer, and entrepreneur Heida Thurlow founded what would become Chantal (shan-TALL) Cookware Corporation in 1971 in Houston, Texas.
THE COMPANY
The Vollrath company is a privately-held American foodservice (kitchenware and appliance) manufacturer headquartered in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The company traces its roots back to 1874, when Jacob Vollrath started a factory that made and sold various kitchenware products such as pots and pans. The company also made products as varied as furniture castings and railroad and agricultural parts. Some of Vollrath’s earliest popular products included ceramic/enamel-coated cast iron and sheet steel, but by the 1930s the company had begun to shift to stainless steel, and the company also mass-produced millions of military products like mess trays and drinking canteens during World War II. Today, Vollrath manufactures a broad array of commercial kitchenware and kitchen electrics.
THE PRODUCT BEING REVIEWED
Vollrath’s tri-ply stainless, “Vollrath Tribute,” is built like a slightly thicker version of All-Clad Stainless (aluminum sandwiched between two layers of stainless steel). The inner layer is 18/8 stainless, which is highly corrosion-resistant. The outer layer is magnetic stainless steel, presumably 18/0 (SAE 400 series) stainless.
