The T-fal Excellence Ceramic Non-Stick 10-Piece Cookware Set from Costco costs $119. It boasts an assortment of sauce, sauté, and fry pans as well as a Dutch oven. The items sport stainless steel handles and can withstand temperatures of up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit without lids (350 degrees when covered). While the set isn't expensive compared to high-end luxury cookware brands like All-Clad or Demeyere Atlantis,
So far, most nonstick innovations we've seen are just tweaks on existing cookware designs and materials that are accented with savvy marketing faff. Take Our Place's titanium nonstick, which advertises itself as "the first coating-free nonstick pan." In reality, it's a titanium-coated pan with a textured surface that, according to their materials, requires oil to activate its nonstick properties. By this measure, every stainless-steel pan could be considered a "coating-free nonstick"... but I digress.
"Data indicates that there are no health effects from the incidental ingestion of nonstick coating flakes," the company that produces Teflon says, noting that the government has deemed the cookware "safe for consumer use." Still, it warns people to turn their burners down and air vents up when they use their nonstick pans, and to avoid preheating them empty.