Hello All:

I'm slowly building up a solid kitchen. Got some sweet wine glasses, a nice wusthof knife set, a killer epicurian cutting board, and now, I want to buy some fantastic cookware...

I generally cook lots of chicken, fish, steak, veggies, rice, pasta. Pretty basic stuff, but I'd like to eventually branch out to some more exotic and complicated dishes. I use a gas burner stove top, and one of the burners has a very high flame.

I really like the advantages of non-stick cookware, especially since I don't cook with alot of oil or butter, although I've been reading that there might be health risks involved with that. Also, many times I cook it's on the go, and I don't want to spend alot of extra time cleaning my pots and pans. I tend to cook chicken, fish and steak at a high flame, because I like crusty, kind of burnt outside to my food.

The gold standard would seem to be a pan, or a set that has a copper sandwich or lining, and is made of a durable material, with some sort of non-stick surface. Does that even exist though? And if it does, is that a good product to buy, or is there better stuff out there?

What I'm really asking you cooking enthusiasts is, can you please point me in the direction of cookware that has fantastic performance and durability, with as little maintenance as possible? I'd really appreciate any help I could get.

Muchas Gracias,

Mark