This Gorgeous, Easy-to-Clean Fry Pan Is My Everyday Go-To and the Last One I’ll Ever Buy

I’m skeptical of nonstick pans. I’ve owned several that claim to be nonstick but have required many minutes of intense scrubbing to get the food off the bottom of the pan. I’m sure I’m not alone in this, but this process has discouraged me from cooking on nights when I was tired after work and didn’t feel like getting gaslit by one of my three nonstick frying pans. Just when I started grumbling to my boyfriend about how we needed to replace our shoddy cookware, I got the opportunity to test a piece of cookware from Alva, a brand founded in Belgium in 1949.

Although I had never heard of Alva, I was sold after I started poking around on its website. This company has stood the test of time and expanded to the U.S. last year. The cookware looked well-designed and long-lasting. Because I have a small kitchen and not a lot of storage space, I wanted to ideally find a frying pan that I could use for everything, and Alva’s Maestro Nonstick Frying Pan looked like it fit the bill.

The Alva Masetro Nonstick Frying Pan is a thick, ceramic nonstick pan with an induction base, which is designed for stovetop cooking. The induction base is made up of two stainless steel layers with a layer of aluminum sandwiched in between. It can be used on gas, electric, ceramic, and induction heating surfaces. This versatile pan is also oven-safe up to 392 degrees Fahrenheit. Unlike many other frying pans, this one has straight rather than curved edges. This gives the user 20 percent more space for food.

As for cleanup, the pan should be hand-washed only with a gentle sponge or cloth and mild dish soap.

This pan is called the Maestro for a reason. It cooks everything evenly, nothing sticks to this pan, and it’s a breeze to clean — plus, I feel like I’m in an episode of “The Bear” when I use it. When I first touched the surface of this pan, I knew I had majorly upgraded. It feels like it’s already been slicked with a layer of cooking oil. Eggs, sauces, fish, meat, and veggies literally slide right out of this pan onto the plate. It’s restored my faith in cookware.

In addition to bringing back the joy of cooking for me, it’s made cleanup so much easier. I no longer have to “soak” the pan to coax off stuck food, and I can get in a workout at the gym instead of at the kitchen sink scrubbing pans. After running the Maestro under water for less than 30 seconds, no food residue is left behind (don’t worry, I still wash it with dish soap). It’s become the crown jewel of my kitchen.

There’s just one thing to note: Because this pan has multiple layers of stainless steel and aluminum, it’s pretty hefty (though it doesn’t look it). My boyfriend thought that I was overexaggerating when I said I couldn’t hold the pan with one arm and dish out dinner on our plates with the other. Even he struggled.

Although this pan is on the pricier side, I would say that it’s absolutely worth it. Rather than dealing with cheap pans that lose their nonstick coatings or replacing them every few years, invest in this high-quality, heavy-duty one instead. I’ve been using it almost every day for nearly two months, and it looks like it just came out of the box. I’m confident that I’ll have this pan on my stove for years to come.