Tramontina Professional Restaurant Fry Pan is one of the best non stick skillet around. It is made by Tramontina, a Brazilian cookware manufacturer. In the Professional Restaurant line, Tramontina focuses more on utility rather than aesthetic. To the average consumer, this might look ugly but for those who work in the restaurant, this is the pan to get. This review will take a closer look at how this pan designed. We will discuss the form, function and utility of the pan.

Tramontina Professional Restaurant Fry Pan Quick Summary

Categories	Tramontina Professional Restaurant Fry Pan
Performance	Excellent
Compatibility	Gas, Electric, Halogen, Glass Top
Colors	Stain Aluminum
Warranty	Lifetime Warranty
Brand Awareness	America
Country of Manufacturer	USA with Imported Material
Thoughts	An excellent nonstick skillet that is made for restaurant professional. However, it does not have the fit and finish of other high end cookware. This skillet is designed for those who are more focused on performance than beauty.
Reviewed Cookware	Tramontina Professional 12 Inch Skillet

Professional vs Consumer Grade Cookware

In a professional setting, functionality is more important than looks. So typically, their cookware is no frills. You get a straight metal pan without any fancy coloring. The finish might be rough, but its durable and it will last.

Consumer grade cookware focuses on the home consumer. What consumers want are something that is pretty, useful and easy to use. However, these thing cost money and in a professional setting, that is not viable. Their goal is to turn a profit. The home cook goal is to have something that is fun and easy to use. Given this parameter, you can expect certain things out of Tramontina Professional Restaurant Fry Pan. In the following section, we will discuss the various aspect of this cookware. This will give you a better idea of how the cookware is constructed, and why its so good.

Tramontina Professional Restaurant Fry Pan Design

Handle

The handle on Tramontina Professional Restaurant Fry Pan is very simple. A simple straight bar that is attached via three huge rivets. The handle is big and beefy, meaning that it will not bend and warp with use. A simple silicone cover on the handle, means that it will stay cool and comfortable to the touch. There is definitely no points for attractiveness, as it definitely lacks that.

The handle is made of cast stainless steel so that it will stay cool longer. The silicone cover can also be removed if it needs be. This is perfect when you use it in the oven.

Shape

The shape of the skillet is simple and effective. It flares out with rolled lip to promote evaporation and aid in pouring. However, the sidewall is slightly high, so you might have some difficulty flipping food with a spatula. Other than that, there is not much to hate about it. It has wide ample space for searing and you should be able to fit two steaks in the 12 inch skillet.

Satin Exterior Finish

The finish is Satin and it helps mask any nicks or mark. High end cookware will usually use colors or a mirror polished finish. However, those will get damaged and unsightly with use. You can baby the cookware, but that is not really the goal in a restaurant. They are more focused on cooking than the appearance of it. For that reason, a brushed finish is actually preferable.

Tramontina Professional Restaurant Fry Pan NSF Certified

What NSF Certified means is that a independent company verify that the cookware meets the standards for safety, quality, sustainability or performance. This is important in the restaurant industry because they have to follow rules and regulation. They cannot do things that will cause their customer to fall ill. Of course certification cost money and your typical home cookware wouldn’t be certified. For the most part, it doesn’t really matter at home, but for professional it does.

Aluminum for Performance

Aluminum is one of the best conductor of heat. Its light and its effective. For that reason, most cookware is made with aluminum. However, the issue is that manufacturer often use a very thin gauge of aluminum. T-fal pans usually wouldn’t be more than 2 mm thick. But on the Tramontina Professional Restaurant Fry Pan, the thickness is almost 4mm! What this means is that the pan will store a ton of heat. Your typical non stick pan wouldn’t be able to sear a steak. Once it hits the pan, its going to turn cold very quickly. When you have a cold pan, that means you have a steamed steak. Because of the thickness of Tramontina Professional Skillet, it will retain that heat and sear the steak to perfection.

Non Stick Coating

The nonstick coating is the biggest weakness of the pan. For any nonstick cookware, once the coating goes, so does the pan. For this reason, restaurant only order affordable non stick cookware. It is simply too costly for them to spend 100 dollar on a All Clad. There are two things that promotes the destruction of the coating.

1) Use of metal utensils. Metal utensils destroy the teflon coating really easily. Although most people do it anyways, if you want to prolong the life, avoid it. Also do not use the nylon scrubber on the pan, use the soft side.

2) Overheating the pan over 572 degree Fahrenheit will cause a rapid degradation of the coating. At that temperature, fumes will start to be release and you might experience flu like symptom. This is called Teflon Flu and it is known to be fatal to birds. You can prevent this by always adding oil to a cold pan. Once you see smoke start to form, that means you have over heated the pan.

Warping

There are reviews on Amazon stating that the pan has warped. Since this is an all aluminum pan, it can warp easily. This issue is made worse when you use a metal trivet that is smaller than the pan. The overhang will cause it to pull down. Because of this, this type of problem is more common on larger sized pan than smaller one.

Aluminum is a soft metal unlike stainless steel. If you overheat the pan, you can expect it to deform. This issue is made worse because of how fast aluminum conduct heat. Most consumers will heat up the pan like they would cast iron. It does not need that long to heat up.

I recommend you monitor how long it takes to heat up this pan, then cook accordingly. Also, try to find a metal grate that will suit the pan.

Tramontina Professional Restaurant Fry Pan Thoughts

Tramontina Professional Restaurant Fry Pan is definitely a pan for the professional kitchen. The design, features, price and performance are all aligned with what a restaurant need. If you want a professional grade cookware, this is the skillet for you. It might not look pretty, but it gets the job done. It definitely performs a lot better than your standard big name brand non stick cookware. Two thumbs way up!

I hope you like this Tramontina Professional Restaurant Fry Pan Review, If you would like to see more, please visit our Pots and Pans Review page.