Well seasoned of course. I use mine for baking bread. Excellent results.

is my glass stove top won't like the rough bottoms.
I won't mention the weight of a fry pan over 9 inches.

But the coating is quite fragile. I cannot use metal utensils & I never get them super hot.

I've been contemplating getting one for browning meats.

Non-stick pans have a limited lifespan, so a lot of sites recommend not spending a whole lot on them. Serious Eats (one of my favs for recipes and how to's) has a couple of good articles:

https://www.seriouseats.com/best-nonstick-skillets-6746059

https://www.seriouseats.com/stop-cooking-everything-on-nonstick

That depends on the ues. I got a fancy Scanpan on sale with an extra discount, 5 years. But I canstill use the lid on other pots so... I use only plastic, silicon or wood tools. I don't overheat them. One cooks tip. as you preheat a nonstick pan, put a drop or two of oil in it. when it starts to smoke it is hot enough but under the 500 degree too hot limit.

I have had good luck for inexpensive fry pans at Smart and Final stores in CA. Professional grade and handles you can put into an oven. All my frypans go into an oven on occasion. So it is a requirement for me to have a metal handle.

nonstick coatings leach all kinds of dreaded chemicals into your food. glad you are going chemical free. de Buyer makes some great carbon steel pans. i use their small and large crepe pans for omelettes (and crepes).

I love mine, and its waaaaay safer than teflon and other "non-stick" surfaces

I don't use it much, but it still looks brand new, and nothing sticks to it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZZGH3R

I haven’t tried anything really challenging yet, although it has performed splendidly so far.

but they require learning to season and care for them (and some cooking skills)

for non-stick coated cookware, buy medium quality pans and plan to replace when they wear - depending on how much they get used - could be every couple years or as often as every 6 months.

I use cast iron that is well seasoned, have a carbon steel wok and a comal, both also well seasoned, and when I use my stainless I just know to be generous with the olive or other cooking fat, and to use the right temps, not move searing meat too fast, etc.

All Clad copper-core / 8 inch and 10 inch set.

A bit pricey, admittedly.

Keep away from aqua regia, mercury, and selenic acid, though.

(Years ago, I read an article in National Geographic Magazine about gold, which kicked off with the author relating his experience frying eggs in a solid gold skillet, which required -- IIRC -- a $10,000 refundable deposit. The basic results: thumbs up on the eggs.)

Gold was a lot cheaper back then.

Oooh, found a video of Julia Child cooking with a 6-lb gold skillet -- courtesy of a Nat Geo TV special !

forward to ~32:00 to 33:00

Gold was originally tested because of its high thermal conductivity -- but both copper and silver have better (area) thermal conductivity ! And diamond is five times better ! So for real gourmet snobbery, you need to get yourself a diamond skillet. It's worth noting that there are industrial-diamond coated pans available -- maybe these are more sensible than one might think !

Perhaps the best cookware for even heat distribution on a stovetop is ceramic-coated aluminum or copper. The thick, outer layer of metal distributes heat quickly to prevent formation of hot or cold spots, but heat flows more slowly through ceramic, so it needs to be as thin a layer as practical to keep hot spots from forming at the pan-food interface. Metal-lined ceramic would work the other way -- hot spots would form in the ceramic (or glass) but would be spread out by the metal, particularly if the metal layer were thick. This suggests enameled metal, with the enamel only on the outside ! Don't know if anyone's ever tried that, but many non-stick pans are enameled on both surfaces, so that's probably quite good enough. Just get the thickest metal you can (except cast iron, a piss-poor conductor of heat. Ask any blacksmith.).

But everything just floats out of the pan coated in mercury....

As for the Aqua Regia youmight need to find one of those old corning glass skillets.

My pots before moving to Europe were largely from Dehillerin, Paris. Copper with stainless inserts. Wonderfull. Couldn't justify the price to repatriate them. But the prices have skyrocketed....

https://www.edehillerin.fr/en/blog/history/from-the-origins