hello,  
 
one of my favorite hobbies is cooking. i have enjoyed this since i was nine years old when i would come home at lunch time and prepare my own meals (latch-key kid, you know). i did that through high school and yep this went through college and and then professional school.  
 
i bought my first set of all-clad when i was doing my residency. a residents life is miserable and the only joy i had was cooking a nice meal. all-clad fit the bill. its weight and balance is perfect. and after learning the correct temperature and slightly different techniques to cook the things i loved, i was more than content.  
 
this line of cookware allowed me to push the boundaries of what i was used to. caramelization was easier and simmering was more even. i didn't believe it at first that cookware made such a difference but now i do!  
 
i don't like the master-chef line. no performance reason, just for me, the black is unesthetic. better performance from the anodized aluminum exterior? probably.  
 
i started with a ten piece set. i now have over forty-five pieces with one or two items being redundant. i started with mostly stainless steel, then tried a few copper pieces but the constant attention that the copper exterior needed was annoying. i finally stumbled onto williams sonoma's 'copper-core'. it has a core of copper and is an absolute dream to cook with. i thought my beginner stainless was excellent but the copper-core is unbelievable. i have almost every piece in that line. temperature eveness is unmatched!  
 
copper-core is expensive but if i had to recommend essential three pieces, they would be as follows: the chef's pan, the 4 quart sauce and the 8 quart stock pot.  
 
i wish they would make the pasta pentola in a beautiful copper core for, as far as i know, it comes only in stainless steel.  
 
am i being biased towards all-clad? i don't think so (their tea kettle is one of the ugliest i have seen). i have tried the other brands like calphalon which i instantly did not like. then there is analon, circulon. all of which i have purchased and returned. i picked up the kitchen aid line while window shopping. it seems they tried to copy all-clad in design and function. the handle seemed uncomfortable and was not balanced. calphalon has a similar handle to all-clad and the balance is pretty good but the line is mostly aluminum and a lot of their lines have glass lids which for me (who has worked in three different restaurants as chefs while attending university) is silly as one is bound to 'drop' things, especially lids.  
 
if i were to open a restaurant, i would definitely have all-clad as my main cookware. a distant second choice would be calphalon stainless line. take care!  
 
