I am a trained chef and I have owned 2 of my own restaurants and I have to tell you I have never cooked on anything that comes even close to the performance of All-Clad cookware. Don't get me wrong, I have owned lots of other cookware, but they all fell short in one way or another. There is a so called professional cookware that is made from hard anodized aluminum I think it is spelled Calaphon, DON'T waste your hard earned money on this hard anodized cookware, and then there is a very famous chef from Austria that sells his own cookware on HSN network and he claims he uses it in his restaurants. Mr. Puck might use it in his restaurant but if he does he destroyes a bunch of it. On the other hand I did use my All-Clad in both of my restaurants and I'm not saying that I am a famous chef but I am saying that anybody that wants to cook like one of the famous chefs, buy a set of All-Clad cookware. The reason I love cooking on it so much is the way it conducts heat. And afterall that is what cooking is all about. The reason All-Clad conducts heat so much better is that they have a stainless steel outside and an aluminum in the middle and another stainless steel skin on the inside of the pans or pots. Stainless steel is a great metal but it doesn't conduct heat very evenly, on the other hand, aluminum is great at conducting heat evenly but it doesn't hold up very well, but put them together and WOW WEE what a wonderful marrage of two great metals. And if you ever see an All-Clad pan cut in half, you will see what I mean. The bottom of all, All-Clad cookware has about 1/4 inch of aluminum sandwitched between two skins of stainless steel. As far a finish is concerned, I have not seen a better set of cookware in my life. If you want to keep the beautiful finish on your All-Clad cookware dont use steel wool or the green scotchbrite sponges or pads on the outside of your pots and pans. All-Clad does make many types of exterior materials for there cookware or I should say finishes. The one I use is the bright Stainless steel inside and out, but they have the chefs style which is a dull stainless outside and.They also have the LTD version and that is black on the outside and they also have the Copper but I don't know much about this beautiful cookware except that it is the most expensive and most likely the best at conducting heat and keeping it hot.  
I could go on and on about how wonderful this cookware is, but the bottom line is you should try it for yourself. If you can't afford a whole set, buy one peice and see for yourself. I did read some other reviews and the reviewers said that the thing they didn't like about All-Clad cookware is that it was hard to clean, NO WAY!!!  
it is harder than a non stick surface, but if you really burn something into the pan just put a small amount of Dawn and a little bit of water in the pan or pot and let it soak and in a few minutes it will come clean. The good really out weighs the bad when it comes to All-Clad cookware.  
