You can buy them in the form of Cybernox nonstick pans. Unfortunately the things are somewhat susceptible to chloride corrosion - not the best thing for cookware!
You've never had to spend entire minutes scrubbing because some gunk got badly stuck to a pan or dish? Over the life of a pan it's a lot of work, compared to the effort it takes to get a nonstick one.
I once tried using a cheap wok pan to cook some rice and veggies, but due to how hot its bottom got (didn't have another pan), I ended up having to scrub it for about 30 minutes. Certainly taught me a thing or two.
Counterpoint: not everyone wants the cognitive load of having to pay constant attention to what they're doing and neither should they.
> not everyone wants the cognitive load of having to pay constant attention to what they're doing and neither should they.
That's an answer so typical of our generation. A symptom of the uncertainty that pervades our lives - that we need to justify not paying attention to any single thing or doing it properly.
Where would we rather spend that "cognitive load"? Snapchat?
What possible reason can we find to justify not paying attention while having a 150¤C pan with boiling vegetable oil.
That statement is just borderline reckless if not silly.
if you could buy one of two cheap pans, where the only obvious difference was that one took no effort to clean and the other took some effort, which would you take?
Probably there are other differences, but I said only obvious differences thus leaving out any difference you would have to spend some hours to figure out what they were before buying your cheap pan.
I bought two expensive ones. Read all about how to look after them. Despite many efforts over ages I couldn’t get it right and finally threw them in the trash. I’d rather have a subscription to inexpensive non stick pans.
I don’t want to season pans. I want to eat dinner.
I've been using a steel pan lately, it takes a bit of practice to use less heat, but works just fine for everything (except tofu, haven't figured out that yet; and you have to use actual butter for some stuff, vegetable oil is not quite enough for fish or eggs). If something sticks or dries on it, a wire sponge and some soap water gets it off in an eyeblink.
I've never seasoned a pan. I have a cast iron pan, but someone's done the hard work on seasoning it, probably long before I was born (found and kept the pan when we were cleaning up my late grandmother's place for sale back in 00's). I use it for pancakes and such.
If you only use wooden or plastic utensils, you ought to be able to get more than "a couple of years". I have been using my Tefal frying pan and wok since 2010 and the coating is still there and still perfectly intact.
