Caring for cast iron or carbon steel is fairly difficult and not something most people actually want to do.
In practice hard anodized aluminium is the best compromise for people that aren't cookware geeks.
In practice hard anodized aluminium is the best compromise for people that aren't cookware geeks.
When it comes to cast iron this is clearly false. In the US, there are thousands of cast iron pans still hanging around that were used for decades or generations by non-rich non-“cookware geeks” who gasp used soap on their cast iron cookware and didn’t treat their cast iron cookware as if it were a delicate snowflake. Instead they just cooked with it, cleaned it how they wanted to, and nothing went horribly wrong.
Stainless Steel is also somewhat hard to care for.