"Dee Dee" > wrote:
> I'm sure that fully-clad will always make a difference in cooking in
> pots and fry-pans with covers, but I'm thinking that fry pans might
> not need the fully-clad feature 'As Much.' Just a ponderance on my
> part. That's a job for America's Test Kitchen or CI.

That's certainly true about whether it makes any difference at all in a fry
pan. I've got both fully clad (the All Clad LTD stuff, bought between
1992-96) and aluminum disk bottom cookware (of Korean manufacture, bought
around 1986). For most things, the aluminum disk bottom cookware is fine
with regard to performance, and when it isn't fine it's just a minor
annoyance. But there are other things that truly annoy me with the Korean
set vs. the All Clad set. First is the handles and rolled rims tend to trap
water when washed, and second, the lid design traps water when one tries to
drain a pot. So I tend to use the All Clad most often.

> I am left to wonder if Ireland or France are outsourcing to Far
> Eastern Countries.
> I prefer to buy Italian (made) cookware or electrical appliances, but
> that's not easy to find

Yes, just because it's a Irish or French company, doesn't mean it isn't made
someplace else entirely! ;-) I did some quick research on who owned All
Clad, and one of the things I came across was the fact that Wedgewood's
earthenware line was manufactured in China now. And of course, the Le
Creuset stoneware line is made in Thailand.

The thing that bothers me about all of this is we are charged a premium
price for certain brands, based on reputation, loyalty, and goodwill, and
yet the products are made by some other totally unrelated company in a far
off land (at least far off from where one would think, i.e., China vs.
England). The companies try to invoke a very nice warm and fuzzy image of
where the product is made, like craftsmen working the rolling hills of the
English countryside, while the reality is some huge factory in China. My
sister recently bought a couple of Bodum double wall glass cups, and
commented to me that though the cups were made in China, the picture on the
box is clearly of European glassblowers. She asked if shouldn't the
glassblowers pictured be Chinese? Bodum is a Swiss company.

I've been called a racist before in newsgroups for pointing out these
differences in where a manufacturer likes to pretend their products are
made, vs. where they really are. I believe in truth in advertising. If a
company is consciously trying to deceive the consumer and take advantage of
goodwill that really isn't warranted, I believe they should be called on it.

The use of names that have a large amount of goodwill in them but now have
absolutely no connection to the original company, and no reason for the
goodwill to exist, is quite common these days. Westinghouse is probably a
good example of the this practice. If you go to the Westinghouse web site
(www.westinghouse.com), you will see a selection of different product areas.
Click on each product area, and you will be directed to a different
company's web site that happens to be licensing the Westinghouse name.
Strangely, down in the lower center right all by itself is "Westinghouse
Nuclear". Click on this link, and you will be taken to the only true
descendent of the original Westinghouse founded by George Westinghouse in
the 1800s. The rest are imposters. In some cases, all they did was bid the
highest price for use of the Westinghouse name.